Speaking out against recent actions by Miami-based Jackson Health System management, union president Martha Baker said she was deeply concerned that last week's 500-plus job cuts are long-term mistakes that will damage the quality of healthcare in South Florida. Baker, head of Local 1991 of the Service Employees International Union, said she also was refusing Jackson's request to renegotiate the contract changes that granted several pay concessions to help the struggling public system reduce a projected deficit of $230 million this fiscal year, the Miami Herald reports.
A landmark case brought to light by two Minneapolis cardiologists changed the way the medical device industry deals with the safety of heart implants. Now the doctors, five years later, are raising a fundamental question about medical safety and the law: who should be held accountable when a company sells a flawed product that can injure or kill patients? Is it the company or the people who run it? The legal case that grew from the doctors' revelations involves heart defibrillators once made by the Guidant Corporation, which is now part of Boston Scientific, the New York Times reports.
President Obama formally announced his nominee for administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and fulfilled widespread expectations that he would tap Donald Berwick, a Harvard University professor and leading advocate for improving healthcare quality and efficiency. If confirmed by the Senate, Berwick will play a pivotal role in implementing the recently enacted healthcare overhaul legislation, the Washington Post reports.
Two Minneapolis doctors who were the first to speak out about a potentially deadly defect in a popular model of heart defibrillator made by the Guidant division of Boston Scientific Corp. have asked a federal judge to reject a $296 million plea agreement that would settle the case. In an April 12 letter, Minneapolis Heart Institute doctors Barry Maron and Robert Hauser urged U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank to reject the proposed plea "on behalf of the patients who died or suffered pain and mental anguish as the direct result of Guidant's illegal and unethical behavior," the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
Miami-based Jackson Health System's attempts to get concessions from its unions remained up in the air as the union leaders sought legal help about what to do. AFSCME and the Service Employees International Union agreed to 5% pay reductions and other changes, but Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez was bothered that the AFSCME contract did not include a provision for giving up $50 in the biweekly checks for something called premium pay. A second issue, according to Jackson executives, is that some AFSCME employees thought that the 5% concession was only for the rest of this year, when in fact it was through the end of the contract, through fiscal 2011.
Baptist Health System's new West Kendall, FL, hospital will be complete in about a year. Long waits for emergency care, traffic, and the rapid population growth in West Kendall were the top three reasons West Kendall residents cited in 4,513 letters of support for constructing the new hospital. Jason Virelli, Baptist Health South Florida vice president of planning, said that in 2009 there were 197,000 people living in the area. The number is projected to increase to 214,000 by 2014, the Miami Herald reports.