New York State's decision to pick Lenox Hill Hospital to run the new urgent care center at St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan was a curious choice, some doctors said, if only because Lenox Hill is on the Upper East Side of the city, while St. Vincent's is in Greenwich Village. Some St. Vincent's doctors complained that the center was a poor substitute for an emergency room. Charles Carpati, MD, chief of intensive care at St. Vincent's, said that patients could lose valuable treatment time if they went to the urgent care center when they really needed more intensive care, the New York Times reports.
Paul Levy, the chief executive of Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, has acknowledged unspecified "lapses of judgment in a personal relationship," prompting the hospital’s board to issue a statement declaring that it was "disappointed in these circumstances" but also expressing "unanimous continued confidence" in Levy's leadership. Levy, who has run the hospital since 2002, is widely known in the state both for turning around the hospital's troubled finances in the early years of his tenure and for his outspoken nature, the Boston Globe reports.
One Jackson Health System labor union has rejected a request by Miami-Dade County leaders to give up an additional $50 per pay period, and plans to hold a new vote among its members, Jackson officials announced. At the monthly meeting of the Public Health Trust, Jackson Chief Operating Officer David Small said the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union local told Jackson Health System it would not budge on the premium pay issue, but needs to hold a new ratification vote because some union members complained that the materials issued before the first vote were misleading, the Miami Herald reports.
Dozens of special-interest groups that helped shape the 10-year, $938 billion healthcare measure over the past year are gearing up for a second wave of lobbying as the Obama administration prepares to implement the law, USA Today reports. For example, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which opposed the measure in Congress, is fighting to protect businesses that might be required to provide insurance. Meanwhile, drugmakers who supported the bill are monitoring how much they may have to discount prices.
Talks between negotiators for Temple University Hospital and the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals continued into Tuesday morning, with U.S. Rep. Bob Brady trying to bring the sides together. The sides had reconvened late Monday morning after a long session Sunday night that lasted until early Monday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
At least two major California-based chapters of the giant Service Employees International Union have rejected the recommendation of outgoing President Andy Stern for his designated successor and are backing an alternate candidate, union insiders told the Los Angeles Times. SEIU chapters representing some 150,000 healthcare workers in California have opted to support the candidacy of Mary Kay Henry, an SEIU executive vice president, say sources who declined to be named because the formal election is still pending.