Daily Rounds: Hospital Apologies For Mistakes; Food Deserts Challenged; Doughnut Hole Drugs; 'Little Gio' Dies

Mass. hospitals promise openness, apologies (The Boston Globe) - "Seven Massachusetts hospitals plan to offer patients harmed by medical errors a prompt apology and financial settlements before they resort to lawsuits, part of a major new initiative to improve the state’s cumbersome medical malpractice system. A coalition of physician, hospital, and patient groups planned to release details Wednesday of the initiative, called “Road Map to Reform,’’ which they predict will increase reporting of medical mistakes and cut down on lengthy litigation that drives up health care costs and fuels distrust between caregivers and patients. The plan calls on doctors and nurses to fully disclose mistakes to patients and apologize.

Studies question the pairing of food deserts and obesity (The New York Times) - "It has become an article of faith among some policy makers and advocates, including Michelle Obama, that poor urban neighborhoods are food deserts, bereft of fresh fruits and vegetables. But two new studies have found something unexpected. Such neighborhoods not only have more fast food restaurants and convenience stores than more affluent ones, but more grocery stores, supermarkets and full-service restaurants, too. And there is no relationship between the type of food being sold in a neighborhood and obesity among its children and adolescents."

Seniors in Medicare 'Doughnut Hole' more likely to stop heart drugs (NPR) - "Medicare patients who reach the annual gap in coverage for prescription drugs known as the "doughnut hole" are 57 percent more likely than those with continuous insurance coverage to stop taking drugs for heart-related conditions such as high blood pressure or heart disease. That's the result of a study by researchers from the Harvard Medical School, Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, and CVS Caremark, the drugstore chain."

Little Gio dies at age 5 after brave fight (The Boston Herald) - "Little Giovanni Guglielmo, the New Hampshire child with the soulful blue eyes, lost his lifelong battle with a rare immune disorder yesterday, but in his five short years inspired tens of thousands of people to volunteer to become bone marrow donors to save others’ lives. “He had the heart of a lion,” Michael Guglielmo said of his son, who died yesterday at Children’s Hospital Boston at age 5.

The courageous tyke who came to be known as Baby Giovanni was diagnosed at 5 months old with NEMO, or nuclear factor Kappa B essential modulator, a family crisis that prompted Michael Guglielmo into desperate action. His push to save his son, and the bone marrow drives that he organized, helped to add nearly 40,000 people to an international bone marrow registry. Of those would-be donors, 130 have been successfully matched with people who needed a transplant."

Unusual alliances form in Nebraska's prenatal care debate (NPR) - In Republican-dominated Nebraska, government leaders often line up together, but lately a political tornado has ripped through this orderly scene. A political showdown over taxpayer funding of prenatal care for illegal immigrants has produced some unusual political splits and alliances in the statehouse of the Cornhusker State.