A report that uses Medicare information to compare the performance of Ohio hospitals is now available to consumers. Consumers can use the information to review how well hospitals treat 11 separate conditions in the areas of cardiac care, pulmonary disease, orthopedic surgery and general surgery.
Deborah Zastocki is CEO of Chilton Memorial Hospital in Pompton Plains, NJ, but for the purposes of this interview, I focused on her prior career as a registered nurse. I recently spoke with Deborah about a shift in thinking whereby healthcare executives are now seeing nurses not as overhead but as rainmakers. What that means is that given their greater interactive roles with patients, nurses will be increasingly important to the hospital's financial health as doctors do more work outside the hospital and nurses become the primary touchpoint for patients. Since nurses have more opportunities than ever before to influence quality, and since most people believe incremental gains in hospital reimbursement are beginning to hinge on quality measures, nurse morale and retention will be increasingly important.
In an effort to cut costs, the University of Texas Medical Branch may stop offering cancer care to indigent and undocumented immigrants. Its Cancer Patients Acceptance Committee has been studying the issue, but implementing the policy, but it raises obvious ethical questions, says hospital representatives.
Thirteen hospitals in Palm Beach County, FL, support a regional call schedule designed to direct emergency patients to specialists quickly. The plan, however, could be blocked by doctors or a state regulator with final say.
Four months after returning to Minneapolis to head Fairview Health Services-Minnesota's third-largest health system-CEO Mark Eustis explains his big plans for the organization. Fairview owns seven hospitals, including the University of Minnesota Medical Center, and a chain of primary care clinics. A couple major projects that Eustis has inherited in this new role include building a new hospital and potentially buying a medical group.
The case against Medtronic that will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court has wide-ranging implications for patients, doctors and device makers. Medtronic asserts that because the FDA has a rigorous approval process for medical devices, federal law "preempts" it from state claims relating to a device's safety and effectiveness. Lower courts have agreed.
Cash-strapped Mercy Jeannette Hospital in Jeannette, PA, is shutting down its obstetrics department and the adult inpatient rehabilitation and behavioral health units. The units will be moved to Excela Health System's Westmoreland hospital.
A Beaver County, PA, judge has cleared the way for the sale of Aliquippa Community Hospital. The hospital should now stay open until at least February 2008.
Public attention is once again on MRSA. And hospitals nation-wide are stepping up their fight against all types of infections, especially superbugs that have been found to be more common and more deadly than previously believed. A recent federal report estimated that nearly 19,000 people died in the U.S. in 2005 after being infected with MRSA--more than the number killed by HIV/AIDS.
As Independence Blue Cross and Highmark Inc. pursue a merger, the Pennsylvania deputy insurance commissioner has demanded that the top executives of the disclose every last nuance about their future pay. How the executives answer is sure to be key in whether the merger goes forward.
