Two years ago, East Morgan County Hospital became one of the 23 in the Banner Health system retrofitted with an Electronic Medical Record system that allows it to enjoy the same standard of care found at many top-flight suburban and city hospitals. In fact, East Morgan is one of the few rural facilities in the United States that has reached Stage 6 of EMR implementation. Roughly 4.4 percent of all hospitals in the country are at this stage, said Banner Health spokesman Greg Sexton. East Morgan also is part of Banner's Electronic Intensive Care Unit, which uses a remote monitoring system that allows doctors and nurses at the hospital to talk through a video feed to counterparts in command centers in Mesa, Ariz.; Greeley; Southern California; and even Tel Aviv, Israel.
Many of the state's hospitals are small, rural and classified as critical-access, which earns them higher Medicare reimbursements—more taxpayer money—than other hospitals. CEO compensation has been a hot-button issue in recent years, provoking a lot of talk among lawmakers and one bill aimed at capping executive salaries —that bill died in committee. Proponents of such legislation have said high executive compensation is a symptom of greater healthcare spending problems and is one reason medical bills are so high. Opponents have said hospitals must pay their executives well to entice the best leaders, particularly in a rural state like Maine.
Saint Clare's Health System in Morris County will likely be sold to the country's largest Catholic health system, both organizations said Saturday. Saint Clare's current owner, Colorado-based Catholic Health Initiatives, said that it intends to sell its Denville and Dover campuses and that it was in talks with its preferred buyer, Ascension Health Care Network of St. Louis. Details on what changes might be in store for St. Clare's if the deal goes through were not available. The parties released a joint statement saying terms of the sale are still being negotiated, but Catholic Health and Ascension expect to reach a definitive agreement by the end of June.
Nurses who are trained as anesthetists do not need a doctor's supervision to give anesthetics to California hospital patients, the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled Thursday. The decision by was particularly important for rural areas, where nurses commonly administer anesthesia in hospitals, under a doctor's orders but without in-person supervision. The ruling allows that practice to continue. Federal law denies Medicare reimbursements to hospitals that allow nurses to give anesthesia without supervision, but allows a state's governor to opt out. California is one of 16 states to opt out, an action taken by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in June 2009 and supported by his successor, Jerry Brown.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced Thursday that it will not initiate enforcement action for an additional three months, through June 30, 2012, against any covered entity that is required to comply with the updated transactions standards adopted under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
When hospitals are short on beds in the intensive care unit, doctors are more likely to switch from life-saving care to end-of-life care, a new Canadian study shows. But it's not clear whether that means patients die any sooner, researchers report in the Archives of Internal Medicine. In the new study, Dr. Henry Stelfox at the University of Calgary found the emergency team was called much less often when there weren't any free ICU beds compared with when at least three were available.