The Alabama Certificate of Need Review Board has approved Huntsville Hospital's application to build a 60-bed facility in Madison. The new hospital, which would serve about 90,000 people in western Madison and eastern Limestone counties, will become the centerpiece of Huntsville Hospital's Madison Medical Park. Statistics have shown that among mid-sized Alabama cities, Madison residents currently have the longest drive to an emergency room.
More than 30 states tightly control healthcare services by deciding both what facilities and equipment are needed and who operates them. Such decisions are officially made in what's known as a "certificate of need," a public process subject to open meeting and records laws. But private competitors often strike back-room deals in confidential legal settlements, and even state regulators may not know the exact terms. Critics say this process favors big hospitals, which can manipulate the system and monopolize care.
Emergency rooms at hospitals around Washington state have closed their doors this winter becayse flu, respiratory illness and insurance problems brought patients to emergency departments in droves. As a result, hospitals signaled a central ambulance-routing system to alert that patients must be diverted to other hospitals.
San Diego ear, nose and throat physician Ted Mazer recently billed the California's medical insurance program for the poor for a tonsillectomy. Mazer got a check for $168, which was too little to cover surgical costs. Legislators have cut the rates even further, and now Mazer has resolved to shut his doors to new Medi-Cal patients. Statewide, many other doctors report that they too are abandoning Medi-Cal. In response, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is expected to announce that a coalition of local governments and healthcare providers plans to file suit to force a rollback of the 10% cut in fees paid to doctors that was approved by California legislators.
Cooper University Hospital is in the process of constructing a $222 million patient pavilion in downtown Camden, NJ. In addition to the new tower, which will feature new patient and operating rooms, a lobby and an emergency room addition, the hospital is also planning an $80 million cancer center, a $50 million biomedical research building, and a $140 million medical school building.
If a person checks into a hospital and even mostly just lies in bed, they will generate, on average, 25 pounds of waste a day, according to Hospitals for a Healthy Environment. Some portion of that waste is safe, fully functioning and probably needed somewhere in the world. Now one woman is taking some of this waste off of New York hospitals' hands and getting it someplace where it is needed.