For safety-net hospitals, maintaining a balance between serving the poor and staying financially viable has always been tough, say the authors of a national study, "but it is becoming even more so in a marketplace that is becoming more competitive and profit-driven." Some are attempting to attract insured patients by building, renovating, and advertising specialty services, according to the study. But these and other steps to bolster the bottom line could threaten the hospitals' mission, the study warns.
Bypassing closer hospitals to rush people with blood clots or bleeding in their brains to specialty hospitals is an increasingly common way to deliver the most advanced stroke care as soon as possible. The treatment model is similar to the one developed to help save the lives of those severely injured in accidents or by violence by passing local hospitals to reach one of the 255 U.S. trauma centers. The idea behind the specialty center trend is the belief that staffs in such facilities move faster and perform better than those in other hospitals, making up for any extra minutes a patient spends on the road.
Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh opened in 1890 with just 15 beds, and grew over the years into a large, renowned teaching hospital with more than 260 beds. In 2009, the hospital takes another big step forward with a two-mile move from its old hospital complex into a new $625 million medical campus currently under construction. Hospital leaders say the 10-acre campus , which includes a 900,000-square-foot hospital and 300,000-square-foot research center, is being built around putting families first, improving quality, taking advantage of all the latest technology, and enhancing research.
Texas officials haven't requested much new money in the upcoming state budget for Children's Health Insurance Program that insures children from working-poor families because they predict it will barely grow, even as the economy sours and the state population swells. Advocates for low-income families, though, are skeptical that there will be little or no enrollment growth in CHIP. Though enrollment in Texas soared to nearly 477,000 in August, from 300,000 a year ago, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission says it believes growth will slow to a crawl.
Healthcare costs are expected to rise more than 10% into 2009, according to a survey of insurers by Aon Consulting Worldwide. The increase is the smallest Aon has seen in six years, however, and experts say it shows that efforts to tame costs may be paying off. Health insurers have offered disease management programs and encouraged the use of cheaper generic drugs to help contain costs, and employer wellness programs also have played a role in the cost decreases, experts say.
Hospitals in nearly half the states in the nation now say they won't bill patients for medical mistakes, including operating on the wrong body part or the wrong person, or giving someone the wrong blood. The list has more than doubled since February, when an analysis showed that hospital associations in 11 states urged their members to waive payment for "never events." It's not clear how many private patients or their insurers are still billed for medical mistakes, but a recent study by the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality estimated that preventable errors that occur during or after surgery may cost employers nearly $1.5 billion a year.