Sevocity, a division of Conceptual MindWorks, Inc., has announced that it will offer up to $100,000 in grants to assist small to medium-sized practices and community heath centers in Georgia and South Carolina to purchase Sevocity EHR. The program is part of Sevocity's nationwide expansion and complements a similar program now in Florida. There will be $50,000 initially for each state and the grants will be available for the first few clinics that sign up for the program, or until the maximum funds available have been reached. Sevocity develops, maintains and supports Electronic Health Record solutions for physician practices and community health centers.
San Diego-based Palomar Pomerado Health plans to open a new, high-tech hospital in 2011, but a virtual model of the hospital is already online. The $800 million, 1.2 million square-foot Palomar Medical Center West will have 600 beds, and will feature technology such as operating suites with robotics technology and patient rooms that could be quickly reconfigured to meet the needs of a patient's changing health status. The medical center's online equivalent, termed "Virtual Palomar West," has similar features, which anyone with Internet access can tour via the virtual world of Second Life.
Arnold Kimn, MD, is quitting his medical practice to blog full-time about Apple because he found it was more profitable than practicing medicine. In 2000 while he was a fourth-year medical student, Kim launched the site MacRumors, a site devoted to news and rumors about Apple. Traffic grew over the years, and around 2003-2004, during the time he was starting his nephrology fellowship, ad revenue from the site started growing. Eventually, Kim says he was making more from MacRumors than he was from practicing nephrology and decided to quit medicine.
The CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans held a public meeting in Columbus, OH, this week with a group of uninsured citizens, kicking off the health insurance trade group's nationwide push for healthcare reform. AHIP officials say the drive precedes similar initiatives that will undoubtedly be part of the upcoming presidential election.
The five major New Orleans-area hospitals lost a combined $386.8 million between 2005 and 2007, and still face major financial hurdles despite lower losses projected in 2008, according to a congressional report released by the Government Accountability Office. Some hospital executives said they hope the report will persuade Congress to approve a stalled $350 million package intended to help hospitals in Louisiana and Mississippi deal with post-Katrina cash-flow problems. The five New Orleans hospitals would combine to receive $135 million under the package.
The board for Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta has announced that Michael Young, 52, will be the hospital's new CEO beginning Sept. 1. For three years, Young has been CEO of a similar but smaller urban hospital. At the same meeting, the board voted to remove current CEO Pam Stephenson, who will leave when Young takes over. Stephenson will receive a $325,000 separation deal, and her departure ends an embarrassing chapter during which Stephenson was accused of trying to profit from her tenure as the hospital's chief and her quick removal.