Many doctors may lose their ability to prescribe 24 popular narcotics as part of a new effort to reduce the deaths and injuries that result from these medicines' inappropriate use. A new control program will result in further restrictions on the prescribing, dispensing and distribution of extended-release opioids. Hundreds of patients die and thousands are injured every year in the United States because they were inappropriately prescribed drugs like OxyContin or they took the medicines when they should not have or in ways that made the drugs dangerous.
A 10-acre tract of land that was donated by the Arlene and Joseph Meraux Charitable Foundation, a nonprofit group, will ultimately become home to a St. Bernard Parish, LA, hospital through nearly $60 million in state and federal grant and tax-credit funding. The new facility will be the parish's first post-Hurricane Katrina hospital.
Confidential personnel data for nearly 30,000 clinic and hospital workers in northern California were stolen recently by a woman in East Bay, CA, who has since been arrested in connection with the incident. Officials say that 6,000 of the 11,000 workers in Sacramento, CA, and Roseville, CA, area clinics and hospitals are impacted by the theft. How the theft occurred and to what extent it reaches remain unclear. Although only a handful of employees has reported identity theft, Kaiser is offering one year of free credit monitoring to those affected.
Cleveland Clinic has appointed Eric A. Klein, MD, chairman of the Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute. Klein, a 19-year Cleveland Clinic veteran, will lead one of the country's largest and most respected urological and kidney programs. Klein has served as interim chair of the institute since the passing of Andrew Novick, MD, in October 2008. Previously, Klein was head of section of Urologic Oncology in the institute.
Frances Finley has been chosen to lead the new Aurora Medical Center in the Town of Summit, WI. Finley joined Aurora Health Care in February 2003 as the first leader of Aurora's new hospital in Oshkosh. Before joining Aurora, Finley held a number of leadership positions in the Charleston Area Medical Center Health System in West Virginia. Construction of the 110-bed Aurora Medical Center in the Town of Summit is nearly 70% complete, with opening scheduled for early in 2010.
Edward J. Hannon, president and CEO of The McDowell Hospital in Marion, NC, will lead the American Hospital Association's Section for Small or Rural Hospitals in 2009. The 23-person governing council represents small or rural hospitals in the AHA's policy process and member services initiatives. Robin Lake, CEO of Great Plains Regional Medical Center in Elk City, OK, is the 2010 chair-elect. Kathleen Hoeft, administrator and CEO of Ashley Medical Center in Ashley, ND, is immediate past chair.