Medical Journal October 2020 Digital Edition
October 16, 20201 min
Post Views: 2,889
Top 10 Hospitals with the greatest Emergency Department visits
October 16, 20201 min
Post Views: 3,608
Peer-review privilege prevents disclosure of surgeon’s email in suit against hospital
October 16, 20209 min
By Allison Shelton and Beth Anne Jackson, Brown & Fortunato, P.C. On September 2, 2020, the Texas Court of Appeals for the Fourth District in San Antonio issued an order protecting a surgeon’s email from disclosure in a civil suit against a hospital. The appellate court determined that the email was protected by the peer review privilege and was, therefore, not subject to discovery. The peer-review privilege is designed to allow for candid and frank...
Handle with care: Employers brace for a wave of retaliation litigation, as virus whistle blowers turn to OSHA
October 16, 202012 min
By Ehsan Tabesh, Partner, Fisher Phillips Last month, the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) confirmed what many have warned for months: a rapid rise in COVID-19 related workplace safety whistleblower retaliation claims with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”). The predicted deluge of complaints, and the OIG’s report detailing the agency’s planned response, place employers on notice of a new wave of COVID-19 litigation that is upon us. Hospitals, physician...
Financial footing in a COVID-19 world
October 16, 202010 min
By Catherine Lightfoot, CPA, CHBC, Director of Healthcare at EEPB If we have learned anything about 2020, it should be that normal for can quickly change. How businesses review practices, alter operations, and shift strategies will require a different focus as we close 2020. Here are three areas that require a different or intensified approach. Understand Reportable Income This year brought Economic Disaster Loans (EIDL), the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and Provider Relief funds (PRF). ...
Houston Methodist Clear Lake Hospital celebrates construction milestones
October 16, 20205 min
Houston Methodist Clear Lake Hospital is nearing completion of two major enhancements to its growing campus. In the second quarter of 2021, the hospital’s new medical office building – its fourth – will open for patient care. The six-story, 150,000-square-foot building, currently under construction on the west side of campus, will be home to Houston Methodist Orthopedics & Sports Medicine at Clear Lake as well as the hospital’s physical therapy facilities. It will also house...
Now is the time to broaden health care coverage
October 16, 20205 min
By Ted Shaw, President/CEO, Texas Hospital Association The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are deep and wide-ranging. From our health to our pocketbooks, there are few people this public health and economic crisis has not touched. The pandemic certainly created new challenges. And in some cases, it exacerbated existing ones. We now have the chance to use innovation and ingenuity to solve new challenges and triumph over the old ones. Accessing necessary medical care has...
The whole earth diet
October 16, 202010 min
By Laura Porterfield, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine, Interim Vice Chair of Clinical Affairs, UTMB What if a diet could improve not just an individual’s health, but also the health of the whole planet? A recent collaboration of international experts found evidence for just such a diet. They call it the “great food transformation.” [i] The EAT-Lancet Commission—composed of 37 experts from the fields of food systems, environmental sustainability, nutrition, human health, economics,...
Deep learning gives drug design a boost
October 16, 20206 min
When you take a medication, you want to know precisely what it does. Pharmaceutical companies go through extensive testing to ensure that you do. With a new deep learning-based technique created at Rice University’s Brown School of Engineering, they may soon get a better handle on how drugs in development will perform in the human body. The Rice lab of computer scientist Lydia Kavraki has introduced Metabolite Translator, a computational tool that predicts metabolites, the...
UTMB researchers identify proteins that block immune response to COVID-19
October 16, 20204 min
Researchers from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston have discovered SARS-CoV-2 proteins that suppress the body’s immune response, thereby enabling infection and transmission of the disease. The findings are paramount to understanding the biology of COVID-19 and to developing new vaccines against the disease. “The outcome of any infection is determined by pathogen amplification and immune response inside our body. In the case of COVID-19 patients, it is important to understand how SARS-CoV-2...