With the opening of a four-story women's hospital, Baylor All Saints Medical Center at Fort Worth (TX) is seeking to draw women and their doctors away from downtown rival Harris Methodist Fort Worth Hospital. The $95 million Paul and Judy Andrews Women's Hospital features dozens of labor-and-delivery rooms, state-of-the-art operating rooms and a neonatal intensive care unit.
Indianapolis-based Riley Hospital for Children is using a new system to ensure babies get the rest they need to develop. The Sonicu system has warning lights that hover over snoozing babies in the intensive care unit, and the lights flash whenever sound levels creep beyond normal conversation. As decibels rise, the colors on the new monitoring system change from green to yellow to red. Inventor Chris Smith has sold his Sonicu system to several Indiana hospitals and wants to expand nationally. Some doctors are promoting the system, saying interering with a baby's sleep can slow development and healing because their bodies do most of that work while they sleep.
The Slidell (LA) Memorial Hospital board of commissioners have approved a three-year contract with TeamHealth to provide emergency room doctors beginning June 1, 2008. Citing increased wait times and general patient dissatisfaction, the hospital sought to part ways with Emergency Medical Physicians and Services, its former emergency room service provider. During a meeting on the matter, all of the hospital's doctors who spoke said the emergency room doctors had expressed concerns about working for TeamHealth, in part because it is a large, national company and in part because the current emergency room director likely would not stay on under TeamHealth's management.
Plans to reassess the details of a proposed $1.2 billion, 484-bed teaching hospital in downtown New Orleans are raising some concerns about the future of the facility. Louisiana Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine says he is worried that the hospital's current configuration is too expensive and might not qualify for bond financing. As a result, Leveine wants to hire outside experts to "challenge the assumptions" in a business model that said the new hospital would be financially viable.
While an increasing number of doctors perform surgery in their offices instead of hospitals, researchers have found a higher risk of death and complications in offices compared with other facilities. However, many health leaders, doctors, insurers and patients support office surgery, because the setting is convenient and more private. It also allows physicians to control the schedule and use their own staff. There's less risk of infections spread by sick hospital patients as well. In addition, patients may save hundreds or thousands compared with outpatient surgical centers and hospitals.
The Palm Beach County (FL) Medical Society is offering a pilot group of 25 patients access to concierge care. The medical society is partnering with MDVIP, a national network of physicians who pare their practices to about 600 patients to offer more personalized healthcare. Those in the pilot group are uninsured and are at 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The program will add 25 to 75 patients after a few months, according to medical society representatives.