US tobacco firms defeat hospitals

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Six major US tobacco companies defeat a lawsuit filed by hospitals seeking financial compensation for treating sick smokers.

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Fake Michigan doctor had hospitals fooled

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Hamman, 58, of Michigan lined up millions of dollars in research grants and consulting fees and salaries at Western Michigan University and Beaumont Hospital.

Yet he never treated patients and did not apply for physician admitting privileges at Beaumont.

That apparently struck a staffer as suspicious and triggered calls to the University of Wisconsin that confirmed Hamman wasn't the man he said he was -- a doctor and PhD researcher.

Confronted, Hamman resigned in June as medical director of Beaumont's medical simulation and research program, where he had worked since January 2009.

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Hospitals to begin publicly reporting preventable infections, deaths they cause

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Millions of preventable infections occur at U.S. hospitals every year, and hundreds of thousands of patients needlessly die or become severely diseased from them. And up until now, hospitals have not been required to disclose this information to the public.

But a new government initiative that threatens to pull a portion of Medicare funding if hospitals fail to start reporting this crucial information will have most of them in compliance beginning January 1, 2011, according to a recent report.

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