Daily Rounds: 'Alarm Fatigue'; Budget-Busting Retiree Health; Video Baby Monitors Recalled

No easy solutions for alarm fatigue - The Boston Globe "It’s an all-too-common problem in hospitals — alarm fatigue — but Warner’s death led UMass Memorial to do something about it. The hospital linked alarms to nurses’ pagers and cellphones, and now it plans to reduce the number of alarms by connecting fewer patients to monitors, in hopes that nurses will not have their alertness numbed by as many false alarms. Hospitals, monitor manufacturers, researchers, and federal regulators are similarly grappling with how to reduce the rash of unheard and ignored alarms and other patient monitor problems — which the Globe reported yesterday was linked to more than 200 deaths nationwide between 2005 and mid-2010, and, experts say, probably far, far more. But they are finding answers elusive." (boston.com)

States and Cities Grapple With Retiree Health Costs - NYTimes.com "Governors and mayors facing large deficits have set their sights on a relatively new target — the soaring expense of health benefits for millions of retired state and local workers. As they contend with growing budget deficits and higher pension costs, some mayors are complaining that their outlays for retiree health benefits are rising by 20 percent a year — a result of the wave of retirements of baby boomers and longer life expectancies on top of the double-digit rate of health care inflation. (nytimes.com)

Recall of baby monitors linked to 2 deaths - USATODAY.com Nearly 2 million Summer Infant video baby monitors were recalled Friday after being linked to the strangulation deaths of two infants. The Consumer Product Safety Commission says the electrical cords on the monitors can be dangerous for babies if placed too close to their cribs. (yourlife.usatoday.com)

For Kids, Self-Control Factors Into Future Success : NPR "Children who had the greatest self-control in primary school and preschool ages were most likely to have fewer health problems when they reached their 30s," says Terrie Moffitt, a professor of psychology at Duke University and King's College London. Moffitt and a team of researchers studied a group of 1,000 people born in New Zealand in 1972 and 1973, tracking them from birth to age 32. The new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the best evidence yet on the payoff for learning self-discipline early on. (npr.org)

Get Ready For The Budget Battle Over Health Care : Shots - Health Blog : NPR "It's a perennial contest. In one corner: health care entitlement programs, one of the biggest slices of the federal budget pie; in the other, the drive to tame the deficit, weighing in this week as the political talking point du jour. The latest venue is President Obama's 2012 budget, to be released Monday. According to many White House watchers, Obama is likely to pull his punches when it comes to entitlements such as Medicare and Medicaid.   (npr.org)

Cambridge prepares counter-bid to keep Vertex away from Hub - BostonHerald.com "Call it “Revenge of the Nerds: The Sequel.” Cambridge is preparing to fight to keep Vertex Pharmaceuticals and other tech firms from moving to Boston’s new “Innovation District” — and thinks the home of Harvard and MIT is a better place to do business anyway. “If (Boston) is going to do what they’re going to do (to attract Cambridge firms), Cambridge is ready to go toe-to-toe,” Cambridge City Councilor Leland Cheung told the Herald." (Boston Herald)