Starting in July, under a new policy intended to reduce healthcare costs and improve overall workforce health, the Penn Health System will stop hiring smokers and other tobacco users.
Current employees can keep doing what they’re doing (and it appears that 11% of them are tobacco users), but new job applicants must be tobacco-free for at least six months if they’re hoping to secure a position at places like HUP, Penn Presby, and a whole slewof other Penn Health locations.
While lowering healthcare costs and improving general wellness are noble causes, we worry that the Penn Health system might be overstepping some basic individual liberties. We know they’re saying, “For the common good!” But all we’re hearing is, “Fatties, you’re next!”
BREAKING: Man Stabbed, Robbed At 46th And Walnut– Shortly after 9 p.m. this evening, a 53-year-old man walking on 46th and Walnut was stabbed in the back four times before being robbed, as Philly.com reports. Police state the man was confirmed stable at 9:45 after being brought to HUP. The suspect is unknown. This crime comes only a day after Frank Trower was killed at 39th and Market.
Around noon today, two Penn students were hit by two separate cars only a block away from each other. The two accidents, which occurred at the intersections of 33rd and and 34th and Spruce, happened only minutes apart. As The DP reports, the two were promptly carted off to HUP.
How spooky is that? Let’s hope no one was seriously injured.
Penn Medicine held a press conference yesterday to announce details of the its first double-hand transplant. According to the Richmond-Times Dispatch, Lindsay Ess is only the third patient in the nation to have the procedure performed successfully. This badass procedure was such a big deal that it took 30 doctors and nurses to pull it off! After a donor was identified and an anonymous benefactor provided a private jet to get Ess to Philadelphia in time for the surgery, the team from HUP spent 11.5 hours to attach every bone, muscle, artery and nerve.
Not only is the transplant a groundbreaking feat, but Ess is also an extremely colorful character in and of herself. Ess is a quadruple amputee, due to an infection related to a prior surgery, but she’s also a fashion show producer, teacher and, uh, a motivational-speaker-YouTube-sensation! Check out one of her videos after the jump!
Sorry Quad-dwellers, but you’re going to have to go somewhere other than a hospital to clog your arteries from now on. On the brighter and healthier side, we totally forgot that there’s still a Gia inside the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine!
Taken-- A newborn was abducted from HUP earlier today. He is now back at HUP to receive further medical attention. Police are currently investigating the situation.
Philadelphia Daily News was recently given the chance to roam CHOP’s hospital halls for a day, documenting exciting things like sitting in on a facial reconstruction surgery, seeing the diagnosis of a crazy rare disease and even crossing paths with the head honcho of the Eagles, Andy Reid.
Interested in reading more about why CHOP rules? Catch the full story (documented in the style of a chronological diary) here.
Saturday Night Live, your favorite late-night sketch comedy show (although in the age of Hulu, it’s more like Sunday Noon Late), had an unexpected surprise for its Penn viewers this week. If you check out this spoof on Bravo shows and skip ahead to 1:42, the video ends up exactly where you did on Saturday night.
Match Day came and went this past week for Penn’s medical students. What’s that, you ask? Why, it’s the day a big, scary computer decides the fate of med school students by announcing where they’ll be spending their residencies! It’s kinda like the Sorting Hat in Harry Potter, but hard and metal and bleeps and bloops instead of talking. Ah, to be a med student! One editor described Match Day as a drunken “bid day for med school.” Here’s what to look forward to, premeds!
Earlier this week, Penn Medicine announced the formation of the Penn Hand Transplant Program, which is exactly what it sounds like. This is exciting news because it means that Penn is one of the very few places worldwide where hand transplants will be available.
The procedure is super controversial– read after the jump to find out why!
Starting in July, under a new policy intended to reduce healthcare costs and improve overall workforce health, the Penn Health System will stop hiring smokers and other tobacco users.
