Kettering Medical Center has contracted exclusively with a group of surgeons to perform valve and other specialized heart surgeries at the hospital, a move that limits patient choice but hospital officials say ensures good patient care. "It's really important for a hospital to have a group of cardiothoracic surgeons who's available all the time," said Walter Sackett, the hospital's vice president of clinical services. "The idea is to have the same people involved in these highly technical procedures over and over again." Sackett said the three-year exclusive contract, put in place about a year ago, creates a coordinated approach to cardiac care that benefits patients. Hospital staffers become accustomed to working with the same group of surgeons, another plus for patient care, he said.
It's warming up in the Middle East, and as the mercury rises, so does the intensity of fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. And that means the number of seriously injured American soldiers passing through here is also rising every day. Ramstein is known as the U.S. military's gateway to Europe, since it's where most personnel touch down when deployed here, the Middle East, or Africa. It's also part of the Kaiserslauten Military Community, whose 54,000 U.S. citizens make up the world's largest concentration outside the United States. But it's also a gateway of a much more solemn kind. This is where soldiers badly wounded in combat are taken and from where they are then flown back home. And for the medical personnel here, whose job it is to process each and every one of those soldiers, whether they walk off the plane under their own power or if they're unconscious and clinging to life, each day means finding a way to remain positive while confronting the very real human effects of America's wars.
Jackson Health System reported Monday it is cooperating with police in an investigation of an employee who "apparently inappropriately accessed confidential patient information" of 1,800 people, the system announced in a press release. Jackson said the 1,800 patients have been notified and offered free credit card fraud protection. "JHS took quick action to address this issue and the employee is no longer employed at JHS," the system said in the press release. Theft of patient data has been a recurring theme in the state — sometimes with much larger numbers. In June 2010, AvMed health insurance reported that the data of 1.2 million patients had been on two laptops stolen from its offices. In 2008, data on 2.1 million University of Miami patients was stolen when a box was taken from a parked van.
After a meeting Monday with Sen. David Vitter, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and others, Gov. Bobby Jindal called for the University Medical Center governing board to consider a business model for a new teaching hospital in New Orleans beyond what state authorities and Louisiana State University System administrators have pushed for the past several years. The governor was careful not to endorse any particular model, but said development of a business plan for a "world-class medical education and research facility" should at least include a look at more closely integrating Tulane University's medical enterprise, which is now anchored at Tulane Medical Center, jointly owned by the university and the for-profit Hospital Corporation of America. Yet the governor also insisted that such an effort, which would involve commissioning another outside consultant, not upset the existing timeline of approving a business and financing plan by late summer and beginning construction in earnest in the succeeding months. "I don't think this has to slow anything down," Jindal said.
While Hackensack University Medical Center forges ahead with an application to reopen Pascack Valley Hospital, its opponents say a medical mall with outpatient care would better serve a region they believe already has too many hospital beds. Across the country and in New Jersey, in suburbs and in cities, about 50 medical malls have sprouted up in closed hospitals, bankrupt shopping centers and other sites to deliver healthcare to communities. The advantages of medical malls are one-stop shopping for patients — they provide everything from pediatric checkups to same-day surgery. They also allow physicians to expand their services and hospitals to improve market share by enhancing their outpatient services, experts say.
Five potential buyers were in line to acquire a controlling interest in Bakersfield Heart Hospital as recently as last month, according to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The North Carolina-based company that owns a 53.3 percent stake in the specialty hospital, MedCath Corp., has put its shares of Bakersfield Heart and at least three other hospitals up for sale as part of its plan to dissolve the company. MedCath, which reported losing $13.5 million in the first three months of this year, has a first mortgage and security interest in the hospital's assets, a May 27 SEC filing states. More than 40 local physicians own the other 46 percent of the hospital.