A hospital in central Brooklyn laid off 240 doctors, nurses, and other workers. Officials at the hospital, Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, blamed the bad economy for the layoffs. Officials said that the layoffs affected union and nonunion workers, physicians, and some managers. but that the hospital is expected to be able to continue to operate.
A courtroom battle over practice privileges at Smithfield, NC-based Johnston Medical Center pits hospital officials against a cardiologist who says he's getting ousted because of institutional politics and the pursuit of profits. Franklin Wefald, MD, who filed suit to fight the move, claims a dispute with a former partner who was once Johnston Medical's chief of staff lurks behind the hospital's push to remove him. Hospital officials say it suspended his privileges because he allowed a nurse to sign his name to medical orders, an act they say could endanger patients and cost the hospital Medicare dollars.
The Chairman of the Prince George's County (MD) Hospital Authority says there are nine parties interested in buying at least parts of the hospital system. Authority Chairman Kenneth Glover declined to reveal the names of interested parties. Glover is urging a legislative panel to support a bill that would allow the seven-member hospital authority to sell the hospital and four other county health facilities.
As many as 75% of U.S. doctors will be writing electronic prescriptions within five years, thanks to new federal spending to encourage e-prescribing, according to a forecast. The economic stimulus bill signed by President Barack Obama last month included about $19 billion to promote the use of healthcare information technology, including e-prescribing. An estimated 13% of U.S. doctors prescribe drugs electronically, leaving the vast majority writing paper prescriptions, according to Surescripts, which operates the largest U.S. electronic prescribing network.
As they search for savings to redo the nation's $2.4 trillion health system, key congressional Democrats and administration officials are indicating they're open to changing a system that's a burden for doctors but a boon to attorneys and some victims of medical error. "The cost issue is the thing that we actually think is the big driver in this whole debate," Obama told business leaders last week. Research, prevention and "medical liability issues—I think all those things have to be on the table," the president said.
Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party leaders on healthcare in Minnesota have released a wide range of legislative proposals, including setting up 24-hour emergency dental clinics and birthing centers for deliveries, and said the long-term savings would climb into hundreds of millions of dollars. But they acknowledged that some initiatives would initially cost money, a likely source of conflict in a session focused on erasing a $4.6 billion budget deficit.