Hospital Corp. of America confirmed Tuesday it is in discussions with East Jefferson General Hospital but offered no details on the nature of the talks. Its statement came 10 months after it withdrew from the public competition to lease East Jefferson General and West Jefferson Medical Center. Jefferson Parish Councilman Ben Zahn said East Jefferson is talking with a private hospital management organization but would not name the operator. Zahn said the discussions center on a long-term lease deal, similar in structure to the type of offer that Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA withdrew in February. Zahn said that could change, however.
Grady Memorial Hospital Corporation's former payroll director has been found guilty of stealing nearly half a million dollars from the Atlanta hospital. Donald Thomas, 55, was convicted of six counts each of theft and wire fraud, and two counts of bank fraud. He will be sentenced in February. According to information presented in federal court, from January 2008 to June 2011, Thomas oversaw payroll for Grady's 5,500 employees. During that time, he made 134 fraudulent payments to himself by removing fired employees' bank account numbers from their payroll records and replacing them with his own.
Do you think you would be better at your job if you weren't allowed to work for more than 80 hours per week? What if you were forced to clock out after working for 28 hours in a row? If you're a new doctor in your first years of training after medical school, the answer seems to be no. Two studies published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. examined the effects of new work rules that limit the number of hours interns and residents can spend caring for hospital patients. In both studies, researchers found little to no evidence that patients fared better or worse after the new rules went into effect in 2011.
Walgreen is testing a new telemedicine service that lets patients see a doctor without leaving home or visiting any of the drugstore chain's clinics. The Deerfield, Illinois, company said Monday that patients in California or Michigan can now contact a physician around the clock through Walgreen's mobile application for smartphones or tablet computers. The virtual visits cost $49, and doctors can diagnose and treat problems that aren't emergencies and don't require a physical exam, such as pink eye or bronchitis. The physicians, who are licensed to practice in the patient's state, also can write prescriptions.
What you consider to be an emergency may not really be all that urgent, but that doesn't mean it doesn't need attention. That's the idea behind a new layout at Aurora Sinai Medical Center — made possible by a multi-million dollar grant. Aurora Health Care has announced it is making a $10 million donation for new healthcare initiatives. One of those involves partnering with Progressive Community Health Center to create a federally qualified health center inside Aurora Sinai — right next to its emergency room.
It took a junior congressional staffer about 20 minutes to discover what the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says it didn't know about its own health exchange enrollment data. Marilyn Tavenner, the administrator for the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, told Congress in September that 7.3 million people had enrolled in coverage through Obamacare. What she did not say — and Obama administration officials say they did not realize — was that nearly 400,000 of them were standalone dental plans. That was revealed only after the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee asked for the data to back up those numbers.