The Joint Commission has provided Atlanta-based Grady Memorial Hospital with a clean bill of health on safety and care issues almost a year after a critical report threatened the hospital's access to federal money. "Grady is fully accredited," said Kenneth Powers, media relations manager of the Joint Commission. The commission's surprise inspection on Nov. 4 followed months of intense efforts at the hospital to resolve problems identified during an agency inspection in 2007. The inspection last winter found problems with broken equipment, sanitation issues such as housekeeping and staff hand-washing, and documentation of patients.
Nashville-based HCA Inc. has announced that it would pay interest coming due in spring 2009 on $1.5 billion of debt with more bonds to conserve cash as the hospital chain tries to navigate through an uncertain credit market. On May 15, holders of HCA bonds that mature in 2016 are due $72 million in cash. Now, they are slated to get bonds instead at a higher interest rate that will be worth $6 million more. "Given all of the dramatic turmoil in the capital markets over the last couple of months, it is the prudent thing to do right now," Jack O. Bovender Jr., HCA's chief executive said in a conference call with analysts after the company released third-quarter earnings. "We're not in any way signaling or anticipating any significant decrease in our business next year."
Detroit's automakers have appealed to congressional leaders for $25 billion more in federal loans, low-interest emergency borrowing, and a share of the Wall Street bailout to help rescue an ailing industry. The executives—Chrysler's Bob Nardelli, Ford's Alan Mulally and GM's Rick Wagoner—and union president Ron Gettelfinger sought an additional $25 billion in federal loans for future health care payments for retirees.
North Oakland Medical Centers, a 336-bed Pontiac, MI, hospital, has taken the final steps toward becoming Michigan's first full-service private hospital, with its sale to a physicians' group and the Flint-based McLaren Health Care system. McLaren will acquire a minority stake in the hospital and may help run the hospital.
Claiming more than $500,000 in unpaid bills, a Missouri-based contractor has filed a mechanics' lien for work done at the new Children's Hospital in Lawrenceville, PA. Johnson Marcraft Inc. of St. Louis, a manufacturer and supplier of heating and cooling systems, claims it is owed $514,237 for air handlers it provided to the $575 million project, which is expected to open next year.
Greater Manchester, England-based Trafford Primary Care Trust has removed toys from all of its clinics because of the risk of infection. It says following Department of Health guidelines prompted the decision to withdraw the "majority of toys," but one senior doctor said the move was "bureaucracy gone mad." The health trust told staff to get rid of toys and advised GPs to do the same because they fear they spread infections among children.