A group led by former board of directors member Michael Melnicke was named as a strong candidate to buy the shuttered Far Rockaway hospital and affiliated nursing home, court documents show. Melnicke, who owns five nursing homes in New York, offered a $24 million package for the hospital, clinic and affiliated nursing home, the court-appointed trustee Lori Lapin Jones wrote in a filing earlier this month. The firm enlisted to manage Peninsula's sale was contacted by 26 potential suitors that "expressed a primilary interest," documents show. The nursing home magnate sits on the Board of Trustees of Long Island University and belongs to several healthcare associations.
In what appears to be the largest expansion in decades of available transplant services in South Florida, the state's Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) has cleared the way for heart transplants at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood; kidney transplants at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale; and heart, liver and kidney transplants at Cleveland Clinic Florida in Weston. For decades, Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami has dominated the field of adult transplants in South Florida. Other than Broward Health's liver transplant program, added in 2004, and Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital's pediatric heart transplant program, added in 2010, Jackson is the closest facility for locals needing new organs.
The British government said Tuesday that it wants the country's state-funded hospitals to help support themselves by setting up profit-making branches in other countries. Officials said the country should capitalize on international respect for the British healthcare brand. But critics accused the government of trying to commercialize the public health service—a touchy issue in British politics. The government announced Tuesday it was setting up a body called Healthcare U.K. to help world-renowned institutions, such as the Great Ormond Street Hospital for children, establish overseas branches.
A major focus of the healthcare law signed by Governor Deval Patrick last week is that doctors should be paid for keeping patients healthy rather than for the volume of tests or treatments they order. Yet, several recent publications question whether pay-for-performance systems actually lead to better care for patients. A review of seven studies of primary care programs that paid doctors extra for meeting certain targets, published by the Cochrane Collaboration in September, was inconclusive about the effect on quality of care. "Implementation should proceed with caution," the authors wrote.
In response to the New York Times story, officials at the Nashville-based HCA said that experts often disagree on when a patient should get a stent. They also noted that their hospitals are performing fewer of the procedures than in years past. But insurance billing records indicate the procedures continue to be popular with Florida's for-profit hospitals and particularly HCA. State data show that for-profit hospitals as a group do nearly 50 percent more catheterizations and one-third more angioplasties than nonprofit hospitals on a per-bed basis. HCA, which accounts for about half the state's for-profit hospitals reporting invasive cardiac procedures, performed them at even higher rates than their peers.
The state Department of Health and Human Services is not backing down from its recommendation to test additional Exeter Hospital employees for hepatitis C, despite the hospital's initial refusal to comply. On Friday, state health officials expressed hope the issue can be resolved amicably, but stressed they would do whatever is needed to fulfill their obligation to conduct a complete investigation. N.H. Associate Attorney General Anne Edwards said legal action is always an option, but she wouldn't say if it's currently being considered.