After nearly two decades of excess capacity and shifting services, Cary, NC-based WakeMed will soon offer dozens of new beds. The $45 million expansion will mark the first time since 1991 that such a large number of new beds have become available in Wake County, NC, said Stan Taylor, vice president of corporate planning at WakeMed. The long gap in adding beds can be traced to the increased use of surgical centers, more outpatient facilities, home-health services, and dramatic improvements in medical technology. But population growth coupled with aging residents has finally outrun capacity, officials said.
The number of MRSA infections in England's hospitals has fallen 11% from January to March 2007, to 966 cases. But the rate of Clostridium difficile in patients aged 65 and over rose 6% over the same quarter, to 10,586 cases. "We are tackling infections on every front with a relentless focus on cleanliness, best practice guidance on antibiotic prescribing, isolating patients and more infection control staff with more powers to help drive down infection rates," said U.K. Health Secretary Alan Johnson.
I am a proud son of the South, and we Southerners know a little something about feuds, grudges and good old-fashioned hate. A feud is more than just a disagreement with hard feelings; a feud is a longstanding chasm where the players often do not recall what started the ill will in the first place, nor can they see a path to resolution without being forced to by God or the law.
In 2005 our magazine took a look at the "Top Four Power Struggles in Healthcare," which we listed then as: Providers versus payers; physicians versus hospitals; free-marketers versus universal-healthcare advocates and employers versus all of healthcare. Since then some of the struggles have died down. Physicians and hospitals still have their differences, but an era of détente has emerged from the clarity that comes with economic co-dependence. Providers and payers are still slugging, but there are just not as many biscuits left on the plate.
In three short years, a few other healthcare feuds have gotten nasty:
4. The healthcare industry versus the consumer. The healthcare industry misnomer for this feud is "engaging the consumer." Well, down South more than a few feuds have started when someone does not want to get engaged. Healthcare yells: Get your blood pressure checked. Get a pap smear. Schedule an annual PSA test. Check out our HCAHPS scores. Be the keeper of your own health records. Consumers want none of it because healthcare is not a service anyone wants—it's one they need. It's a brotherly feud. Those are the worst kind.
3. Marcus Welby versus Dr. McDreamy. It's a battle of stereotypes. Older physicians are paper-loving, time-hogging dinosaurs who would not know the current treatment protocols if you dropped the EMR on their gray heads. Young physicians are slackers playing dress up in white coats, more interested in getting to soccer practice than treating every patient. For the next few years they will work together and the feud will die out naturally, so to speak. But it's venom until then.
2. Isolationist versus globalist. There are some who would like to see the healthcare borders built out of high concrete. Others would like to see American healthcare become a natural part of the global economy. So far the combatants in this feud are still hiding behind the bushes with loaded guns, but as the prices and availability of quality care overseas become more widely known, expect the first volleys.
1. Hospital versus hospital. Hospitals are playing a business version of the old "if he brings a knife, you bring a gun" feud. If Memorial pays the orthopod group X, then Academic pays him X and buys them an EMR. If they buy land to start up an ambulatory campus in the bordering suburbs, then you fire up the lawyers to fight the CON. Steal their docs. Lure their nurses. Put a billboard for your cardiac center next to their parking lot. There are no new customers: just someone else's customers. It's all very civil by outward appearances, but the gnashing and cutting behind the scenes is a street fight. Who are we kidding?
There are actually too many little fights in healthcare to list them all, but send me an e-mail of some of the worst.
Jim Molpus is Editor-in-Chief of HealthLeaders Media. He can be reached at jmolpus@healthleadersmedia.com.
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Seattle-based Providence Health & Services has agreed to pay a $100,000 fine and improve its patient information security to settle privacy complaints from 2005 and 2006. Federal officials say Providence failed to properly secure backup tapes, disks and laptops with electronic patient information several times during a seven-month period. The backup data and laptops were lost or stolen, and Providence has agreed to revise its policy on transporting patient records outside of company buildings and improve training of its employees.
More than 4,000 union nurses, service employees, and technical staff have reached a contract with Seattle-based Swedish Medical Center that includes pay raises but higher healthcare costs for dependents. Over the contract's three years, registered nurses will receive up to a 15% pay raise, while service and technical staff will receive up to a 10.5% increase. The agreement also includes a no-layoff pledge, and management agreed not to subcontract most bargaining-unit work.
King County, WA's projected budget deficit next year is poised to drain $10 million from public health services, health officials have warned. Members of King County's medical community and the Board of Health gathered at Columbia Public Health Center to oppose cuts to the $193 million public health budget that they said could put lives at risk. Without additional funding one or more of the county's 10 public health clinics will likely be shut down, affecting tens of thousands of residents, including uninsured, low-income and immigrant populations, said Board of Health Chairwoman Julia Patterson.