stat investigation
Hospital infections are health care's 'dirty little secret'
Natsumi Chikayasu for STAT
Hospitals can face big fines if too many patients get infections during their stays. So some executives discourage staff from testing for infections or reporting them — a problem known as "health care's dirty little secret."
For this STAT investigation, my colleague Tara Bannow spoke with clinicians at both nonprofit and for-profit hospitals about how pressure to limit testing can put patients' health at risk by delaying treatment. Conversely, some hospitals urge doctors to prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics without testing first — a practice that may worsen antibiotic resistance. One hospitalist recalled C-suite leaders attending clinical rounds and telling clinicians not to order tests. "It's intimidating for some providers," he said. "You're making them second guess their clinical rationale and you end up canceling a lot of orders that way." Read more.
first opinion
Why everyone is so obsessed with Trump's hand
President Trump's attempts to cover bruises on his hand with makeup have garnered national attention in recent weeks, even leading to speculation that he had died over Labor Day weekend. Psychiatrist and political anthropologist Eric Reinhart says it's just one example of the medicalization of politics.
"Our leaders' bodies have become sites for projection and speculation, as if the health of presidents, rather than the health of democracy, determine the nation's future," Reinhart writes. He says Americans should spend less time analyzing blurry Trump footage and more time confronting the ways his administration's policies are upending health care in the U.S. Read more.
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