Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio on Monday warned that Brooklyn hospitals will close by the end of February without an influx of cash from the federal government. The state submitted a Medicaid waiver request 18 months ago as a way to secure about $10 billion in funds from the United States Department of Health and Human Services. Now the clock is ticking down on Long Island College Hospital, Interfaith Medical Center and Brookdale Hospital Medical Center, which are all in danger of closing if the federal government doesn't approve the funds, the two men said at an Albany press conference on Monday.
A tentative labor deal with Jackson Health System employees lost some luster Monday when the board that runs Miami-Dade's public hospital network agreed to phase out an unpopular pay concession but held off voting on performance bonuses for workers. Following a heated discussion in which the board vice chairman accused his colleagues and staff of keeping him in the dark about the agreement, the Public Health Trust voted 5-1 to defer voting on the proposed bonuses for up to 30 days. But trustees unanimously approved the phase-out of employees' pay contribution toward group health insurance.
In one of the most far-reaching shortages ever to hit American hospitals, the saline IV bags that are a mainstay of surgical units and patient rooms everywhere are in short supply across the country, according to the Food and Drug Administration and hospital pharmacists. Though patients probably haven't noticed the shortfall, pharmacists are scrambling to make sure they don't. "It puts stress on the system," said Michelle Corrado, assistant director of pharmacy for Hallmark Health System, a regional provider of health care north of Boston, and president of the Massachusetts Society for Health System Pharmacists. "It pulls people's focus away from what they need to be doing."
The chief executive officer of KentuckyOne Health is warning employees of cuts and possible layoffs, saying the company must "improve our performance by $218 million before the end of fiscal year 2015." "We will do our very best to reduce our expenses that do not involve reductions in workforce or reductions in the number of employees," CEO Ruth Brinkley says in a 10-minute YouTube video posted for employees. "However, I do believe that unfortunately, there will be reductions, because we must adjust what we are spending to the amount of money we get for taking care of our patients."
Doctors' habit of copying and pasting notes in their EHRs has come under increasing fire from those who suspect that they're using this method to justify higher charges to Medicare and private payers. In October 2012, the HHS Office of Inspector General (OIG) launched an investigation into this practice, and OIG recently issued a report that said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) wasn't providing sufficient guidance to its contractors to detect this kind of fraud. CMS promised to redouble its efforts. Some healthcare consultants believe that the government's crusade is misguided and that efforts to train physicians to use EHRs more effectively would be more valuable.
The chief medical officer during Parkland Memorial Hospital's years-long safety crisis is now overseeing one of the nation's most famous health institutions. Dr. John Jay Shannon was promoted Friday to interim chief executive at Chicago's Cook County Health & Hospitals System. That puts him over John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital, inspiration for the television show ER. Shannon has been there less than a year as a high-level clinical administrator. He temporarily replaces the man who hired him. Dr. Ramanathan Raju, who is taking a job in New York, said last year that Shannon's role in Dallas hadn't troubled him.