2008 April 02 | Web Development Live

Patients rate local hospitals

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

WASHINGTON What do former patients think about the care they received at your local hospitals? The government wants to make it easier for you to find out.Federal health officials in recent years have made strides to improve transparency in health care. But measuring how well hospitals do their job can be technical. New patient satisfaction scores, which went online Friday, cover basic premises that just about every hospital patient and their family members can understand.For example:-Did doctors treat patients with courtesy and respect?-How often were the room and bathroom cleaned?-Was the area around the room quiet?-Did the patient get immediate help after pressing a call button?Those questions were included in a survey used to evaluate more than 2,500 hospitals around the country.”You don’t have to be a technical expert to understand this information and its implications,” said Joyce Dubow, senior adviser at the AARP, the senior advocacy group. “If you ask somebody whether they were cared for with respect, they get that.”Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said consumers - and the Medicare program - pay for care whether it’s good or not. Informing consumers about how well a hospital performs a particular task or how much it charges for a particular service will serve as incentives for health care providers to do better.”The current sector is all about volume,” Leavitt said. “The future is about value.”The government’s Web site, http://www.hospitalcompare.hhs.gov, lets consumers compare up to three hospitals. Users will be able to see the scores for such things as how often nurses communicated well with their patients; hospitals nationwide averaged 73 percent on that particular question. Consumers will also be able to see how well the average hospital in their state fared on each question.The data was collected by hospitals from a random sample of patients from October 2006 and June 2007. The government led development of the survey, which was administered 48 hours to six weeks after the patients were discharged.Federal officials said they recognize that patients needing emergency care won’t use the comparison Web site, nor should they. However, more than 60 percent of all patients go to a hospital for elective procedures.The site will also help hospitals focus improvements where patients feel it is most needed, said Rich Umbdenstock, president and CEO of the American Hospital Association.”Ultimately, this tool benefits everyone,” Umbdenstock said.Overall, federal officials said rural hospitals seemed to fare better than urban ones when it came several measures of patient satisfaction.”I think that has to do with rural hospitals being more of a fabric of the community,” said Herb Kuhn, acting deputy administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.Officials acknowledge that few consumers compare quality information about insurance plans, hospitals and other providers to make decisions about their care. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey estimated that fewer than one in five patients did. However, that’s an increase from 12 percent in 2000.Leavitt acknowledged that the government’s efforts to evaluate the quality of health care are lacking. He likened the current situation to the earliest of video games, a table tennis game called Pong.”We’re not very good at this, but we’re making a lot of progress,” he said.

Tags: amp, ceo, consumers, fi, job, rural hospitals

FDA investigates Merck drug-suicide link

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

WASHINGTON The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it is investigating a possible link between Merck’s best-selling Singulair and suicide.FDA said it is reviewing a handful of reports involving mood changes, suicidal behavior and suicide in patients who have taken the popular allergy and asthma drug.Merck has updated the drug’s labeling four times in the past year to include information on a range of reported side effects: tremors, anxiousness, depression and suicidal behavior.FDA said it asked the Whitehouse, N.J.-based company to dig deeper into its data on Singulair for evidence of possible links to suicide. The agency said it has not established a “causal relationship” between Merck’s drug and suicidal behavior. An agency spokeswoman said the review was prompted by three to four suicide reports it received since last October.It could take up to nine months before agency scientists can draw any conclusions, FDA said in a posting to its Web site.The agency recently began notifying the public earlier about possible safety issues. The policy change came after the FDA was criticized for acting too slowly on information about the risks of Merck’s painkiller Vioxx and, GlaxoSmithKline plc’s diabetes pill Avandia.Merck officials stressed that the FDA’s inquiry is based on reports, not clinical studies - which are the standard tool for evaluating drug safety. The company said none of the 11,000 patients enrolled in 40 Singulair trials has committed suicide.”We have no indication that anything about the mechanism of Singulair is consistent with these events,” said George Philip, director of research and product development. “But because suicide is a life-threatening event we thought it was important to provide this information in the product label.”Merck said it recently added reports of suicide to Singulair’s label, which already listed suicidal thinking and behavior as reported side effects.In clinical trials of asthma patients, the most common side effects were headache, flu, abdominal pain and cough.With sales of $4.3 billion last year, Singulair is used by millions of patients in the U.S, according to Merck. First approved in 1998, it’s part of a class of asthma and allergy drugs that includes AstraZeneca’s Accolate and Critical Therapeutics’s Zyflo.FDA said it is also reviewing reports of side effects with those drugs. Their labeling does not contain language about suicide.”Patients should not stop taking Singulair before talking to their doctor,” FDA said in its statement, adding that doctors should monitor patients for suicidal behavior and mood changes.Shares of Merck %26 Co. Inc. rose 8 cents to close at $44.78.

Tags: conclusion, fi, hk

China protests U.S. missile fuse mistake

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

BEIJING China strongly protested to the U.S. on Wednesday over the mistaken delivery of fuses for long-range missiles to Taiwan, the latest incident involving arms sales to the island to roil relations between Beijing and Washington.In a statement posted on the Foreign Ministry’s Web site, spokesman Qin Gang said China sent a protest to Washington expressing “strong displeasure.”"We … demand the U.S. side thoroughly investigate this matter, and report to China in a timely matter the details of the situation and eliminate the negative effects and disastrous consequences created by this incident,” Qin said.He reiterated China’s long-standing demand that the United States halt all weapons sales and military-to-military contacts with Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing has claimed as its own since the sides split amid civil war in 1949.Ending those practices would help Washington “avoid damaging peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the healthy development of China-U.S. relations,” Qin said.The U.S. Embassy in Beijing said it had no immediate comment on China’s statement.U.S. officials have moved quickly to mollify Beijing over the mix-up in which the Pentagon mistakenly sent four cone-shaped fuses for intercontinental ballistic missiles to Taiwan in August 2006 instead of helicopter batteries ordered by the island’s military.The fuses, for use in Minuteman strategic missiles, are linked to the triggering mechanisms of nuclear warheads but contain no nuclear materials themselves. The fuses were returned after the foul-up was realized late last week, and an investigation headed by Navy Adm. Kirkland H. Donald was ordered.It was the second nuclear-related mistake announced by the U.S. military in recent months. Last August, an Air Force B-52 bomber was wrongly armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles at a base in North Dakota and then flown to Louisiana. Its crew wasn’t aware nuclear arms were aboard.Ryan Henry, the No. 2 policy official in Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ office, called the mistaken shipment of the fuses to Taiwan intolerable and said President Bush as well as Chinese leaders were informed of the matter once it was discovered.Henry said if the incident violated any treaty or agreement, it was unintentional.”We are being totally transparent. We have corrected the situation,” he said. “The United States stands up to its treaty obligations and we’re dealing with this in the most straightforward manner we can.”Adding to the Pentagon’s embarrassment, a senior Taiwan defense official said Wednesday that the U.S. originally asked Taiwan to dispose of the missile fuses, before realizing the sensitivity of the technology involved.”The U.S. recently informed us that the parts had been mistakenly sent to Taiwan, and they asked us to dispose of the parts by ourselves,” said Wu Wei-rong, director-general of Taiwan’s armaments bureau. “The U.S. then realized the parts were sensitive, controlled items which Taiwan could not deal with, and soon the parts were returned.”The error raised major concerns because of its link to nuclear weaponry and China’s sensitivity about the United States supplying arms to Taiwan.Beijing routinely complains about the weapon sales. While its anger is usually intense but short-lived after a deal is announced, the issue has occasionally led to serious tremors in its up-and-down relationship with Washington.Most recently, U.S. approval of the sale of missiles and anti-submarine warfare planes to Taiwan was believed to have triggered Beijing’s rejection of Hong Kong port calls by the USS Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier group last fall. China hinted its response was also prompted by the U.S. Congress honoring the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of restive Tibet.Taiwan is the most sensitive issue in U.S.-China relations.Despite the lack of a U.S. defense pact, or even diplomatic ties with Taiwan since Washington opened formal relations with Beijing in 1979, America is the island’s biggest arms supplier, selling it about $10 billion worth of arms between 1999 and 2006.U.S. law also requires that the Pentagon ensure Taiwan can defend itself - a provision interpreted by some as meaning U.S. military forces could help repel any attack on the island.

Tags: cern, cra, fi, uis

China protests US missile fuse flub

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

BEIJING China on Wednesday strongly protested the U.S. military’s mistaken delivery to Taiwan of intercontinental ballistic missile electrical fuses, demanding an investigation and steps to “eliminate the negative effects and disastrous consequences.”In a statement posted on the ministry’s Web site, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said China had brought a “serious representation” to Washington and expressed “strong displeasure” over the error.The U.S. Defense Department said Tuesday that the Air Force had mistakenly shipped to Taiwan four electrical fuses designed for use on intercontinental ballistic missiles. The fuses have since been recovered and an investigation launched.While the shipment did not include nuclear materials, the error is particularly sensitive because Beijing vehemently opposes U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, the self-governed island that China considers its own territory. Four of the cone-shaped fuses were shipped to Taiwanese officials in fall 2006 instead of the helicopter batteries they had ordered.”We … demand the U.S. side thoroughly investigate this matter, and report to China in a timely matter the details of the situation and eliminate the negative effects and disastrous consequences created by this incident,” the statement said.Qin again demanded an end to such weapons sales and military-to-military contacts between Washington and Taipei in order to “avoid damaging peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the healthy development of China-U.S. relations.”

Tags: fi

Automaker Tata’s presence already felt

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

DETROIT Tata Motors, the Indian automaker that’s about to burst on the global scene as the new owner of Jaguar and Land Rover and a long-term partner for Ford Motor Co., is the other face of globalization.It is a foreign company that employs hundreds of people in Detroit and plans to boost its workforce substantially in the region over the next three years.”We are adding people in Detroit,” said Warren Harris, chief executive officer of Tata’s Michigan-based Incat engineering group.At a time when the common perception is that Indian companies pay low wages and pilfer good-paying jobs from the United States, Incat just won a contract for its employees in Oakland County, Mich., to develop a new vehicle platform from the ground up for a Chinese automaker.Incat’s engineers in Michigan work with about 350 customers, including Chrysler, Ford and Nissan, suppliers and non automotive companies, including Boeing, Bose and Gulfstream, said Kevin Fisher, vice president for engineering and design.”If you’re in the car business, Detroit’s the center. This is where you want to be,” Fisher said at Incat’s engineering and design center. He added that the Oakland County offices are “in the late stages” of negotiations to run development of a new platform - from design to sales launch - for another Asian automaker.The Michigan offices work with facilities in England, Thailand and India to provide round-the-clock engineering on everything from body panels to powertrain development.Incat also is negotiating contracts to bring work for several aerospace engineering projects to its offices in the Michigan cities of Troy and Novi.Tata Motors and Incat are arms of the Tata Group, a conglomerate that employs 289,500 people worldwide, does business in more than 80 countries and accounts for 3.2 percent of India’s gross domestic product. The group has 19,500 North American workers.The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and traces its origins to the 1860s, when Jamsetji Tata opened a trading company. He moved on to manufacturing, opening a textile factory in central India in 1874 and a steel company in 1907.Members of the Tata family have run the business through most of its 144 years, but two-thirds of its stock is held by two charitable foundations Jamsetji Tata set up.Tata’s businesses include: Tata Motors, the largest Indian manufacturer of cars and commercial vehicles; Tata Steel, one of the world’s biggest steelmakers; information technology services whose jobs include running Chrysler LLC’s dealer Web sites; and luxury hotels, including the Pierre overlooking Central Park in New York City.Incat handles an increasing amount of engineering work for automakers from Detroit, Europe, India, Japan and China.Employment at Incat’s Novi headquarters and Troy engineering center grew by 130 in the last year, to 500 today. The workforce there should hit 900 to 1,200 by 2011 as Incat adds business, Harris said.Incat is part of Tata Technologies, the engineering business that the group set up to handle Tata Motors’ engineering and product development.Tata Motors is a relative newcomer, opening shop in 1945 building railway engines and heavy-duty trucks. It introduced its first passenger car, the Indica compact, at the 1998 Geneva auto show.Tata Motors also is the most visible part of the company, gaining worldwide prominence this year with the introduction of its $2,500 Nano - a subcompact developed to be India’s Model T, the car that puts the nation on wheels - and its pending purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford.The sale should be final in a few weeks.Tata sold 580,280 vehicles in its most recent fiscal year, which ended March 31, 2007. About 60 percent of its sales were commercial vehicles. Nearly 91 percent of its sales were in India, where it holds 64 percent of the truck business and a second-place 17 percent in the car market to Suzuki’s Indian unit, Maruti.But Tata’s domestic ranking is likely to change. Initial capacity for the Nano is 250,000 cars a year, and Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant said output can rise to 450,000 a year “fairly quickly.” Tata also just introduced a new pickup that it developed with Fiat, and new versions of the Indica and its Sumo Grande SUV. It expects to add production of at least 200,000 units a year of its new Ace small van.Despite the hubbub surrounding the Nano and Jaguar-Land Rover, Kant knows Tata Motors has a long way to go before it can compete in developed markets.”We are working to increase our strength in the Indian market,” he said, “and create an international footprint in other markets - markets that are behind India or slightly ahead in their development.”The company’s core capabilities are low cost, reliability and repairability, Kant said. However, Tata’s cars lack the sophistication, comfort and performance necessary to compete with established automakers.Tata will gain some of those things from long-term agreements it is expected to sign with Ford to ensure Jaguar and Land Rover get the engines, electronics and other technologies they’ll need to compete with the likes of BMW, Cadillac, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz.Incat, which has a 20-year history of working with companies like Chrysler, Ford, Jaguar and Volvo, also will play a role, Harris said.”Mr. Kant has told us not to focus so much on time and cost, but to concentrate on quality,” engineering parts and systems for Tata, Harris said. “In the past, Indian customers had lower expectations for fit, quality, ride and handling, but the presence of global automakers has set a new benchmark that every indigenous Indian company is driving toward.”Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors and the Tata Group, “has aspirations of becoming a global player,” Harris said. “He knows the company must be driven by the standards of global excellence.”

Tags: chief executive officer, fi, job, vice president

Toyota opens mall to boost Japan sales

Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

YOKOHAMA, Japan The new sprawling Japanese shopping mall has the usual restaurants and stores, even a fitness gym. But it’s the shiny Camry and other Toyota models that take center stage - not only at the dealers but on display in the walkways.The indoor shopping mall, with 220 stores and restaurants, opening to the public this week, is being developed, built and operated by a relative newcomer to the business - Toyota Motor Corp.It’s the latest attempt by the Japanese automaker to tackle a serious problem in its home Japan market: Young people are rapidly losing interest in cars. Overseas, however, Toyota is doing so well that it has nearly overtaken General Motors Corp. in global vehicle sales.Sales of new autos in Japan for the fiscal year starting next month are forecast to drop to a 27-year-low of 5.3 million vehicles, down 0.6 percent from the previous year, as demand gets battered by soaring gas prices and sluggish wage growth, according to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association.In Japan, the usual old ways of selling cars like showrooms and TV ads are no longer working. Youngsters are choosing to spend on mobile phones and laptops than on cars, Toyota officials say.A study last year by The Nikkei, Japan’s top business daily, found that some people in their 20s said they didn’t want a car, even if it were free. Others said they didn’t find the idea of going for a drive with a date or zipping around on a sportscar as particularly appealing.The goal of owning a car - taken for granted during the modernization that followed World War II - is no longer true, the report said.Other factors, including Japan’s declining population, are behind the falling sales. Japan has excellent public transportation, including trains and subways, and so many feel they don’t need a car.Also, parking is often expensive, with many apartment buildings charging about $100 per month. And traffic can be congested.In that context, perking interest is so difficult that automakers are resorting to offering other consumer activities, like grocery shopping, to coax buyers to consider buying a car or trade in their wheels for a new model.Dealers must actively seek out buyers, instead of passively waiting for people to come to the showrooms, car companies say.”We need to provide opportunities for people to come in contact with cars,” Toyota Senior Managing Director Yoichiro Ichimaru, who oversees Japan sales, told The Associated Press Tuesday.Toyota Automall Development Corp., a Toyota subsidiary set up in 1999, already runs one shopping mall in Gifu Prefecture, central Japan, near Toyota’s headquarters.The new Tressa mall, inspired by the French word for braiding “tressage,” in Yokohama, southwest of Tokyo, opened partly in December, and is set to fully open to the public this week.The mall looks much like any other mall, with its clothing and toy stores, arcade game center, nail salon and cafes.But its shopping carts are shaped like cars, and a plastic model store boasts a big lineup of car models, including Toyotas. And massive space is allocated to Toyota showrooms.Toyota is also showing off its robot technology, including a humanoid that plays a trumpet. Atsushi Komatsuki, president of Toyota Automall Development, said he hopes to have partner robots helping out at the mall later this year.But it’s unclear if Toyota’s sales tactic will work.Mieko Yabe, shopping for clothes with her baby at Tressa, said the mall is convenient because she lives in the neighborhood, but expressed little interest in owning a Toyota car.”We have absolutely no interest in Japanese cars. My husband drives a BMW,” the 35-year-old housewife said.Toyota, which controls nearly half of the Japanese market, is seeing its domestic sales fall, selling 2.26 million vehicles in Japan last year, down 4 percent from the previous year. Overseas sales, meanwhile, jumped 10 percent on year to 7.1 million vehicles.Other Japanese automakers are also working hard to boost domestic sales.Last year, Nissan set up a recording company to have popular bands produce original tunes that were TV ad jingles for Nissan models but were also sold as CDs and downloads.Nissan also set up a shopping Web page featuring cute mascotlike items and developed cars with special features and marketing campaigns to target young women.Atsushi Kawai, auto analyst with Mizuho Investors Securities, believes manufacturers haven’t done enough to develop cars for the Japanese market, focusing instead on costs cuts and overseas models that sell in numbers.”Domestic sales are a total disaster now,” he said. “A car used to symbolize a dream. People used to work hard to buy a car. These days, nobody is saying that. No one thinks a car is cool anymore.”

Tags: amp, fi, marketing campaign, target, web page

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Patients rate local hospitals

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FDA investigates Merck drug-suicide link

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