Insights

<p><img src="/files/u47/LAC_USC_Emergency_Room.jpg" width="389" height="346" /></p><p>At 7 p.m. on a Friday night, the waiting room of LAC<a href="http://www.lacusc.org/aboutus/eng/emergency.aspx">+USC Medical Center's emergency department</a> is crowded and will get worse as the hours tick by. This public safety net hospital sees, on average, 450 emergency patients each day, some for ear infections, others with gunshot wounds.</p>

<p><img src="/files/u47/Watts.jpg" alt="Watts" width="450" height="301" /></p><p>In "LaVonna's World," people in South Los Angeles are able to buy healthy, fresh food at reasonable prices in grocery stores near their homes. They're able to see a specialist when they need to and get the health insurance they need. They don't suffer disproportionately from diseases like diabetes and asthma.</p>

<p>When your child dies because of mistakes made by a doctor, you can sue. Scott and Kathy Broussard did that when Dr. Andrew Rutland twisted their daughter Jillian Broussard's neck so severely that he separated her head from her spine. Most patients either lose in court or settle their cases. If they settle, they go silent. How many times have you called a patient's family to be told, "We can't talk under the terms of the settlement."? The Broussards settled their case, but that didn't stop them from talking.</p>

<p><em>Dr. Lipson writes his own blog called <a href="http://scienceblogs.com/whitecoatunderground">White Coat Underground</a>, contributes and helps edit at <a href="http://sciencebasedmedicine.org">Science-Based Medicine</a>, and contributes to </em><a href="http://blogs.forbes.com/sciencebiz/2010/03/hyping-a-supplement-for-hiv/… Science Business Blog</em></a><em> at Forbes.com where this piece originally appeared.</em></p>

<p>Clinical psychologist <a href="http://www.ncovr.heinz.cmu.edu/CVs/05_fals_stewart.pdf">William Fals-Stewart</a> should have quit while he was ahead.</p> <p>While studying drug use at the University of Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions, Fals-Stewart was accused in 2004 of faking his data in reports to the federal government. In one case, he said he had studied more than 200 subjects, yet he only had consent forms for about 50.</p>

<p>Whatever happened to retail health clinics? A few years back, we were hearing optimistic forecasts of a clinic in every Wal-Mart, offering reasonable prices for routine health care and hours convenient for working families.</p> <p>While the number of such clinics has grown dramatically, from 200 to more than 1,000 between 2006 and 2008, their expansion seems to be leveling off, according to a <a href="http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2010/03/01/bisa0301.htm">recent American Medical News story</a>:</p>

<p>It's common knowledge that newspapers and other news outlets have hemorrhaged jobs. Since 2007, about 30,000 jobs have been lost in the newspaper industry alone.&nbsp;</p><p>Certainly there are good examples of highly competitive journalism jobs that offer decent salaries for trained, and experienced journalists. Although I have not researched the number of such listings, an anecdotal survey of colleagues, and my own browsing of job sites suggest there are fewer listings of jobs, and freelance opportunities that offer livable wages or decent rates.&nbsp;</p>

<p>The Anaheim obstetrician accused in a patient’s death was part of a community of doctors on the fringe who had escaped the stigma of their pasts by treating immigrants.</p> <p>Dr. Andrew Rutland was charged by the Medical Board of California in December of negligence after the death of a Chinese immigrant, Ying Chen, at a San Gabriel clinic. Rutland had been trying to give her an abortion, the board said, when he administered a fatal dose of lidocaine, an anesthetic.</p>