The Lenexa, KS, City Council has unanimously approved a plan for a complex of three medical facilities at City Center, a massive multi-use development. The complex will include a two-story, 38,000-square-foot care facility for critically ill patients, a 10,000 square-foot one-story emergency room, and a four-level, 54,000 square-foot building with an imaging center on the first floor and doctors' offices on the top three.
Through the efforts of the Patient Advisory Council at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, FL, the facility has opened a resource center for patients and their families. The center recently opened with three computer work stations, a photocopier, fax, and printing capabilities. It was designed to allow patients and their loved ones the ability to conduct research on-site, and to provide a means for them to give others updates on the patient’s condition.
Walk into a hospital in the Treasure Coast region of Florida, and on most days you will wait 30 minutes or less to see a doctor—30 minutes less than the national average wait for emergency rooms. Like many hospitals, the Treasure Coast facilities have seen an increase in emergency department patients. But hospitals in the region are trying to use technology and time-saving measures to reduce the crowding that troubles other medical centers.
South Carolina's Medicaid program plans to stop paying hospitals for medical errors they make. Representatives from the state Health and Human Services Department said South Carolina officials must resolve some technical questions before stopping the payments, however. South Carolina Hospital Association representatives say the group already has adopted principles encouraging hospitals not to bill for certain mistakes.
Saint Thomas Health Services in Nashville, TN, has named Jennie D. Renwick senior development officer and major gifts director for Saint Thomas Health Services Fund. Since 1999, Renwick has served as vice president at First Tennessee Bank in Nashville. Her responsibilities included overseeing large-company relationship portfolios, as well as the start-up and management of Private Client Services for Middle Tennessee. In addition, she is responsible for creating and growing Medical Private Client Services at First Tennessee. From 1993 to 1999, Renwick served as vice president at Heidtke & Company, providing institutional and individual clients investment portfolio services.
Hartford, CT-based Aetna has appointed David S. Memel, MD, to head the company's health informatics organization, Aetna Informatics. He will have a dual reporting relationship to Aetna Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President Troyen Brennan, MD, and Aetna Head of Health Care Management Eileen Auen. Memel most recently was the chief medical officer and head of Medical Affairs, Professional Diagnostics for Roche Diagnostics, based in Rotkreuz, Switzerland.