Several hospitals in the Chicago area have extended substantial price breaks automatically to anyone without medical coverage. Rush University Medical Center, for instance, will reduce hospital bills by 50% for any uninsured patient, regardless of their income or assets. Loyola University Medical Center lowers bills by 40%.
No hospital in California lost more pediatric beds in recent years than Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center. The downsizing began more than two years ago as hospital officials prepared for their move into a new state-of-the-art facility with only two-thirds of the space of the old campus. Officials with the county Department of Health Services said they believe the cuts in children's beds will be offset by a shift from inpatient to outpatient care, making it possible to maintain the same level of service. But front-line pediatricians strongly dispute that pediatric care will not suffer.
In Connecticut, the health sector added 4,100 new jobs in 2008, for a total of 240,000, according to a report released by the state Department of Labor. The picture is similar across the nation. While manufacturing and transportation industries shed more than 1.6 million jobs last year, and retailers slashed more than a half-million, the healthcare sector added 372,000 new jobs. The healthcare industry's expansion is being fueled by the nation's aging population, as the nation's 79 million baby boomers reach retirement age.
Cleveland Clinic has announced Andrew Fishleder, MD's appointment as chief executive officer of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. Fishleder will head up the Clinic's first overseas outpost as part of its plan to extend the Clinic's brand. The deal with the government-owned Mubadala Development Co. was announced in 2006. Mubadala will pay for construction costs, equipping the hospital and staff salaries. The Clinic has no capital risk, but instead will transfer its culture, its standards, and its model of healthcare.
Gov. Jim Doyle's proposal to tax hospital revenue in Wisconsin would attract nearly a billion dollars in federal matching funds in its first three years, including nearly $300 million for hospitals in the Milwaukee area alone, according to state projections.
Every healthcare system with hospitals in Milwaukee County would come out ahead, the projections show.
A growing roster of doctors, nurses, and administrators from children's hospitals in Kansas City and southern China have been making transcontinental trips to experience life and healthcare half a world away. The exchange program started in 2003, after a Guangzhou hospital official approached a researcher at Children's Mercy Hospital with the idea to trade staff. Since then, 16 staff members from Children's Mercy and 13 from Guangzhou have made the trip. The two hospitals initially were interested in the exchange to promote research collaboration, but it evolved into a very broad exchange with clinical care, research and management, said Children's Mercy officials.