Birmingham-based St. Vincent's East has won emergency approval to open an 80-bed psychiatric unit at the hospital. The approval will have to be ratified by the full State Certificate of Need Review Board. Two other Birmingham hospitals—Hillcrest Hospital and Trinity Medical Center—have opposed the project, saying it's not needed. St. Vincent's East, however, said it was needed before Physicians Medical Center Carraway closed and is even more important now that the large provider of psychiatric services has shut its doors.
An administrative law judge has confirmed a ruling allowing a joint venture of Adventist Health System and University Community Health to build a new hospital in Wesley Chapel, FL. The joint venture, Pasco Pinellas Hillsborough Community Health System, plans to build a $121 million, 80-bed acute care hospital named Wesley Chapel Medical Center.
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center plans to build a new, seven-story hospital in Monroeville. According to a filing with the local planning commission, UPMC plans a 334,000-square-foot hospital and a parking garage on 16 acres. The plans also include an emergency room and a cancer center.
Mayo Clinic is closing its 100-person Mayo Clinical Trial Services because of anticipated future losses and a change in business strategy. The clinic says the clinical trials unit is no longer accepting new contracts and that 30 employees' jobs will end immediately. Another 27 positions will be eliminated in 2009.
Joseph W. "Chip" Marshall, president and chief executive officer of the Philadelphia-based Temple University Health System, has announced he is stepping down after seven years in the job. The Temple system has 7,500 employees and annual revenue of about $1 billion. It includes Temple University, Jeanes and Northeastern hospitals and Temple's Episcopal Campus. It operates in a particularly challenging financial arena, because a high percentage of its patients are covered by Medicaid. Temple representatives said patient volume this year was lower than predicted, a problem the system was addressing by recruiting more physicians.
After the election, there will be at least 14 MDs in the 111th Congress, a pickup of two seats from the current session, according to the American Medical Association. Ten of the doctors are Republicans and four are Democrats. But some remain skeptical that they will band together to overcome party differences and lead the nation toward healthcare reform.
Brentwood, TN-based LifePoint Hospitals Inc.’s third-quarter net income slid 60% on charges related to the planned sale of two hospitals, though revenue rose and the hospital operator reduced bad-debt levels. President and Chief Executive William F. Carpenter III said LifePoint remains "well positioned with a strong balance sheet, ample liquidity and moderate leverage," as the company expands, improves services, and recruits more physicians. LifePoint reported net income of $11.4 million, or 22 cents a share, down from $28.2 million, or 49 cents a share, a year earlier.
At the core of every doctor’s training is the internship, that first year of residency. New York Times contributor Pauline W. Chen, MD, says that negative reinforcement during those early years taught her to be a cautious and conscientious doctor, and her teachers rarely offered praised for good work and never allowed her to forget errors. But now, Chen wonders if emphasizing the negatives—what not to do and the terrible personal repercussions—is necessarily the best way to go about teaching professionalism.
The struggle between Washington, DC-based Children's National Medical Center and the parents of a 12-year-old boy with brain cancer drew national attention In court papers, the hospital says treating him is "offensive to good medical ethics" because the boy has no brain activity. But the hospital has received nearly 200 e-mails and phone calls, mostly from New York residents, pleading to keep the youth on the ventilator and the intravenous drugs that are powering his respiratory and circulatory systems.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has extended its deadline for banning faxed prescriptions by three years, moving the Jan. 1, 2009, deadline to Jan. 1, 2012. The deadline change is included in the 2009 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule announced by CMS on Oct. 30. The agency reversed its position "in the interest of patient care and safety and to encourage prescribers and dispensers to adopt e-prescribing," according to a release.
