The Hospital Sisters Health System announced that Andrew J. Bagnall has been named president/CEO of St. Nicholas Hospital. Bagnall is currently the CEO of Select Specialty Hospital in Davenport, IA. Bagnall will begin at St. Nicholas Hospital on March 15.
The Marshalltown Medical & Surgical Center Board of Trustees has named Brian D. Burnside as the organization's next president/CEO. Burnside is a veteran healthcare professional with more than 13 years of experience in the management of hospitals and multi-hospital healthcare systems.
Some House Democrats wavering over whether to back a healthcare overhaul questioned whether it would effectively curb the country's health costs, the Wall Street Journal reports. The issue is one of several that have been raised by Democrats over the bill: Conservative Democrats have raised questions over the bill's language on abortion and tax increases, while liberals are unhappy with its failure to include a government plan that would compete with private insurers, the Journal reports.
The Hospital of Central Connecticut has named Clarence J. Silvia, its senior vice president and chief operating officer, to succeed President and CEO Laurence A. Tanner, who is retiring. Silvia, 54, served as president and CEO of Bradley Memorial Hospital before it merged with New Britain General Hospital to create the Hospital of Central Connecticut in 2006. He will also take the helm of the hospital's parent company, the Central Connecticut Health Alliance.
President Obama met with insurance industry executives and House Democrats as party leaders on Capitol Hill struggled to figure out whether they could meet the president's timetable for enacting legislation within a few weeks. Obama's press secretary, Robert Gibbs, told reporters that the president expected the House to complete its work by March 18, when Obama is to leave for Australia and Indonesia. But the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and other Congressional leaders outlined steps that would make it difficult to meet that timetable, the New York Times reports.
As President Obama pushes for a prompt vote on his health initiative, lobbyists and activist groups on both sides of the issue have launched grass-roots and high-dollar advertising campaigns on the roughly two dozen members of Congress who may be the final swing votes on the issue, the Los Angeles Times reports. For example, left-leaning MoveOn.org issued an e-mail plea to raise $200,000 "to fight back and pass healthcare reform." Meanwhile, AFL-CIO executives plan to attend a demonstration next week at a Washington, DC, meeting of health insurance executives.