The Mayo Clinic wasn't sure what to expect from social media when it gave it a test run four years ago, but it has come a long way in just a few years since adding a Facebook page with more than 3,000 friends, a YouTube channel with videos of doctors talking about illness, treatments and research, a health blog for consumers and another for media to improve the process of medical reporting. It's also creating "secret groups" on Facebook to connect patients to others with similar illnesses, an area it hopes to expand in the future. But that's just the tip of the iceberg in the brave new world of Health 2.0. as more providers use social software and its ability to promote collaboration between patients and the rest of the medical industry.
Federal regulators investigating serious failings in University of California-Irvine Medical Center's anesthesiology department threatened to cut off Medicare funding after identifying dozens of new problems. In a 127-page report, regulators described repeated examples of poor oversight and inadequate systems to protect patients.
Iowa hospital leaders say increasing numbers of uninsured patients are seeking free care in their emergency rooms, and the hospitals are bracing for more such costs as the economy continues to slump. Although Iowa still has fewer uninsured residents than most other states, the problem appears to be worsening and some hospitals are reporting particularly sharp increases. Fort Dodge-based Trinity Regional Medical Center's charity care, for example, jumped from $3.3 million in 2007 to $5.9 million in 2008.
Amid signs that Pennsylvania's insurance commissioner is laying out a course for Independence Blue Cross and Highmark Inc. to follow as they pursue their proposed and controversial merger, members of the boards of the two insurers are meeting. Even though by law an official decision cannot be rendered until next week, the Insurance Department has let the insurers know privately that it will not approve the merger unless the new company agrees to make an important change in how it markets health insurance in Pennsylvania, among other conditions. The marketing change has to do with how the new company, which would become the largest health insurer in the state and one of the largest in the nation, would use the popular "Blue" trademark.
Beginning with their 2008 tax filing, hospitals and other nonprofit entities must complete a newly expanded Form 990 that demands more detailed information in areas such as business dealings of its top executives and board members and even some former executives and board members. And the form will grow yet again a year from now, as hospitals will then have to fill out a special Schedule H to document exactly what "community benefit" they contribute to justify their tax-exempt status. "We will have more accurate information, presented uniformly," Steven Miller, the IRS commissioner for tax exempt and government entities. "We, the states, and others will have a rich vein of data that will help us see nonprofit hospitals more clearly and allow us to make better informed decisions about them."
Brookwood Medical Center, St. Vincent's Health System, and Select Specialty Hospitals are opposing Birmingham-based Trinity Medical Center's plan to move. January 20 was the last day for healthcare providers to oppose Trinity's application to spend $280 million to finish and move to a former HealthSouth hospital on the U.S. 280 corridor in Alabama. The opposition means it will be many months before the State Certificate of Need Review Board will vote on Trinity's application to move from its current facility. The case now goes first to an administrative law judge, who will hold a trial and hear evidence from all sides.
A group of Ohio business leaders and 24 hospitals has launched Solutions for Patient Safety, a program particpants hope will become a statewide effort to reduce hospital medication errors and infections. The collaborative is using $1.5 million in start-up money from the charitable arm of Cardinal Health Inc., a drug distribution company based in suburban Columbus. Solutions for Patient Safety begins as Ohio is preparing to publish hospital quality data, including some infection rates, on the Web for consumers.
Kettering Health Network has named Roy Chew president of Kettering (OH) Medical Center, the hospital announced. Chew, formerly president of Grandview and Southview Medical Centers, replaces Fred Manchur, who was promoted to president of the network. Richard Haas, senior executive officer of the Sycamore Medical Center, will replace Chew as president of the medical centers.
The St. Bernard Parish Council has officially offered to take over the task of building the parish's first post-Katrina hospital from the five-member public board appointed in late 2007 to oversee the project. Councilman Wayne J. Landry, the council's liaison on the hospital issue, said the move should not be viewed as council-board infighting but as a signal that the council and the parish are willing to come forward with the expertise needed to fast-track the project.
Burbank, CA-based Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center announced it had laid off 95 of its 2,517 employees and closed four hospital programs as a result of rising costs at a time of economic turmoil.
Providence spokeswoman Patricia Aidem said the cutbacks marked the end for units offering urgent care, foot care for diabetics and treatment for workplace injuries, as well as a transitional-care unit which prepares patients for care elsewhere. Multiple urgent-care centers are within a few miles of the hospital, which helped officials decide what units to close, Aidem said.
