The newest medical complex in the Bronx offers valet parking, views of Long Island Sound, and operating rooms equipped with overhead lamps that do not throw shadows and nonporous, plastic-lined walls to reduce the spread of infection. But there is one amenity it does not have: overnight beds. Though it has the resources of a hospital, the $152 million complex operated by Montefiore Medical Center will send patients home the same day as part of the hospital system's shift toward outpatient operations. The complex, which will officially open on Monday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, will occupy a 12-story tower in the Hutchinson Metro Center, an office park in the Pelham Bay neighborhood.
Obamacare's insurance mandates are starting to shade the quarterly financial reports of local health providers, but experts say it is too early to see the whole picture with clarity. On Jan. 1, the Affordable Care Act brought the individual mandate, the requirement that most Americans have medical insurance or pay a fine. Layered on top of that broad stroke, and arriving around the new year, was the expansion of Medi-Cal, the state's health insurance for its most financially fragile and disadvantaged residents. Those sweeping changes, at least in the early going anyway, appear to have been a mixed bag for local health providers.
Having "Mayo Clinic" on the entrance would seem like a badge of honor for a community hospital in rural Minnesota. But a vocal group of leaders in Fairmont, Minn., view it as an albatross, saying Mayo's acquisition of their hospital has pulled its finances into the red, siphoned off patients and doctors, and dragged the hospital to the bottom of key national quality-of-care rankings. At a town hall forum Oct. 23, an estimated 400 people complained about long waits for care and being diverted to Mayo's hospital in Mankato because the Fairmont hospital was short-staffed. "Fairmont deserves to be more than a Band-Aid or triage station," said Wes Clerc, mayor pro tem, during the forum.
The impact of Cabell Huntington Hospital acquiring St. Mary's Medical Center on prices for consumers is raising concerns for at least one local businessman. Cabell Huntington Hospital announced in August its proposed plans to acquire St. Mary's Medical Center, a process that is in the works but will not be complete for several months. The Pallottine Sisters, who founded St. Mary's Hospital a century ago, are aging and have decided to sell the hospital, and officials from Cabell Huntington and St. Mary's have decided to join forces to keep local control and streamline services for community members.
The longtime corporate executive entered the college lecture hall to make a pitch the medical students had probably heard before: He was offering good starting salaries, well-financed research opportunities and rewarding work with patients in great need. But this was not a recruiting trip for some pharmaceutical company or private hospital system. The executive, Robert A. McDonald, formerly chief executive of Procter & Gamble, runs the government's second-largest agency, the Department of Veterans Affairs. And he has been crisscrossing the nation looking for doctors-in-training to fill staffing shortfalls that over time could jeopardize care for millions of veterans.
I may not be in touch with all my emotions, but there is one I know all too well — jealousy. I have worked my entire career in great health systems with fabulous people. And yet, when I go "outside," I constantly see health care providers working brilliantly together in innovative ways that I had not even imagined. It makes my chest ache with envy. This type of jealousy is the deepest and most sincere expression of respect of which I am capable. Here are just five examples of the dozens of innovations out there that make my head and my heart hurt.