A couple of clinics on Saturday and Monday. My Dorchester has the details. Because of vaccine shortages, only people in high-risk groups (which the site lists) will get shots.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Paul Levy is running an online auction to help the Bowdoin Street Health Center in Dorchester raise the money it needs to buy an ultrasound machine, so that pregnant women could get examined in their neighborhood, instead of several miles away at Beth Israel.

Among the items up for grabs: An overnight stay at the Four Seasons, a baseball signed by Luis Tiant, restaurant gift certificates and a two-year family membership in the Show of the Month Club. You can bid through 9 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 9.

Levy writes he hopes to make a monthly event out of the auctions, each benefiting a different BI-related effort.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center CEO Paul Levy writes Caritas Christi is "out of line" by attempting to take possession of several thousand medical records belonging to two doctors who left the hospital chain for rival Mt. Auburn Hospital, as reported yesterday by the Globe:

... This is out and out cruelty to patients by attempting to restrict their doctors' access to them and their medical records. I can't recall any other hospital system behaving in this manner when a doctor chooses to join another network, no matter how competitive the environment.

The Globe reports that Ropes & Gray bought up enough Tamiflu to hand out to all its employees for them and their families.

Or as Above the Law puts it, who knew lawyers in expensive suits were as at high risk as young children, pregnant women and people with immune disorders?

... The old, the young, and the weak become seriously ill from swine flu. Hypochondriacs take swine flu medication. Swine flu gets stronger. Humane reason = Epic Fail. ...

Doctors don't often share personal information with their patients, but sometimes it makes a difference.

Ibby Caputo, now a writer at the Washington Post, reports what happened when she was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia in 2007:

... The disease proved resistant to chemotherapy, but a transplant of blood stem cells was successful. A miracle. Six weeks after the transplant, I came down with viral meningitis, and though it left me skeletal and barely able to walk for a while, it did not kill me. A miracle.

But perhaps the greatest miracle of all was that shortly before I found out I was sick, I had moved to Cape Cod, Mass., to intern at a radio station and work as a coffee shop barista. I had no medical insurance when I received my diagnosis, but miraculously the state's watershed universal health-care law had recently gone into effect. And since I was not making much money, I qualified for the state's public option. ...

Via CommonHealth.

J.L. Bell proves what's old is new again, with a post on pre-Revolutionary fervor against vaccinations - for smallpox. In fact, anti-vacciners burned down a Marblehead hospital that was providing vaccinations - and when they were arrested, several hundred of their supporters beat back the local militia to spring them from jail.

Dr. Gwenn tries to dampen rising hysteria over swine-flu shots:

... Sometimes as parents we have to stop over thinking a situation and do what we have to in order to keep our children safe. I believe this is one of those situations. Instead of questioning data and acting out of fear, we need to start trusting the doctors and scientists working hard to keep our communities safe. After all, they have families and children, too.

My entire family is getting H1N1 this year. I believe in this vaccine and its safety. Please consider doing the same for your kids ...

The Globe reports on a proposal to pay health-care providers set amounts per patient per year, rather than per procedure.

A report last week indicated the number of non-emergency visits to Massachusetts emergency rooms hasn't really dropped since the state began requiring everybody to have health insurance.

Anya Rader Wallack, whose Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation helped fund the report explains some of the reasons why - most notably, people seeking medical care after their normal practitioners have gone home for the day:

... suggests that one way to significantly reduce ED visits in Massachusetts for non-emergency conditions is simply by offering care during evening and early morning hours as well as on weekends, or by managing more primary care needs over the phone (something for which physicians seldom receive reimbursement). ...