Cincinnati-based Deaconess Hospital will become a joint venture with physicians, the only general, acute-care hospital in Ohio with such a structure. Doctors will hold 40% of the institution, and Deaconess Associations Inc., its current parent organization, will hold 60%. The 273-bed facility's new name likely will be the Doctors' Hospital at Deaconess. The arrangement will likely appeal to doctors who feel left out in a market where primary-care physicians are increasingly becoming employed by large health systems.
Seneca Investments has begun construction on a two story, 32,596-square-foot medical office project located near North Dallas' Medical City hospital. Unlike similar developments, the project kicked off without preleasing. But given the need for medical space in North Dallas, developers think that won't be a problem. Other medical projects are under way in that same area: East of Seneca Investments' new building, a specialty hospital and medical building is under construction in the Westmount Health Campus.
Federal and state government agencies, as well as many insurers around the country, are experimenting with trying to cut health costs by paying doctors more. The idea is that by paying physicians to devote more time and attention to their patients, insurers and patients can save thousands of dollars on unnecessary tests, visits to expensive specialists, and avoidable trips to the hospital. A Medicaid experiment already under way in North Carolina saved the government program in that state about $162 million in 2006.
Tired of facing perennial cuts in reimbursement for Medicare services, Tennessee doctors say they can no longer afford to take on new Medicare patients, especially as the costs of providing services and operating a practice increase. Some are beginning to think about cutting current Medicare patients from their roster. The challenges are acute in Tennessee, which has an above-average number of Medicare patients and a below-average number of doctors who treat them. The ratio of physicians to patients is sure to drop, as further reimbursement cuts are inevitable.
In the spring, 385 students graduated from Georgia's medical schools, but only two of them chose to remain in the state to pursue a family medicine residency. Overall, 20 students, or 5%, chose to go into family medicine—half the number that it was five years ago. More than one-third of Georgia's counties, many of them rural, are officially designated as primary-care health professional shortage areas. This designation means that, on average, there is less than 1 doctor for 3,500 people. About 1.5 million people in the state are affected by the shortage of doctors.
Under a proposal being discussed at the Imperial College Healthcare Trust in London, doctors would be paid every time a patient survives the operating table or leaves hospital without picking up an infection. Patients groups oppose the proposals, saying it will deter doctors from carrying out complex operations or taking on high-risk patients such as the elderly. The Trust runs five hospitals including Charing Cross, Hammersmith and Queen Charlotte's. It has already started measuring the performance of its doctors ready for the proposal, which could start later this year.