The U.S. Department of Justice has intervened in a whistle-blower lawsuit alleging improper financial kickbacks were arranged between a hospital and large medical group in Ohio. The lawsuit alleges that Christ Hospital, a full service Cincinnati-based hospital and formerly a member of The Health Alliance, and Ohio Heart, the largest cardiology group in that region of the state, devised a scheme that provided cardiologists improper financial incentives in exchange for generating revenue for the hospital.
Harvard psychiatrist Michael Kahn has created a checklist to improve physician etiquette in the exam room. The checklist is designed for physicians to follow during a first-time encounter with a patient, and includes basic reminders like "shake hands" and "sit down."
A growing number of physicians are pursuing a master's degree in business after medical school or in the middle of their careers. Many doctors say an MBA degree is proving vital for many in the medical profession, especially given the constant changes in the business side of their profession.
One of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's legislative priorities this year was to kill certificates of need for hospitals, saying they stifle competition and "have failed to achieve reduced costs and greater quality of care." Hospital officials who decried Crist's initial anti-CON stance are now praising the new, and they say improved, CON law that passed the Florida Legislature on the session's final day.
The Henry Ford Health System is opening a $350-million community hospital and wellness complex on 160 scenic acres in West Bloomfield, MI. In addition to national-class clinical services, the 300-bed hospital will offer amenities ranging from homelike private rooms with couches where relatives can sleep overnight to in-room whirlpool tubs for mothers in labor. But one of the hospital's most innovative elements is its culinary program.
New York City officials plan to dispatch the nation's first ambulance equipped to preserve bodies of the newly dead so that families have time to consider organ donation. The crews would perform procedures on a corpse without consent in order to preserve the organs until the family had time to give consent for organ donation. No organs would be taken without consent, however.