Results tagged “nypresbyterian”

Patients at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center are discovering a hidden cost of healthcare: the theft of their identities at the hands of a hospital employee. During a federal investigation, it was revealed that as many as 40,000 patients over the last five to six years had their names, phone numbers, and social security numbers stolen from hopsital records. An audit at the hospital confirmed that the information had been misappropriated.

A 38-year-old construction worker from Brooklyn is suing New York Presbyterian Hospital for giving him more medical attention than he cared for, and then having him arrested. Brian Persaud went to the ER at NY Presbyterian after a plank hit him on the head at a work site, causing a head laceration that required eight stitches. Although Persaud walked into the ER and was fully mobile, doctors told him that he should get an anal exam to check for a spinal injury (apparently this is not unheard of).

Everyone is still wondering how a woman fell through a sidewalk grate and into a electrical power vault on West 51st Street yesterday morning. The Daily News reports the victim, 26-year-old Jessica Hinksmon, could have been electrocuted by the 13,000 volts of electricity from the transformer. Hinksmon cried for help before firefighters used a "confined space stretcher and tripod" to lift her out. One of the firefighters who rescued Hinksmon, Lit. Tom Donnelly of Rescue 1, told the Post, "It's a scary thing to be surrounded by almost a foot of mud and electricity."

We love stories about public school teachers and sick days: There was the guy who wanted some time off to serve a jail sentence, the principal who was actually conducting an orchestra, and, our favorite, the teacher who took sick days when performing as a wrestler for the WWE. But we would never have dreamed that Lynne Stewart, the controversial lawyer who was convicted of aiding terrorist Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman while he was in prison, would even be involved in one!

The sad truth of being a pedestrian in New York City is that pedestrians have be on the defensive. On Sunday night, 23-year-old Sabina Paradi was crossing 37th Street at Ninth Avenue when a truck making a left turn hit her. The driver was "cited for failure to yield right of way," which means that the driver didn't stop for pedestrians.

Doctors at NY Presbyterian/Columbia Hospital finally revealed the true nature of Governor Pataki's health: He's ailing. Not deathbed ailing, but peritonitis, abdominal abscess and fever king of ailing and the NY Times says that Pataki's surgeons only "used the word 'peritonitis' — the name of a potentially fatal inflammation of the abdominal lining — only after being pressed repeatedly by reporters." In other TMI news, doctors "said that his bowel function was impaired but improving"... that his bowel is still in tact... and his bowel "was still not discharging waste properly." Fine - Gothamist admits we were curious about it, but we know we'll rot in hell for another day for it. Pataki's chief of staff John Cahill says he's been doing well, checking on his work via Blackberry, assuring New Yorkers that while he may not be using a toilet, but he can still poop on plans for NYC.

While Governor Pataki might not care about the state of NYC's public schools - or NYC, he sure does like its hospitals: He headed to NY Presbyterian Hospital yesterday for a second surgery to clear an intestinal blockage that was preventing him from, um, being regular. This sent the local news media looking for a crash course in GI medicine, in search of new ways to obliquely refer to bowel movements but still make sure readers understood their governor was horribly constipated after his appendectomy last week. From what Gothamist has read, parts of the Governor's small instestine (aka, the "bowel") are sticking together, possibly because they are swollen post-surgery, causing a blockage. Doctors who aren't treated the governor are having a field day giving their expert opinion; some suspect it's a mechanical bowel obstruction, and if you really want to get grossed out, here's a medical illustration of the problem. Gothamist is no fan of Pataki, but this must really be horrible. And you must love the Post for implying that the doctors upstate must have screwed something up as Pataki had to moved to Manhattan for the second procedure. At any rate, Pataki had his surgery yesterday afternoon and is recovering nicely.

learn more about Appropriate heart attack care "Appropriate heart attack care," "Appropriate heart failure care," and "Appropriate pneumonia care" (there's also, when applicable "Appropriate surgical infection prevention"). One of the big things is to see whether or not the hospital is about the state average for "appropriate heart attack care", which is 93%. The few Manhattan hospitals we looked at did score above 93% - St. Vincent's seemed to have the highest - 98%. But many hospitals scored lower than the state average of 76% for pneumonia care - Bellevue did get an 80%, but Lenox HIll, NY Presbyterian Columbia, NY Presbyterian Cornell, and St. Vincent's scored well below that. It's a cool site - check it out and let us know what you find.

More about the heart programs at NY Presbyterian and the Mayo Clinic on heart bypass surgery.