Disease-tracking experts say California lags behind at least 15 other states that monitor drug-resistant infections in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Experts are now saying the state should require healthcare facilities to publicly disclose information on infection rates in order to provide more public oversight.
The DeKalb County (GA) Commission is set to vote on whether to approve a lease transferring management of Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta to a private nonprofit corporation. The county's OK could bring hundreds of millions of dollars in capital funds, but consultants have said some cuts or changes in services could be needed to turn around the hospital's huge financial losses of the past decade. Now some of Grady's top doctors are weighing in on their prognosis for the healthcare system as it faces a potentially historic transition.
A new partnership among a team of doctors, Caritas Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, MA, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston is the latest healthcare affiliation aimed at providing more care locally that patients formerly sought in Boston. The joint venture will give the 26 doctors the resources to refer patients to minor care at the local level and specialized care in Boston, under the same network.
Hartford (CT) Hospital has tapped Elliot Joseph, 53, to take over the 867-bed teaching hospital when longtime president John Meehan retires in April 2008. Joseph is now a senior executive with St. Louis-based Ascension Health and previously ran a seven-hospital system in Warren, MI, that is part of Ascension's network.
Governors of both parties have strongly objected to new federal Medicaid regulations that they said would shift billions of dollars in costs to the states, forcing them to consider cutbacks in services. The rules would reduce federal payments for public hospitals, teaching hospitals and services for the disabled, among others. One would ban the use of federal Medicaid money to help pay for the training of doctors, and another would set new limits on Medicaid payments to hospitals and nursing homes operated by states, cities, counties and other units of government.
Declining church memberships, an aging clergy, increasing healthccare costs and dwindling donations are creating conflicts for church leaders who are caught between caring for their ministers and managing budgets. At the same time, researchers have found that mainline Protestant ministers tend to be more overweight, stressed and depressed than the general population, creating increased health risks for the clergy.