Today, as doctors and hospitals struggle to make new records systems work, the clear winners are big companies like Allscripts that lobbied for that legislation and pushed aside smaller competitors. While proponents say new record-keeping technologies will one day reduce costs and improve care, profits and sales are soaring now across the records industry. At Allscripts, annual sales have more than doubled from $548 million in 2009 to an estimated $1.44 billion last year, partly reflecting daring acquisitions made on the bet that the legislation would be a boon for the industry. At the Cerner Corporation of Kansas City, Mo., sales rose 60 percent during that period. With money pouring in, top executives are enjoying Wall Street-style paydays.
The head of Cook County's public health system has hired a new top-level executive who resigned last year from a public hospital in Dallas that the federal government determined was a "serious threat to patient health and safety." Dr. John Jay Shannon was hired to a new $400,000-a-year post that includes overseeing operations at Stroger Hospital and ensuring quality and patient safety throughout the Health and Hospitals System as part of a reorganization.
The Medicare policy of financially penalizing hospitals for high rates of readmission within 30 days of discharge for heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia is meant to encourage better inpatient care and hold hospitals accountable for how they treat certain common health conditions. It also has given rise to a new class of health IT tools. But one prominent health policy researcher believes that notion is only half correct.
The head of a Michigan hospital denied allegations made in a lawsuit that hospital officials relented to a father's request that African-American nurses not tend to his baby. When the father showed a nursing supervisor his swastika tattoo, it "created anger and outrage in our staff," said Melany Gavulic, president and CEO of Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Mich., in a written statement. "This resulted in concern by supervisors for the safety of the staff. The father was informed that his request could not be granted," the statement said.
More than 27 million Americans will soon gain health coverage under the health law. But who will treat them all? With such a large coverage expansion, and with an anticipated shortage of primary care physicians available to serve them, some states have or are considering allowing so-called advanced practice nurses—those with advanced degrees—to treat more patients.
A smoking habit could cost you a job opportunity at a hospital or other medical facility under legislation proposed by Sen. Joe Hardy, R-Boulder City. It's currently illegal for an employer to discriminate against employees who use a product—such as tobacco—outside of work that does not affect job performance or the safety of other employees. Hardy's measure, Senate Bill 87, would repeal that law.