The Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange are locked in a clash with a union that wants to organize at a chain of hospitals the nuns operate throughout California. Service Employees International Union United Healthcare Workers-West is seeking to unionize more than 8,000 caregivers, as well as cafeteria workers and X-ray technicians, at five St. Joseph Health System hospitals—three in Orange County and two in Northern California. The union has alleged a variety of anti-union tactics, which the nuns have denied.
High gasoline prices and Dallas' revitalized downtown have lured Tenet Healthcare Corp. to downtown Dallas from its current offices in the city's north suburbs. About 500 Tenet employees will make the move by the end of next year. Tenet president and chief executive Trevor Fetter credits the rail system and the appeal of a more urban location for his decision to shift the company's head office.
As the ethnic profile of the United States continues to diversify, some states are trying to assure that healthcare providers are trained in "cultural competency." A 2007 New Mexico law requires higher education institutions with health education programs provide such training. New Jersey and California are among a handful of states with similar measures in place.
Investigators have uncovered a massive scheme to defraud taxpayer-funded healthcare programs of millions of dollars by recruiting homeless patients for unnecessary medical services in California. The enterprise churned thousands of indigents through hospitals over the last four years and billed Medicare and Medi-Cal for costly and unjustified medical procedures, federal, state, and local investigators said. After raids on three hospitals in Los Angeles and Orange counties, one hospital chief executive faces criminal charges and executives at two other facilities were accused of fraudulent business practices in a related civil lawsuit filed by Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo.
The North Broward (FL) Hospital District's former internal-audit director claims in a lawsuit that he was fired after uncovering questionable payments to its former top executive. David Richstone sued the public-health system now known as Broward Health, alleging his termination two weeks ago was in retaliation for his refusal to end an investigation that found more than two dozen instances of "improper expenditures" to former CEO and President Alan Levine. Broward Health representatives said the system will "vigorously defend itself" against the suit.
Pittsburgh-based Jefferson Regional Medical Center has purchased the Mercy-Healthtrax building in Bethel Park, PA. The facility will become known as the Jefferson Regional Medical Center Health Pavilion, and healthcare tenants already in the building are expected to stay the same. Tenants in the 60,000 square-foot pavilion currently include: Jefferson Regional Medical Center physical therapy, Jefferson Regional Medical Center Diagnostic Services, Healthtrax, South Hills Family Medicine, Greater Pittsburgh OB/GYN, Preferred Primary Care Physicians, Steel Valley Orthopedic Associates and Medical Rehabilitation.