Hospitals

Matching the sickest patients with social workers and medical support doesn't reduce costly hospital readmissions, a study finds. Still, some believe greater social investment could make a difference.

Anger and fear have turned to pragmatic hope in the year since the people of Fort Scott, Kan., lost their hospital to corporate downsizing. A community health center remains. So far, so good.

From infant mortality rates to access to cancer treatment, stark health disparities exist between blacks and whites. One Michigan experiment to address that starts with money made from hospital food.

Patients in hospital ERs can wait hours for inpatient beds to open up. The delays can be maddening. A solution for this long-standing problem has been elusive in the U.S., despite progress elsewhere.

A young girl put matching doll shoes up her nose. One came out easily. The second required a trip to the hospital emergency department and led to a bill that isn't child's play.

"Street medicine" programs, like one in Atlanta, seek out people living in back alleys and under highways. The public health outreach improves patients' health and is cost-effective, hospitals find.

Two regulations announced Friday take aim at health care prices. One, to affect patients by 2021, addresses hospital rates. The second, a proposal, would require more upfront clarity from insurers.

After Tom Saputo underwent a double-lung transplant in 2018, he was stunned by the more than $11,000 bill for his share of a 27-mile air ambulance ride from one hospital to another.

A woman in Illinois spent five days in the hospital undergoing psychiatric care to help her through a mental health crisis. The bill she got is about the same price as a new Honda Civic.

The first global analysis of blood supply and demand finds that many developing countries are relying on risky emergency donations.

Health care costs in Northern California, where Sutter Health dominates, are 20% to 30% higher than in Southern California, even after adjusting for cost of living. Settlement terms aren't yet public.

The biggest study published to date on vitamin C as a treatment for sepsis couldn't say it helped patients. But the paper does hint that people who got the treatment were more likely to survive.