More than a dozen physicians representing two hospitals have been named as defendants in federal lawsuits that allege they acted in bad faith by allowing a spine surgeon to perform surgery at the hospitals. The doctors in question served on the committees that approved surgical privileges at Avera Sacred Heart and Lewis & Clark Specialty Hospital, both in Yankton, according to the lawsuits. The doctors are accused of extending Dr. Allen Sossan privileges to perform complex spine surgeries, despite knowing that Sossan had a history of performing unnecessary surgeries and unprofessional conduct. Both Avera Sacred Heart and Lewis & Clark also are defendants.
In December, Tenet Healthcare decided to withdraw its applications to acquire several financially struggling community hospitals in Connecticut as part of an innovative clinical partnership with Yale New Haven Health System. This was a very big deal and, unfortunately, it's undoing sent an extremely negative, anti-business message to a national audience. Tenet had spent more than two years working with state leaders and local hospitals to develop a framework to acquire hospitals in Waterbury, Bristol, Manchester and Rockville. Tenet intended to infuse critically needed capital into these hospitals and preserve and enhance access to high-quality care in the most cost-efficient manner throughout Connecticut.
Flu seasons are never good, but this year's is shaping up as a notably nasty one. It's dominated by a strain of virus — known as H3N2 — that tends to cause more severe symptoms and is a poor match for this year's vaccine. And we're still right in the middle of it. So today, CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden issued this new, Tamiflu-touting message to reporters and the public: "Anti-viral flu medications are greatly under-utilized. But if you get the flu, and if you get medicines early, they could keep you out of the hospital; they could keep you from having to go into the intensive care unit; and they might even save your life."
Interfaith Medical Center — a cash-strapped hospital struggling to serve some of the poorest neighborhoods in the city — was the victim of a $16 million white-collar feeding frenzy. Based in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Interfaith has for years had one of the worst emergency room wait times in the state. Records from April show it took nearly two hours to see a doctor there. The 287-bed non-profit facility — where patients are rarely insured and almost always rely on Medicaid — was for months mired in bankruptcy proceedings. And a mentally ill patient managed to beat another patient to death in an Interfaith shower stall in 2013 because the staff lost track of them.
As retailers struggle to keep up with changing shopping trends, mall operators across the U.S. are looking to fill spaces left empty by the likes of Sears and RadioShack. One promising new group of tenants: walk-in medical clinics, staffed by doctors who can treat common ailments such as pink eye and minor injuries like sprains and burns. The clinics—regional chains such as City Practice Group of New York and national ones like Concentra, the largest urgent-care organization in the U.S.—are a growing segment of the medical retail industry, says Scott Mason, executive managing director of Cushman & Wakefield's health-care group.
Tampa General Hospital and Florida Hospital are teaming up to build a $60 million outpatient center in Brandon, launch a home care agency and create a hospice program. Their jointly owned partnership, called West Florida Health, is driven by a changing health care economy that favors big systems that can care for patients at all stages of sickness and health. Top officials from the two nonprofit hospitals provided for the first time Friday the details of their partnership, announced in September 2013. Officials were careful to say the partnership is not a merger of hospital operations.