Trustees voted Tuesday to explore new ways of governing the sprawling Greenville Health System that could include forming a private nonprofit to run the hospital system. GHS is a public nonprofit now and officials said the move is needed to ensure nimble responses to a changing health care climate and to facilitate partnerships with other health care organizations. Not everyone is in favor of the resolution, including members of the Greenville County Legislative Delegation who up to now have had the duty of approving trustees. While it's been studying strategic changes for years, the board of trustees has been seriously looking at the hospital's governance structure for the past year, saying its current structure limits its options.
Carilion Clinic warned Tuesday against flying drones near medical helicopters, saying there have been two minor encounters so far this year. Where medical helicopters land and take off, whether at hospitals or in the field, is no place for a drone, the Carilion personnel said. Gathered at their Roanoke hangar, air ambulance pilots offered a public safety announcement: "When in doubt, land the drone." While admitting they don't control the actions of drone operators, the Carilion medical helicopter team called on drone owners to voluntarily avoid medevac operations. There's too much potential for conflict between the serious business of emergency medicine and hobbyists shooting video to put on the web or have as a keepsake, officials said.
The statistics are sobering. Last year, nearly 900 Marylanders died from opioid misuse, including 578 from heroin alone, which means that opioid deaths account for more than 85 percent of all intoxication deaths throughout the state. And the problem is worsening; the 2014 data represent a 22 percent increase from the previous year and a 76 percent increase since 2010. Opioids are painkillers, like morphine and others, and the stories of the pain they cause are saddening. Heroin and opioid misuse touches every county, city, town and subdivision in Maryland. It knows no racial, economic, age or gender boundaries.
Rural communities across the country are losing their hospitals at an increasing rate — 57 rural hospitals have closed over the last 5 years. The town of Douglas, on the Arizona-Mexico border, recently lost its hospital and the ripple effect is evident: job loss, emergency services overwhelmed, and people worried about their safety. An ambulance can be heard returning to the Douglas' Fire Department more often now. Emergency responders are out on the road more, traveling to what's now, the nearest hospital in Bisbee, about 20 minutes away. Since the town's hospital closed about a month ago, the fire department is called out on average nearly a dozen times per day, 30 percent more than in the past.
The three-day Riot Fest will go on as planned after lawyers for Saint Anthony Hospital on Tuesday withdrew their attempt in federal court to block the festival from taking over Douglas Park beginning Friday. The hospital filed a lawsuit last week, arguing that the 45,000 people coming to the festival every day will severely hurt the patients and operations at the 110-year-old, 151-bed hospital. Of particular concern was the impact on physician and staff parking, ambulances and on-call physicians needing quick access to the hospital in emergencies, according to the suit. But lawyers agreed upon a settlement in U.S. District Court Judge James Zagel's chambers on Tuesday.
In 2012, Medicare began to use the results of patient satisfaction surveys to calculate how much they would pay hospitals. They called it the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey—a short questionnaire asking patients what they thought of their stay—and used it to withhold up to 1.5% of revenue from hospitals that scored poorly. In an industry that survives off of razor-thin margins, hospitals heard the message loud and clear: protect your money by keeping patients happy. Ever since, the healthcare system has been looking to the hospitality industry to learn how to improve the patient experience.