A Las Vegas clinic was found to be reusing syringes and vials of medication for nearly four years, leading to an outbreak of the potentially fatal hepatitis C virus and patient exposure to HIV. The discovery led to the biggest public health notification operation in U.S. history, brought demands for investigations and caused scores of lawyers to seek out at-risk patients.
A U.S. House-passed bill that would require equal health insurance coverage for mental and physical illnesses when policies cover both also includes a provision to crack down on physician-owned hospitals. Opponents immediately said they would fight the hospital proposal during House-Senate negotiations. Traditional hospitals have long complained that boutique hospitals cherry-pick the best patients and skimp on charity care, but supporters contend they offer patients a choice and beef up competition.
Excela Health's purchase of Mercy Jeannette Hospital in Jeannette, PA, has gotten closer after the parties received three key approvals needed for the merger. The Vatican, the Pennsylvania attorney general and the Westmoreland County Orphans Court have all approved Excela's purchase of the hospital. Mercy Jeannette is a 148-bed hospital that was expected to lose about $6.5 million in 2007.
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has purchased a former inn in Monroeville, PA, for nearly $19 million and plans to turn it into a health center. The facility, which will open in about two years, will include outpatient clinics, diagnostic imaging services, an ambulatory surgery center, an urgent care center and doctors' offices.
Robert Simon, MD, the oft-criticized interim chief of the troubled Cook County, IL, public health system, has submitted his resignation. Simon took the brunt of criticism for the implementation of $85 million in budget cuts that slashed the Bureau of Health Services' clinic system, dramatically slowed some routine care and demoralized public healthcare workers. Simon later said that while the layoffs were difficult, it achieved goals including making budget cuts while maintaining essential services and not closing any of the county's three hospitals.
Northern Illinois University has won state approval to build a proton-therapy cancer-treatment center in West Chicago, and is now criticizing Central DuPage Hospital's plan to build another. NIU officials say Central Dupage's plan is motivated by greed and the facility is not needed. If both are approved, the centers would be six miles apart.