With consumers pressed for time and money, Michigan hospitals are adding services for patients to keep them coming back. The basic, consumer-friendly services are growing as health system officials look for ways to help people in a difficult economy. The services include door-to-door shuttles, increased hours, discounts on care, and even gas cards for poor patients and their families.
An Alabama lawmaker wants Jefferson County to divert sales tax dollars earmarked for Cooper Green Mercy Hospital to help pay down the county's $3.2 billion sewer debt. Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, said his proposed legislation is a good way to resolve the sewer-debt crisis without any additional burden on taxpayers. The measure would remove a guaranteed funding source for Cooper Green, although Beason said he believed the County Commission would find money from elsewhere in the general fund for the hospital.
Free-standing centers tend to have low infection rates, they typically offer pleasant surroundings in newer construction, and parking's rarely a problem. Yet the proliferation of ambulatory surgery centers has some questioning if the lower cost comes at a higher price than people realize. Foremost among the skeptics are traditional acute care hospitals, which say the ambulatory surgery centers draw healthier patients and patients who are more likely to be insured. That leaves hospitals bearing a greater share of charity care.
Florida Hospital Altamonte is opening its new $14 million surgical suite Jan. 12. The 30,000-square-foot area includes six operating rooms equipped with advanced technology and offers minimally invasive and robotic surgery.
After more than three years and several location changes, Nemours Foundation will finally break ground on its children's hospital in February. Nemours officials said that groundbreaking for the hospital and children's clinic will be held on Feb. 25 at Lake Nona's medical city complex. The hospital, which will be built in a complex near the University of Central Florida's College of Medicine and the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, will likely open in the second half of 2012.
St. Louis-area emergency rooms already burdened by an increase in uninsured patients are now facing a recession-spurred boom in business. For many local hospitals still grappling with capacity concerns, a crush of new patients who cannot pay for care could further strain an ailing safety net.