Despite the governor's pledge to better discipline errant health professionals in California there are signs that it will be difficult to enact sweeping changes as quickly or easily as the administration has suggested. At meetings in Sacramento, regulators and state attorneys generally spoke of the need for reform but could not agree on potential solutions presented to them. They also offered no concrete time frames for having a workable system in place.
Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago plans to add nearly 90 hospital beds to its main outpatient tower. Northwestern submitted its $73-million proposal to state regulators, and aims to ease a capacity crunch for intensive-care and medical/surgical beds. The project requires the okay of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, which is scheduled to consider the application in January.
The White House shut down an email account set up to collect tips from Americans on "fishy" claims about President Barack Obama's healthcare plan. The move came as congressional Republicans and bloggers continued to raise questions about why Obama officials were collecting negative statements made by ordinary Americans about the president's healthcare plan and what the administration was planning to do with the information it gathered.
There are enough points of evidence, over the past 2-3 months, to suggest that growth may be returning to healthcare, says Sg2 Vice President Stephen Jenkins. But while that is good news for the healthcare industry, there are a whole series of cautionary notes to consider, Jenkins says.
The offices of several state attorneys general said they had fielded complaints about career counseling companies during this recession, according to an article in the New York Times. Many of the companies do little more than provide ordinary job search assistance, and while this can be a legitimate and useful service much of it can be obtained more cheaply, according to the Times.
HCA Virginia has appointed Dia Nichols as CEO of John Randolph Medical Center. He replaces Elwood Boone, Jr. who left in April to take a new position with HCA in Texas. Nichols returns to John Randolph where he served as COO from 2004-2006. Most recently, Nichols was COO of CJW Medical Center's Chippenham Hospital in Richmond, VA.