Wisconsin-based ProHealth Care has bought a minority interest in the Orthopaedic Surgery Center in Waukesha from Orthopaedic Associates of Wisconsin. The joint venture should allow ProHealth, which includes Waukesha Memorial Hospital, and Orthopaedic Associates of Wisconsin to work more closely on scheduling surgeries, standardizing equipment, and quality initiatives, said Ed Olson, chief executive of Waukesha Memorial. It also is an example of ProHealth's strategy of partnering with independent physician practices, Olson said.
Birmingham, AL-based St. Vincent's Health System has hired a veteran New York executive and member of its parent company as its new CEO. John D. O'Neil, president and CEO of Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton, NY, has accepted the same position at the four-hospital system, according to a news release. O'Neil will join St. Vincent's in late March
Mindful of how delays sapped the political will to overhaul healthcare during the Clinton administration, health advocates hoped to get a major bill during the Obama administration's first 100 days. Now, because it looks like it will take longer, some observers fear that the opportunity could be missed.
Emergency room doctors have filed a class-action lawsuit against California, saying that the state's overstretched emergency healthcare system is on the verge of collapse unless more funding is provided. Across the state, scores of hospitals and emergency rooms have shut their doors in the last decade, leading to long waits, diverted ambulances and even patient deaths. Doctors say the situation is only getting worse as state officials, struggling to balance the budget, have proposed another $1.1 billion in Medi-Cal cuts.
Naperville, IL-based Edward Hospital has received state permission to build an emergency center in Plainfield but continues to press its case for a hospital there. The Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board gave Edward permission to spend $5.7 million to upgrade 15 rooms, and add an ambulance port and helicopter pad at its Immediate Care Center in Plainfield. The free-standing center would take up 7,900 square feet of the 100,000-square-foot Immediate Care building.
A committee of doctors at Nashville-based Saint Thomas Hospital has raised concerns about the healthcare system that runs the facility.
The hospital's medical executive committee raised the concerns at a meeting as four-hospital Saint Thomas Health Services completes a thorough review of operations that's expected to lead to significant changes.