Nearly 3,500 patients went to Heart of America Surgery Center in Kansas City, KS, last year. Heart of America is licensed in Kansas and is required to adhere to state regulations for outpatient healthcare. The center also is accredited by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care, a nonprofit agency that helps organizations improve safety and quality in ambulatory care. For many patients and their families, being treated at accredited healthcare centers adds another layer of trust to the outpatient experience, say Heart of America's administrators.
Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle plans to grow into a neighboring condominium complex, and the hospital has started buying condos in the 6-acre Laurelon Terrace complex. So far, the hospital has bought 21 of Laurelon's 136 units. Supporters of a proposal for the hospital to buy the entire complex all at once say it could lessen the effect of the hospital's planned expansion.
Blue Cross of California is sending physicians copies of health insurance applications filled out by new patients, along with a letter advising them that the company has a right to drop members who fail to disclose "material medical history." The letter is not sitting well with physicians, who say Blue Cross is asking doctors to violate the sacred trust of patients by disclosing medical information that patients would expect their doctors to handle with the utmost secrecy and confidentiality.
Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue's proposed budget for fiscal 2009 would increase the fees that the state pays doctors for treating poor and disabled patients in the Medicaid program. Hospitals, home health agencies and nursing homes also would get a rate increase, which would extend to Peachcare, a second government program. But physicians and hospitals say it won't be nearly enough to erase their losses. Lingering pay gaps also may make it harder to find doctors who will accept new patients covered by Medicaid and PeachCare, which together cover 1.4 million Georgians.
Six Provena Health hospitals in the Chicago area have hired LifeWings Partners LLC to reduce errors by standardizing their obstetrics departments' procedures and staff communications, using practices similar to what pilots follow. Six months after Provena employed the LifeWings method, miscommunication reports are down 50 percent, said Provena service line administrator Joan Cappelletti.
The Joint Commission has granted Chicago-based Stroger Hospital full accreditation seven months after downgrading its status to "conditional." In May 2007, The Commission cited the hospital for 16 areas of non-compliance, all of which have been addressed, Stroger representatives said.