Five years on the Phoenix streets battered Vance Blair’s body. His vision dimmed, his speech slowed, and his hands began to twitch. A bulging pelvis revealed the need for hernia surgery, and the vacant lot where he slept was no place to keep dressings clean. Mr. Blair often lingered by a shaded building, and several…
At an assisted living facility in New York State, a small crowd had gathered at the dining room entrance at lunchtime, waiting for the doors to open. As a researcher observed, one woman, growing tired and frustrated, asked the man in front of her to move; he didn’t appear to hear. “Come on, let’s get…
Kanwal Haq, a New York-based doula, was on a plane home from a vacation last September when she received a text from her client: “It’s game day here.” The baby was arriving a week earlier than planned. “They are keeping me in triage right now though because I’m only 3cm,” her client, Alyssa Coats-Clark, wrote….
The chairmen of two Senate committees overseeing health policy, concerned about companies “padding their own profits” at the expense of patients, are looking into the practices of a data analytics firm that works with big insurers to cut payments to medical providers. The firm, MultiPlan, recommends what it says are fair payments for medical care,…
In more than a dozen states, doctors and nurses have resorted to paper and handwritten treatment orders to chart patient illnesses and track them, unable to access the detailed medical histories that have long been available only through computerized records. Patients have waited for long stints in emergency rooms, and their treatments have been delayed…
When a kitchen knife slips and you instinctively grip an injured finger, your first thought — after “Eww, I can’t look” — is probably to stop the bleeding and bandage it up, so you can finish prepping dinner. But not every scrape or bump is straightforward. How deep is too deep for a Band-Aid? What…
