Construction on Nemours Children's Hospital kicked off on Wednesday with a ceremonial groundbreaking at the hospital's 60-acre site in Florida's Lake Nona. If all goes as planned, Nemours will have the foundation for the seven-story building in place by August, officials said. The first phase of construction, which includes the main hospital, a 900-space parking garage, and other ancillary buildings, should be done in 2012. Nemours faced staunch opposition from Orlando Health and Florida Hospital in 2005 when it first proposed the region's third pediatrics hospital. But the nonprofit reached an agreement with its competitors in 2007 and got final state approval in 2008 to build the new facility.
Registered nurses who provide bedside care in Iowa were supposed to see extra money in their paychecks, provided by nearly $3 million from the state last year. But some lawmakers are now questioning whether all 34 designated hospitals actually paid nurses the bonuses, or whether they simply rolled the money into ordinary cost-of-living raises. Hospital officials say that the budget bill approved in 2008 that designated a portion of Medicaid money for nurses' pay didn't specify that the money had to be above normal raises.
Many of the treatment guidelines doctors follow when caring for heart patients are not based on conclusive research, a new study says. Doctors say the study highlights a lack of scientific evidence underlying complex treatment questions, including how much aspirin to prescribe for heart attack prevention, how best to treat heart valve disease, and when to choose angioplasty over bypass surgery. Research shows that patients do best when doctors follow guidelines based on scientific evidence, and the American Heart Association has adopted a "Get With the Guidelines" program to encourage that approach.
A health network is closing skilled care units in three hospitals it operates in western Pennsylvania, a decision that could affect about 100 employees by July 1. Excela Health spokeswoman Robin Jennings says some nurses and other employees in those units will be offered other jobs. Excela says the skilled care units in hospitals it operates in Greensburg, Latrobe, and Mount Pleasant have been losing unspecified "millions" of dollars.
Gary L. Gottlieb, MD, the president of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, will become chief executive of Partners HealthCare System Inc. at the end of the year. Partners' board of directors unanimously selected Gottlieb, ending five months of speculation. In September, Partners said James J. Mongan, MD, would retire at the end of 2009 and named Gottlieb and three other system executives as finalists for his job. A search committee also evaluated outside candidates.
A jury has awarded $1.6 million to a female neurosurgeon at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, finding that she was subject to a hostile work environment and that, when she complained, the hospital retaliated against her. The jury's verdict comes after a seven-week trial in a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by Sagun Tuli, MD, against the hospital and her boss, Arthur Day, MD, the chairman of the neurosurgery department. Tuli said in court documents that Day repeatedly made demeaning statements to her while she was operating.