Henry Ford and Beaumont health systems confirmed at a news conference yesterday a merger into a single, $6.4B nonprofit entity. The deal would combine 10 hospitals and 200 patient care sites. The reason is that the hospital systems would be better positioned to face changes in healthcare. In yesterday's news conference, the CEOs from both Henry Ford and Beaumont sought to calm fears that the merger would result in sweeping layoffs, the closure of facilities or downsizing of the medical schools.
New York City's flagship public hospital and the premier trauma center in Manhattan, Bellevue Hospital Center, shut down Wednesday after fuel pumps for its backup power generators failed. There were 725 patients there when Hurricane Sandy hit, workers evacuated the 300 patients left after the facility darkened. After pumping out 17-million gallons of water from the basement, water is still more than two feet deep where the fuel pumps apparently shorted out and became inoperable.
The patient evacuation at New York University Langone Medical Center is prompting questions from trustees and the city's mayor about how prepared the medical center was for the storm and has raised concern that aging infrastructure at US hospitals. One in 20 hospitals are unprepared for power disruptions, and an incident may result in more than $1 million in lost revenue and other costs, according to Bridgewater, New Jersey- based Lawrence Associates.
The Statewide Health Information Network of New York played a critical role in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. It assisted the critical continuity of care. As patients were transported from one location to another, those patients' electronic health records who were secure and readily accessible at the hospitals to the facility which they were transported.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said, patients are at risk and Medicare is wasting money because of doctors who refer patients to facilities they own. GAO found a steep rise in the number of self-referrals—doctors ordering tests at facilities where they or their family members have a financial stake. Critics argue that self-referral leads to wasteful spending because doctors will order unnecessary tests just to collect a payment from Medicare.
A new report projects the number of physicians who practice independently will fall to 36 percent by 2013. One in three may choose a type of "subscription" approach over the more traditional formats. Researchers found doctors are increasingly open to new business models, especially those that might limit paperwork demands and overhead costs.