Michigan-based system St. John Health has announced it would downsize two Detroit emergency facilities to urgent care centers by July 1. About 50 full and part-time staff at the Detroit Riverview and Conner Creek Village sites are affected by the change, though nearly all will be offered jobs within the system, said Bob Hoban, chief strategy officer for St. John. Riverview, a 270-bed hospital that closed in June 2007, will retain its pharmacy and X-ray services. Conner Creek will continue to house a variety of health and mental health programs.
An increasing number of Americans, many with health insurance, are delaying or forgoing medical care because of concern about cost, according to a report from the Center for Studying Health System Change. A 2007 survey of 18,000 people found that 20% of the respondents said that they had put off or gone without needed medical treatment at some point in the prior year, up from 14% in a 2003 survey. Of those who said in the 2007 survey they had put off care, 69% cited concern about cost as a reason.
Doctors have long recruited patients to help advertise, but it has remained an open question as to whether doctors pay or remunerate those smiling patients in violation of the rules of many physician associations. But it's now clear that doctors openly offer "thank you" rebates and discounts to patients who post videos of their breast augmentations, bright white teeth or nose jobs. Most payments or freebies to post on video-sharing sites are modest, but they have raised concerns among medical ethicists and consumer advocates.
About 234 million major surgeries are performed worldwide each year, and surgery rates are much higher in high-income countries than in low-income countries, according to researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health. The rate of major surgeries was 37 times higher in countries that spend more than $1,000 per person on healthcare than in countries that spend less than $100 per person on healthcare. Researchers also examined surgical safety, and found 7 million patients a year suffer complications following surgery. Half of these complications are likely preventable, said the study authors.
A group of leaders is getting started on a year-long effort to find a new owner for the struggling Prince George's County (MD) hospital system. Kenneth E. Glover, the man chosen as chairman of the state-created authority, has three decades of experience engineering big deals—but this could be one of the hardest. The next hurdle is waiting for the state and the county to finish negotiating how much both are willing to pony up to coax a business or consortium into bidding for parts or all of the system. The system consists of Prince George's Hospital Center, Laurel Regional Hospital, Bowie Health Campus and two nursing homes.
As a hospitalist, Philip Vaidyan, MD, saw patients on nearly every floor and in a variety of units. He soon found he was spending too much time moving among patients or answering pages from another area of the hospital. Then Vaidyan learned about a growing number of hospitals that reduced these frustrations by assigning hospitalists to specific units of the hospital. These hospitals, including SSM St. Mary's Health Center in St. Louis, say the move has nearly eliminated wasted travel time and given physicians more time with patients, families and staff. The hospitals also hope better access to physicians will lead to better communication, and allow treatment to begin sooner.