Orlando, FL, hospitals see labor and delivery as big business and are competing to make their rooms feel less like an infirmary and more like a resort. Two years ago, Orlando Health's Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies opened a $112 million ultra-contemporary tower that intensified the local chase to attract expectant mothers. Now Florida Hospital, operated by Adventist Health System, feels pressure to step up its game. Florida Hospital invested more than $16 million last year to refurbish its maternity unit in Winter Park and another $4 million at its Orlando hospital by October. By next year, Florida Hospital Orlando's pediatric unit will be the first hospital to bear the Disney name thanks to a $10 million donation from Walt Disney World.
Kaiser Permanente announced it's moving ahead with a fifth year of its ubiquitous Thrive advertising campaign, a multi-media effort with an annual budget this year of $50 million. The latest incarnation will debut during coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, China. Other new ads will launch next month, and the latest Thrive effort will focus more on the Internet and other "non-traditional" venues than in prior years. The television, radio, print and outdoor advertisements focus on topics such as prevention, wellness, and "thriving" at every stage of life, according to Kaiser.
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt is attempting to ease concerns that the Bush administration is planning to issue new rules that would limit women's access to birth control. Under federal law, institutions may not discriminate against individuals who refuse to perform abortions or provide a referral for one. The Health and Human Services Department is considering requiring healthcare providers and organizations to certify their compliance with the law. Leavitt said he wants the regulation to address the legal right that doctors, nurses, and others have to practice according to their conscience.
The vast majority of Americans are dissatisfied with the U.S. healthcare system, and 82% think it needs to be overhauled, according to a survey commissioned by The Commonwealth Fund. The survey, titled Public Views on U.S. Health Care System Organization: A Call for New Directions, questioned 1,004 adults on their views of the U.S. healthcare system. Nine out of 10 people surveyed said the presidential candidates should propose reforms that would improve the quality of healthcare, ensure that all Americans have affordable care, and reduce the number of uninsured.
The Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange are locked in a clash with a union that wants to organize at a chain of hospitals the nuns operate throughout California. Service Employees International Union United Healthcare Workers-West is seeking to unionize more than 8,000 caregivers, as well as cafeteria workers and X-ray technicians, at five St. Joseph Health System hospitals—three in Orange County and two in Northern California. The union has alleged a variety of anti-union tactics, which the nuns have denied.
High gasoline prices and Dallas' revitalized downtown have lured Tenet Healthcare Corp. to downtown Dallas from its current offices in the city's north suburbs. About 500 Tenet employees will make the move by the end of next year. Tenet president and chief executive Trevor Fetter credits the rail system and the appeal of a more urban location for his decision to shift the company's head office.
Authorities say a program aimed at preventing falls among older Connecticut residents appears to be helping reduce injuries and lowering medical costs. A study found an 11% drop between 2001 and 2004 in the use of fall-related medical services in Hartford County.
The drop came during a campaign in which practitioners in home healthcare services, senior centers, and outpatient rehabilitation programs educated older residents about specific ways to help prevent falls. The reduction translates to about 1,800 fewer emergency department visits or hospital admissions in Hartford County and $21 million less in acute care costs, the study found.
As the ethnic profile of the United States continues to diversify, some states are trying to assure that healthcare providers are trained in "cultural competency." A 2007 New Mexico law requires higher education institutions with health education programs provide such training. New Jersey and California are among a handful of states with similar measures in place.
There's been a lot of debate lately about whether the conditions on CMS' no-pay list are preventable in every case. Some wonder whether the agency is asking the impossible.
But the discussion shouldn't be about whether the agency is asking healthcare organizations to reinvent the wheel, says Gene Burke, vice president and executive medical director of clinical effectiveness at Sentara Healthcare in Virginia. It should be about the patients who will be better served with these regulations.
"If you look at the document that CMS released... they bring up the fact that people have said that they don't know they're all preventable. CMS acknowledges that, and says that in future rule making, it will work to identify procedures that can be considered reasonably preventable," Burke says.
In other words, CMS realizes that the three additions to the no-pay list—deep vein thrombosis, surgical site infections resulting from elective orthopedic or bariatric procedures, and complications from poor blood sugar control—will still occasionally occur, but it is using its influence to force hospitals to put procedures and processes in place that will do everything reasonable to prevent it.
"Will we be able to eliminate all infections? Not likely," Burke says. "Should we work to get as close to zero as we possibly can? Yes. We may not know exactly how much of a reduction we can achieve, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't work at it."
Beyond the work that will go into "reasonably preventing" these conditions, Burke encourages his fellow quality and safety executives to see opportunity, as well. Monitoring the blood sugar levels of patients presents all organizations the opportunity to not only prevent complications, but also educate patients who are at risk for diabetes about proper nutrition and exercise.
"While we can't force people to do the right thing, we can make a greater effort to educate them," he says.
As diabetes reaches epidemic proportions in our country, Burke hopes that CMS' requirements will refocus healthcare's attention on a problem that carries very high risk for patients.
"Because diabetes is so frequent a problem, caregivers at every level have lost an appreciation for just how important hypoglycemic management is," he says. "Its frequency has dulled our appreciation of that."
And while extra efforts will have to be made in every hospital to ensure that hospitals are eligible to receive every penny of their Medicare reimbursement, Burke says doing everything reasonable to prevent the 11 no-pay conditions from occurring will more than make up for the time and money spent.
"Will it be a challenge? Absolutely. I for one am confident that the savings achieved by the avoidance of complications should more than offset the cost of the effort," he says.
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Investigators have uncovered a massive scheme to defraud taxpayer-funded healthcare programs of millions of dollars by recruiting homeless patients for unnecessary medical services in California. The enterprise churned thousands of indigents through hospitals over the last four years and billed Medicare and Medi-Cal for costly and unjustified medical procedures, federal, state, and local investigators said. After raids on three hospitals in Los Angeles and Orange counties, one hospital chief executive faces criminal charges and executives at two other facilities were accused of fraudulent business practices in a related civil lawsuit filed by Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo.
