Concerned Citizens for Spring Hill (TN) Hospital, a group formed to support HCA TriStar's bid to build a 56-bed for-profit hospital in the town, are mounting a campaign and a "citizens rally" in answer to continued opposition from county hospitals. A state panel has twice voted to grant HCA a certificate of need for the hospital, but Williamson Medical Center and Maury Regional Hospital have appealed both decisions. Williamson Medical and Maury Regional say the new hospital would impact them financially and jeopardize their ability to provide quality care.
Harvard School of Public Health professor Lucian L. Leape, MD, is one of the nation's top experts on patient safety. Nearly 20 years ago, his research startled the nation with such findings as one of every 200 patients admitted to a hospital died as a result of a hospital mistake. Leape now says that while the industry has made great strides to improve patient safety, much more needs to be done. Part of the solution is to automate and hand off some of the non-care functions so that healthcare professionals can spend more time engaging with and treating patients, Leape said recently during the annual congress of the National Patient Safety Foundation.
Moody's Investors Service has raised Illinois-based, non-profit hospital operator Evanston Northwestern Healthcare's bond rating one notch to Aa2 from Aa3. Evanston's improving cash position resulted in the Aa2 rating, the third-highest rating on Moody's 21-notch scale. Evanston Northwestern is negotiating a deal to buy its fourth hospital, Rush North Shore Medical Center in Skokie, IL, for $95 million.
Richard F. Salluzzo, MD, president and chief executive of Wellmont Health System, has been chosen as the new chief executive of Cape Cod Healthcare Inc. Cape Cod faces a shortfall of revenue in addition to layoffs and cutbacks, and has already undertaken a number of steps to control costs. While with Wellmont, a group of 12 hospitals in Tennessee, Virginia, and Kentucky, Saluzzo was credited with moving the system from a loss to a profit and for efforts to eliminate medical errors.
Some hospitals are taking steps to improve safety and reduce their own legal liability from mishaps that lead to higher rates of death, complications, and medical errors that occur when treating patients during thinly staffed off hours. Hospitals are hiring physicians known as nocturnists, who work only night shifts, and some hospitals have begun staffing intensive-care units round-the-clock with critical-care specialists who do double-duty coping with a crisis anywhere in the hospital. And new policies improve communications at the hand-off between the day and night shifts.
Higher levels of medical care spending do not improve patients' perceptions of the care they receive, according to University of Massachusetts researchers who conducted a survey of Medicare beneficiaries. Researchers surveyed 2,515 Medicare beneficiaries about their perceptions of healthcare quality and compared their answers to per capita spending in various regions across the United States. There was a strong link between per capita spending and receiving more medical care, such as average number of ambulatory visits to physicians in the past year. But seven of the 10 measures of patients' perception of healthcare quality—such as unmet needs for tests and treatment, and spending enough time with doctors—were unrelated to expenditures, according to researchers.
In 2007, Florida Hospital rolled out a bold marketing campaign for two of its campuses: Emergency-room patients would be seen by a doctor within one hour of arrival. A year later, neither ER has come close to achieving that one-hour maximum wait for all patients. A major goal of the new Cover Florida health-plan initiative is to reduce ER crowding by providing affordable insurance to the state's 3.8 million uninsured. But ER crowding and wait times are unlikely to improve soon, experts say. That's especially true in Central Florida, where the economy and the population continue to expand at faster-than-average rates.
With a recent study showing that as many as 7,000 people are killed each year by faulty prescriptions based on illegible handwriting, an increasing number of doctors are trying to avoid problems by using a handheld computer to send prescriptions straight to the pharmacy. Five medical associations are urging their doctors to use e-prescriptions, and in April the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, a national association of drug plan administrators, started a national ad campaign to promote the practice.
The PCMA, which supports legislation that would require e-prescriptions in Medicare, claims it could prevent as many as 1.9 million medication errors and save the federal government billions of dollars over the next decade. Experts predict that by the end of this year, about 85,000 doctors nationwide will be writing e-prescriptions.
New Jersey hospitals in Jersey City, Newark, Morristown and Perth Amboy would be among the biggest losers under a proposed state funding formula that would slash nearly $142 million in charity care payments for treating the uninsured, according to an analysis from the New Jersey Hospital Association. A total of 22 hospitals would have their charity care aid wiped out entirely, according to the review. The analysis adds that 62 hospitals would lose aid, while only 18 would get a boost. Jersey City Medical Center, for example, would suffer a cut of nearly $42 million, the biggest funding reduction in the state. The Medical Center's aid would be cut about 50% to $41.6 million.
A day after the administrator of Tarrant County, TX's public hospital was shown the door, experts say sweeping changes at JPS Health Network could continue. The appointment of an interim chief executive is a step in the right direction to improve access of the poor to JPS services and the quality of healthcare for its patients, said Tarrant County commissioners. Under outgoing CEO David Cecero, JPS lost sight of its mission to treat the uninsured and underinsured, some commissioners said. More changes will be also be made as two new hospital board members and a chief executive are chosen, they added.
