Category Archives: hospitals

Maine research raises doubts about how doctors choose antibiotics to treat infections

Researchers at the University of New England are raising some provocative questions about the process doctors rely on to select antibiotics for their patients.  They just published their findings in a scientific journal. But their work actually began two years ago — with a very sick woman a thousand miles away. Dr. Meghan May, an associate […]

Due for a medical procedure or blood work? Maine patients, use this new tool to shop around.

You can’t always shop around when it comes to your medical care. The back of an ambulance is no place to start Googling hospitals to find out which one provides the best and most affordable treatment for the heart attack you’re experiencing. But when you can plan ahead — think an elective procedure or imaging test — it […]

Great service, long wait: Maine hospitals, like restaurants, get reviewed on Yelp

Before today, the consumer review site Yelp was about the last place I’d look to find good medical care. Better known for restaurant and retail store critiques, Yelp’s been among several online repositories of physician and hospital reviews that relied solely on customer feedback — or as it’s known in health care, “patient satisfaction.” Customer reviews might cut […]

Despite progress, Maine hospitals fall short of goals to reduce common infections

Maine hospitals are falling short of national goals to reduce several types of potentially life-threatening infections, according to new data released Wednesday. Still, the state’s medical centers dramatically cut infections from one kind of “superbug” that often strikes the elderly, and modestly reduced several others. On any given day, one in 25 hospital patients in the U.S. contracts an infection […]

Should the U.S limit travel to protect Americans from Ebola?

Fears about the spread of the deadly Ebola virus have led many Americans to push for closing the country’s borders to travelers from West Africa, ground zero of the outbreak. U.S. House Republicans are demanding that President Barack Obama impose new travel restrictions, a step the president continues to resist. Obama said yesterday that “a flat-out travel ban is not […]

The hospital merger that wasn’t: CMHC sought partner

Central Maine Healthcare reached out last year to five other hospital organizations in the state to explore a partnership, the Sun Journal reports today. The system — which includes the flagship Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, along with Rumford Hospital and Bridgton Hospital — sought to gauge the other organizations’ interest in taking on CMHC […]