Cleveland-based University Hospitals has refinanced more than a third of its debt in an attempt to exit the troubled market for so-called auction-rate securities. The system is leading other healthcare institutions in this exit, said representatives for Moody's Investors Service. According to Bradley Bond, vice president of treasury for University Hospitals, the interest rate the system paid climbed from 3.7 percent in January 2008 to 11 percent by mid-February 2008. To help, the system has refinanced all of its auction-rate bonds--$263 million worth--with borrowings from bank lines of credit, Bond said.
Tennessee-based Mid-South Imaging and Therapeutics has selected MedQ, a healthcare workflow solutions provider, to support its regional reading operations. Deployment of the system will allow MSIT to accept images and information, both digital and film, from multiple locations throughout Tennessee and integrate them into a single workflow process. MIST is a hospital-based private group consisting of 33 radiologists in seven radiology subspecialty areas.
The University of Michigan Health System is implementing a new picture archiving and communication system at three hospitals and nine clinics. The system is replacing a legacy PACS with the Horizon Medical Imaging application from San Francisco-based McKesson Corp.
An article in American Journal of Psychiatry states that excessive gaming and email/text messaging should be added to psychiatry's official guidebook of mental disorders. The article outlines distinct symptoms displayed by sufferers, including withdrawal and an associated sense of anger or depression when users cannot reach a computer, the constant need for better equipment, and the feeling of social isolation and fatigue.
During a recent health-tech conference in San Diego, dozens of companies presented online products designed to make U.S. healthcare smarter, stronger and better looking. The products, most notably entries by Google and Microsoft, have the industry energized, focused and at least a little bit frightened. This Washington Post article examines where Microsoft's and Google's personal health record programs are now and where they may be headed.
There needs to be greater incentives for tech departments to become greener by reducing their overall energy consumption and carbon footprint, says Dennis Szubert, principle analyst at the research firm Quocirca. Szubert says data centre managers would take more responsibility if they were given more information about what their hardware consumes.
Emergency rooms at hospitals around Washington state have closed their doors this winter becayse flu, respiratory illness and insurance problems brought patients to emergency departments in droves. As a result, hospitals signaled a central ambulance-routing system to alert that patients must be diverted to other hospitals.
Representatives of Sutter Health hospitals in California said it was business as usual despite a strike by registered nurses. A third to more than half of the nurses were crossing their picket lines and with replacement workers already hired, Sutter staffing levels were about normal, said the representatives.
San Diego ear, nose and throat physician Ted Mazer recently billed the California's medical insurance program for the poor for a tonsillectomy. Mazer got a check for $168, which was too little to cover surgical costs. Legislators have cut the rates even further, and now Mazer has resolved to shut his doors to new Medi-Cal patients. Statewide, many other doctors report that they too are abandoning Medi-Cal. In response, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is expected to announce that a coalition of local governments and healthcare providers plans to file suit to force a rollback of the 10% cut in fees paid to doctors that was approved by California legislators.
By using competitive bids to purchase medical equipment and supplies in 10 geographic regions around the country, Medicare officials say $1 billion could be saved next year. Medicare has released the first estimates of how the competitive bidding process will affect prices for 10 categories of durable medical equipment and supplies such as oxygen concentrators, power wheelchairs and diabetes-testing strips. Overall, Medicare said it expects to see average savings of 26 percent.
