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. While no specific......

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......

All four of the local papers devote attention to the Detusche Bank building fire, which took place 8 days ago and took the lives of two firefighters. Here's a roundup:Newsday reports that state politicians suggest hiring retired firefighters to inspect buildings for things like "poor sprinklers, blocked doorways and malfunctioning standpipes." The Deutsche Bank building's standpipe had a 20-foot piece missing, and the FDNY had not kept up with inspections to the under-demolition building......

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......

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......

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. Paradi suffered critical head injuries, and her father Bodo Paradi told the Post, "We're......

Yikes yikes yikes. A livery cab making a left turn on York Avenue around 80th Street left a 79 year old woman crossing the street. Silvia Bromley was carried on the car's hood, and when the car hit a tree, she was thrown 20 feet near a nursery school. The Daily News reports that Bromley survived and was taken to NY Presbyterian, where she was in critical condition. A doorman said, "It's really God's miracle."......

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".........

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......

The NY State Health Department launched a website, New York State Hospital Profile, where you can see performance reports for all hospitals in the state. You can even compare hospitals with tools on the site. The big performance indicators are Measure Name Performance 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......

Former President Bill Clinton, hospitalized since Friday after complaining of chest pains, has been receiving many well wishes as he awaits heart bypass surgery at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York and has been up and seeing visitors, but many doubt he'll be able to help John Kerry campaign or shill his own book. The Daily News looks at what rehab is ahead for Clinton after surgery. And though Clinton has been a recent convert to......