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.

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?

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.

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.

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). ...

The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center reports more people have health coverage here than anywhere else in the country.

And no pre-existing condition clauses! Of course, we also have the nation's longest wait to see a primary-care physician and, for people with families who find themselves self-employed, some pretty expensive premiums, even for coverage that could leave them liable for up to $10,000 a year in out-of-pocket expenses.

[float=right][/float]Health Care For All, HFCA, organized a Labor Day rally and march in support of health care reform, which started with speeches at the gazebo on the Boston Common and ended after a march and more live music at Copley Square.

Liveblogged report from Milton, at least, until the blogger lost power. Amid calm questions:

7:01 pm
A person is shouting incoherently.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is replacing bottled water with tap water in pitchers for meetings: