United Technologies Corp., a Hartford, CT-based conglomerate, has donated $1 million to a new cancer hospital being built in New Haven to expand Yale's medical services. Construction on the 112-bed Smilow Cancer Hospital is expected to be completed in 2009.
U.S. News & World Report had compiled its annual list of "America's Best Hospitals." For the rankings, U.S. News analyzed data on 5,453 medical centers. Only 170 hospitals were ranked in one or more specialties and, of those, just 19 were of Honor Roll caliber. To be in this group, a hospital had to achieve high scores in six or more specialties.
The House and Senate reached agreement on a policy framework for legislation that would require employers and health insurers to put mental-health coverage on par with medical and surgical benefits. That coverage would include treatments such as hospital stays and doctor visits, and cost-sharing such as co-payments, deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses. If a plan offers medical coverage for treatment outside of its provider network, it must do so in mental health, as well.
Intel Corp., the world's biggest computer chip maker, has won FDA clearance to sell an in-home health monitoring system for patients with chronic conditions. The Health Guide system combines an in-home patient device as well as online access that enables healthcare professionals to monitor patients and remotely manage care. The system also incorporates interactive tools for personalized care management and integrates vital sign collection, patient reminders, multimedia educational content and feedback, and electronic communications tools.
A Corpus Christi, TX, hospital said that a mixing error that led to a blood thinner overdose in as many as 17 infants was caused by its pharmacy. Two of the babies have died. The error was unrelated to product labeling or packaging of pediatric heparin, according to a statement by the chief medical officer of Christus Spohn Health System. The mixing error is believed to have occurred July 3, and that heparin batch was first administered in the neonatal intensive care unit July 4.
Beaumont Hospitals has received final approval from the Michigan Department of Community Health to develop the state's first proton cancer therapy center. The $159-million facility will be built on the health system's Royal Oak campus, with operations beginning in 2010. The two-story, 40,000-square-foot facility requires a building nearly as large as a football field to house a nuclear cyclotron that makes the proton particles used in the treatment.
It will be a partnership with Bloomington, IN-based ProCure Treatment Centers Inc., and other hospitals and investors may share equity partnerships in the arrangement.