Sixteen Georgia counties scored F grades in a state report that underscores the high rate of premature deaths among African-Americans. The report details how African-Americans and other minorities generally have worse health and more limited access to medical services than other Georgians. Georgia's Department of Community Health and its Minority Health Advisory Council called for counties and their business, religious, education and healthcare leaders to work together to solve the problem.
In an effort to save St. Francis Hospital from closing, the Blue Island (IL) City Council passed a resolution to allow city officials to participate in negotiations to sell the hospital. The resolution was supported by dozens of hospital staffers and residents at the meeting, but the owner of the 410-bed hospital has said it will close. The firm has said it has been approached by parties interested in taking over the financially troubled hospital since the closing announcement.
Despite experiencing a lawsuit and accusations of inefficient pressure on central Iowa's medical infrastructure, Story County Medical Center is finally breaking ground for a new facility. Bids were opened for the facility in 2007, but the project was put on hold after a lawsuit was filed by Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield. The medical center had been allowed to move ahead with the project without a certificate of need from the Iowa Health Facilities Council, and Wellmark's lawsuit was a declaratory ruling to force the medical center through a full council review. The new medical center mostly serves residents of eastern Story County, and provides for more than 40,000 patient visits each year.
Both Orlando Regional Healthcare and Florida Hospital are filing applications with the state of Florida to start a heart-transplant program in Orlando. Both already are heavily marketing their cardiac services, using billboards and full-page ads to promote themselves. East Central Florida is the only region in the state without a heart-transplant program, but no other metropolitan area has more than one such program. Neither hospital system would say whether it planned to oppose the other's state-required application.
Kansas is one of eight states selected by the Commonwealth Fund and AcademyHealth to participate in the State Quality Improvement Institute--an effort to improve healthcare quality. The program is designed to help states create and implement plans to improve performance in areas such as health outcomes, access and efficiency. The participating states were identified as those with the commitment, leadership and resources to build on previous improvements. The states inolved will convene teams consisting of state officials, major employers, healthcare providers and representatives from the healthcare advocacy community to develop policy and program strategies.
New York-based law firm Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone is considering banning cell-phone and BlackBerry use during major meetings to discuss issues, such as key law changes, that might affect clients or significant internal developments. The "no-device policy" came about as the steady buzzes and vibrations signaling a new call or e-mail were increasingly interfering with meeting-goers' focus, according to those in the firm.