State workers seek 5% raises
Most state union employees are asking Iowa taxpayers to boost their salaries by 5 percent in each of the next two years.

Credit Crunch Might Slow Sanford Health Plans (AP)
Sioux Falls-based Sanford Health might have to delay or scale back some of its construction plans because of the national economy. But Chief Executive Officer Kelby Krabbenhoft said it still intends to start construction this year on an Aberdeen hospital and a network of children's clinics.

Hospital faces economic delays
The national economy could delay some Sanford Health construction plans, but Chief Executive Officer Kelby Krabbenhoft said the health system still intends to start work this year on a hospital in Aberdeen and a network of children's clinics around the world.

Army College Adds EMR Systems to the Syllabus
They are the Geek Squad® in camouflage, without the comical Volkswagens and black ties. They are Soldiers and civilians who comprise the Army?s Combat Service Support Automation Management Office and often work in combat support hospitals in the desert and arrive by convoy in armed vehicles.

Nigeria: Mrs Shema to Maintain MDG's Infrastructures
The wife of Katsina state Governor, Hajiya Fatima Ibrahim Shema has pledged to maintain the twenty hospitals constructed at various local governments of the state under the state Millennium Development Goals (MDG) projects.

Hospitals and GPs expecting flu surge
HOSPITALS and GP surgeries across Wales are bracing themselves for a massive influx of patients struck down by winter flu, as freezing temperatures look set to grip the country until the weekend.

Five common medical errors made by patients
In my 30 years of medical practice and reviews of some of the medical literature, it is clear that doctors, nurses, hospitals, nursing homes and every branch of medical care makes mistakes. However, the most error-prone component of the healthcare system is easily that centerpiece of care known as you the patient.

Failures to Follow Infection Practices Have Placed More Than 60,000 Patients at Risk for Hepatitis B and C
In the last decade, more than 60,000 patients in the United States were asked to get tested for hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) because health care personnel in settings outside hospitals failed to follow basic infection control practices, according to a new study by the CDC.

Merger breathes new life into ailing clinics
After years of staffing turnovers and financial troubles brought Comprehensive Health Center to the brink of collapse recently, a merger with the San Ysidro Health Center has revived the network of three community clinics serving the poor in San Diego.

Medicaid slashed as demand soars
Part of the Florida Legislature's prescription for weathering the worst recession in three decades amounts to this: If you're poor, don't get sick.

Eastday-Cost of medicine cut at local clinics
Patients receiving treatment at any of Shanghai's 232 neighborhood health centers can now buy medicine at cost price, under a policy that will save people an estimated 165 million yuan (US$24.13 million) in pharmaceutical costs each year, said the Shanghai Health Bureau yesterday.

Hospitalists can focus time, energy on hospital patients
Doctors are busy people. If you've had to sit in a doctor's waiting room lately, that's certainly not news to you. But a relatively new and growing trend in medicine is helping doctors take better care of you sooner.

Brown calls for health care hearings
HELENA - In the face of rising health care costs and national momentum for health care reforms, state Sen. Roy Brown, R-Billings, is holding two hearings next week at which he'll ask health industry people what they're doing to solve the problem.

U.N. Security Council approves call for Gaza cease-fire
The U.N. Security Council late Thursday approved a resolution calling for ''an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire,'' which it said should lead to the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

Red tape champion: Mexican agency wins contest
MEXICO CITY ? Here was a contest no Mexican bureaucrat wanted to win.

Mexico declares social security agency the king of red tape
Mexico stages an unpopularity contest, and its Social Security Institute wins. The point was to search through the government's benighted bureaucracies to find the most useless process. Here was a contest no Mexican bureaucrat wanted to win.

EU says deal struck with Russia over gas supply
European leaders announced a breakthrough deal with Moscow last night that could see Siberian gas flowing to the households and heating systems of Europe.

Health Notes, Jan. 8
Blood pressure checks: Blood pressure clinics at the Haverhill Council on Aging site at the Citizens Center on Welcome Street are 9 to 11 a.m. on Tuesdays. Clincs on the first and third Tuesdays of the month will be staffed by two nurses. The other weeks, the clinic will be staffed by one nurse only.

Vancouver hiring event draws more than 800 job seekers
A call center business that plans to open a Vancouver operation this month took in more than 800 applications during a Tuesday job fair.

U.N. Security Council approves Gaza cease-fire resolution
(By SHASHANK BENGALI, McClatchy Newspapers) The U.N. Security Council late Thursday approved a resolution calling for "an immediate, durable and fully respected cease-fire," which it said should lead to the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. The resolution, which passed 14-0 with the U.S. abstaining, also called for unimpeded access for humanitarian assistance to Gazans, and efforts, which ...