Bruce A Meyer, MD, vice president for medical affairs at UT Southwestern Medical Center, has been named executive vice president for health system affairs, effective immediately. He will be responsible for overseeing the entire UT Southwestern clinical enterprise, and his appointment culminates an extensive national search carried out by a committee of senior UT Southwestern leaders.
The California eHealth Collaborative announced that Katherine R. Tavitian has been named CEO. Tavitian succeeds Michele Kang, who has served as interim CEO since 2009. Tavitian has served as CEO of the National Coalition for Health Integration since 2009, where she was founding CEO and board member of a start-up nonprofit organization in healthcare IT.
St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City has closed its emergency room. But within that area, even people who might not ordinarily go to St. Vincent's to see a doctor could, if they called 911, be picked up by a St. Vincent's ambulance. Depending on location, traffic, how busy other hospitals are, and the patient's own choice, St. Vincent 's ambulances will now go to other nearby hospitals. Some, like St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, are a considerable distance from St. Vincent's. Over the weekend, Beth Israel Medical Center and Bellevue Hospital Center—both east of St. Vincent's—reported an increased number of emergency patients from the Village area.
A federal jury in San Francisco ruled against an insurgent union fighting the giant Service Employees International Union for representation of tens of thousands of healthcare workers throughout California. The rival group split off from the SEIU in January 2009 amid a jurisdictional dispute. The SEIU filed suit in federal court, accusing the breakaway unit and its leaders of sabotage, theft, vandalism, and other offenses. The NUHW and its leader, Sal Rosselli, denied any wrongdoing.
Federal authorities are investigating a years-long series of drug thefts at Dallas-based Parkland Health & Hospital System that put hundreds of thousands of painkillers and tranquilizers in the hands of street dealers. The Texas State Board of Pharmacy, meanwhile, is considering fining or otherwise punishing the health system and three pharmacists. Board documents obtained by the Dallas Morning News say Parkland's outpatient pharmacies and the pharmacists failed to keep proper records or develop sufficient plans for preventing drug theft, as required by law. Parkland says it moved quickly when it discovered the problem in 2007, alerting regulators and terminating some employees.
More healthcare options in the Virginia's Prince William County could be on the horizon as two companies vie for state approval to build a hospital in the county's western end. Sentara Healthcare and the Prince William Health System both filed applications in January with Virginia health officials for a certificate of public need to build hospitals in the area, which officials from both companies said is underserved. On April 12, the Health Systems Agency of Northern Virginia will hold a public hearing on both proposals.