Medicine

Dead Over Mere Fines 

A woman who was arrested at a hospital over the summer for failing to pay court fines died the next day because she was deprived of water at the Charleston County jail, her family’s attorneys said Wednesday.

Joyce Curnell, 50, of Edisto Island was found dead in the jail shortly before 5 p.m. July 22, a day after being taken from Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital, where she had been treated for a stomach illness.

She spent the last 27 hours of her life behind bars. During that time she became too sick to eat or call for help, according to court documents filed this week. She vomited all night and couldn’t make it to a bathroom, so jailers gave her a trash bag. Some medical staffers ignored the jail officials’ requests to tend to her, the documents alleged.

Via Post and Courier.

Warping the market for health care

The GPO [Group Purchasing Organization] safe harbor is unique in federal law, permitting vendors to pay kickbacks to GPOs who in turn pay kickbacks to hospitals and for-profit hospital executives in return for sole-source contracts. This legalized banana republic corruption warps traditional free market incentives that give us continuously improving products and services at lower cost.

Via Rubens: Drug Prices, Crony Capitalism and Political Reform @ Exeter Patch.

Doctors Blame Parents for Other Doctors’ Recommendations

Recently, the situation of these parents has gotten even harder. Some doctors and hospitals have begun to level a radical new charge — “medical child abuse” — against parents who, they say, get unnecessary or excessive treatment for their kids. That this care is usually ordered by other doctors hasn’t protected parents from these loaded accusations.

Via The New Child Abuse Panic @ The New York Times