The California Department of Public Health, which monitors the quality of care at hospitals, has fined 16 hospitals for not complying with state and federal regulations. Of the 16 hospitals fined, three were in Los Angeles County and three were in Orange County. Four fines against Riverside County’s John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital total $100,000. The state agency’s director says it focused on lapses in patient care.

Journal of the American Medical Association: Funding of US Biomedical Research, 2003-2008 – After doubling in a decade, the rate of increase in biomedical research in the U.S. has slowed since 2005, and the level of funding from the National Institutes of Health and industry appears to have decreased by 2 percent in 2008, after adjusting for inflation, the authors of this study report.

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American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance and Homewatch CareGivers, teamed up to conduct a study examining trends in long-term health care and the utilization of associated support services. Among the conclusions of the study is the dramatic growth of people receiving support care at home and the significantly greater percentage of those with long-term care insurance who are able to receive home-based care and stay in the their homes longer.

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A new study published in the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology reports a surge in drug-resistant strains of a dangerous type of bacteria in US hospitals: Acinetobacter strikes patients in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and others and often causes severe pneumonias or bloodstream infection, some of which are now resistant to imipenem, an antibiotic that is reserved for last-line treatment.

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