Northeast Hospital Corp. CEO Ken Hanover sent a letter to employees and doctors saying the organization is "at a crossroads" and could lay off as many as 100 people, or 5% of its work force. The organization is facing a $15 million budget gap because it is seeing fewer patients than expected and no increase in payments from insurance companies and government programs. Northeast Hospital Corp. includes three Massachusetts hospitals—Beverly Hospital, Addison Gilbert Hospital in Gloucester and BayRidge Hospital in Lynn—and two outpatient centers, Beverly Hospital at Danvers and the Cable Center in Ipswich.
The number of physicians who were "rep-accessible," defined as meeting with at least 70% of salespeople who come calling, dropped by 18% from last year, according to sales and marketing consultants ZS Associates. In a report, the firm says 58% of prescribing doctors now fall into that rep-friendly category, down from 71% in the previous survey. The proportion of physicians who see fewer than 30% of reps who visit now sits at 9%, up from 6% in the last survey.
A government report on cancer risks from chemicals and other hazards in the environment has drawn criticism from the American Cancer Society, which says government experts are overstating their case. The government's 240-page report says the proportion of cancer cases caused by environmental exposures has been "grossly underestimated." Michael Thun, MD, an epidemiologist from the cancer society, said in an online statement that the report was "unbalanced by its implication that pollution is the major cause of cancer," and had presented an unproven theory as if it were a fact, the New York Times reports.
Howard University has submitted a $1.1 billion plan to move its hospital and health sciences operation to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center campus after the facility closes next year and Washington, DC, assumes control of its more than 62 acres from the federal government. University officials say the ambitious proposal would bring a top-notch teaching hospital to an underserved area, the Washington Post reports.
For more than 30 years, Miami-based Jackson Health System has operated under the dual leadership of the Public Health Trust and Miami-Dade County Commission. But as the hospital system confronts a $230 million deficit and grapples with the gulf between its mission to serve all and its limited financial resources, some think that the current hybrid system be junked in favor of making Jackson a Miami-Dade county department or setting it free as an autonomous hospital district with its own taxing authority, the Miami Herald reports.
Union County, NC's plan to sell or renegotiate the lease of its hospital is being shelved after a primary election win by three GOP commissioner candidates who oppose the sale. Commissioners Chairwoman Kim Rogers and Vice Chair Tracy Kuehler, part of a board majority exploring a sale, said they will make a motion at the next meeting to basically let the new board handle the issue. The lease with Carolinas HealthCare System to operate Carolinas Medical Center-Union in Monroe runs until 2020. But the county, facing a debt approaching $700 million over the next five years, hired consultants Kaufman Hall to help with a possible sale or renegotiation of the CHS lease.