The Senate has passed the Health Care Safety Net Act, which provides $12.9 billion dollars for rural and medically underserved areas. The act reauthorizes and strengthens three programs: the Public Health Service Act, which provides additional funding for community health centers; the National Health Service Corps, which provides scholarships and loan repayments to clinicians that work in health professional shortage areas; and Title III Rural Health Programs, which help coordinate care in rural areas.
Healthcare Management Systems Inc., a Nashville, TN-based provider of information technology systems to hospitals, has announced it will offer its more than 500 customer healthcare facilities a Web-based application that measures quality and safety performance against specific standards. The service is being offered through a partnership with Louisville, KY-based healthcare information provider Data Advantage LLC.
Britain's National Health Service is in "terminal decline" caused by incompetent managers and Government targets, claims a leading UK surgeon. John Riddington Young, an ear, nose and throat specialist who works at North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple, blames overpaid executives for "trying to run the NHS like a supermarket" using systems that have left patients worse off than 30 years ago. He said morale among NHS staff is at an all-time low, with many senior doctors retiring early and newly qualified medics dropping out of the profession.
Nevada Health Division Administrator Richard Whitley has told lawmakers that new laws could streamline oversight and responses to a public health threat such as the hepatitis C outbreak that prompted a massive patient notification effort earlier this year. Officials should be able to issue cease-and-desist orders if they believe the public is at risk from a practice or procedure at an outpatient clinic or hospital, and health facilities should be penalized for not "self-reporting" problems, Whitley said. The state's Legislative Committee on Health Care is considering introducing a series of measures during the 2009 Legislature to revamp the reporting and handling of community health problems.
Interim Grady Memorial Hospital CEO and state Rep. Pam Stephenson is facing more scrutiny from Georgia ethics officials who say she failed to disclose $20,000 in campaign contributions. The State Ethics Commission sent Stephenson's lawyer a letter alleging she neglected to report 41 donations as required by state law. The commission asked the DeKalb County Democrat for copies of the front and back of all checks for undisclosed contributions, and gave Stephenson two weeks to respond in writing to the allegations.
King of Prussia, PA-based hospital management company Universal Health Services Inc. has announced that its net income during the quarter ended June 30 was $1.07 per share, representing a 35%increase over the same period a year earlier. Inpatient admissions at United acute-care hospitals owned during both periods increased 0.8% and patient days increased 1.3% during the second quarter of 2008 over last year. On a same facility basis, net revenues at United's acute care facilities increased 7.6%.