Jason Spring begins work on March 9 as the CEO of North Valley Hosptial. He was chosen after a national search by Quorum Health Resources, the hospital's management company. Craig Aasved resigned as CEO in July 2008 to take the same job at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula. John Yanes of Lock Haven, PA., has served as interim administrator. Spring has been administrator of the 20-bed HealthPark Hospital in Hot Springs, AR, for the past five years.
Brad D. Holland has been named CEO the 171-bed San Angelo Community Medical Center. He takes the place of Samuel Feazell, who retired at the end of 2008. Holland will oversee the hospital, with 700 employees; Community Medical Associates with 75 employees and Community Health Club of San Angelo with 50 employees. Holland and his wife both grew up in San Angelo.
Jerry Miller, MD, president of Holston Medical Group in East Tennessee, talks about strategizing on investments needed to make in strategic initiatives to diversify revenue streams.
The University of Chicago Medical Center has confirmed a massive restructuring that will trim $100 million in expenses, or nearly 7% of its annual budget, amid the economic downturn and unpaid bills owed the hospital from the state Medicaid program. Initially, the hospital is eliminating 15 senior executive jobs. The hospital has yet to determine the additional job cuts but said they would not affect medical care.
This story in a series from the Dallas Morning News says that hospital companies in Texas, many of which collect millions in state and federal funds, operate with minimal public disclosure of deficiencies. Texas keeps information on complaints and inspections largely private because influential healthcare corporations want it that way, and Texas legislators have obliged, according to the article. As a result, it is next to impossible for the public to determine whether state enforcement works properly, critics say.
The hemorrhaging of American jobs accelerated at a record pace at the end of 2008, bringing the year's total job losses to 2.6 million. The U.S. Labor Department jobs report showed the economy lost 524,000 jobs in December and 1.9 million in the year's final four months, after the credit crisis began in September. Education and health services, however, grew payrolls by 45,000 employees in December.
For all of 2008, the economy lost a net total of 2.6 million jobs, and newly unemployed Americans will have to spend about 30% of their jobless benefits on average to pay for health insurance through their former employer, according to a new report. If they want coverage for their families, it will take more than 80% of their unemployment check, according to the report by Families USA.
The board of the Service Employees International Union has decided to merge 240,000 members from three California locals into one mega-local representing nursing home workers and home health aides. Some California healthcare workers have fought the merger. Oakland-based United Healthcare Workers leaders have called the move undemocratic, and had called for a boycott of a December advisory vote by SEIU that asked members whether they wanted to merge all healthcare workers or only long-term care workers into a single California local.
Doctors' moonlighting for drug companies is coming under increased scrutiny, both at University of Wisconsin and across the country. This month, the trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America enacted a voluntary ban on company gifts of branded pens, sticky notes and other items and dinners for doctors. Also of special concern are university physicians who are sought by drug companies because of the influence and respect they wield with colleagues practicing in communities.
The New Orleans region's emergency medical services and other hospital capacity will expand with the opening of new facilities at Ochsner Baptist Medical Center. Ochsner Health System executives and some residents around the hospital praised in particular the opening of an emergency department, part of $12 million in improvements to the campus. The department will have two trauma rooms, nine exam rooms and one triage room. The upgrade also includes a wing with 43 private rooms and an expansion of the hospital's intensive care unit from three to 12 beds.
