A special panel concluded four months of investigation by unanimously recommending that San Francisco-based St. Luke's Hospital be rebuilt as an acute-care community hospital. The panel is suggesting that the new facility, housing 60 to 80 beds, be constructed next to the existing site. The old facility would remain open during the building process, and will come down only after the new hospital is built. The new hospital would cost an estimated $120 million to be paid by California Pacific Medical Center, which runs St. Luke's.
Nashville, TN-based Saint Thomas Health Services is expanding its network of chest pain centers to Kentucky. Currently, St. Thomas includes 11 hospitals accredited by the Society of Chest Pain Centers. Accreditation is pending for the expansion to Monroe County Hospital in Tompkinsville, KY.
Sen. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat, used a national radio address to call on Republicans to back the bill to stave off a 10.6% cut in Medicare payments to doctors. Durbin accused Republicans of putting seniors and military families at risk by siding with President Bush against a measure to prevent the Medicare cuts. Democratic leaders intend to use the an deadline on the cuts to pressure Republicans to switch their votes or be accused of hurting seniors and others.
Hospital Corporation of America and Children's National Medical Center have announced they will collaborate on staffing, training and equipment for pediatric care at a proposed hospital in Virginia if the project is approved. Children's National will help design Broadlands Regional Medical Center's pediatric emergency room, which will be outfitted with specialized equipment and staff to serve newborns, infants, and teenagers. The partnership comes two months after HCA resubmitted its land-use application to Loudon County, VA, for its planned 24-hour, 164-bed hospital.
A national advertisement by the newly formed group Health Care for America Now will take on insurance companies and argue for comprehensive, affordable healthcare in the United States. Health Care for America Now, an umbrella group of labor unions, healthcare organizations and liberal activists, announced it would spend $40 million to promote affordable healthcare.
If a long-awaited proposal becomes law, people living within the European Union will be able to receive most healthcare treatment anywhere in the 27-nation bloc without getting prior authorization. The plan could extend options to European residents who live in countries where waiting lists are long. It has been postponed for months because of fears in some countries of a large-scale increase in health tourism, but the entitlement applies only to procedures that are publicly financed in European residents' home countries, and reimbursement would be only up to the amount the procedure would cost in that country.