Jim Haughey, PhD, Chief Economist for Reed Construction Data, discusses how the recovery of the construction market nationwide affects hospitals and the economy overall.
Nashville will be home to the world's first medical trade center, state and city officials announced today.
"Tennessee will be home to an important new concept in the marketing and procurement of medical equipment, technology, and services," Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen said in a media release. "The healthcare industry is a significant economic engine for our state and this project expands that footprint, representing a major investment in our state's healthcare economy."
The Nashville Medical Trade Center, which will be located on the site of the existing downtown Nashville Convention Center, will be operated by Dallas-based Market Center Management Co., which will begin pre-leasing the proposed trade center's permanent exhibition space.
Development is contingent on MCM pre-leasing a significant amount of exhibit space and securing financing, as well as the approval of a new convention center by the Nashville Metropolitan Council. Developers estimate the cost of the project to be in the neighborhood of $250 million and estimate it will create approximately 2,700 new jobs.
"This project will create a large number of new jobs in our city right when we need them most," said Nashville Mayor Karl Dean. "In addition to building on Nashville's preeminence in the healthcare industry, the reuse of the Convention Center and the proposed improvements to the center's physical structure will be a significant contribution to our vital and robust downtown."
Bill Winsor, CEO of MCM, called Nashville "the perfect U.S. location for this international project."
"We're calling the Nashville Medical Trade Center a global healthcare marketplace because we envision healthcare providers from around the world coming to the city to learn about the latest medical technology and services."
MCM officials plan to construct a 12-story tower above the existing convention center with more than 1.5 million square feet of exhibit space, including permanent exhibit space for more than 600 medical equipment companies, display space for temporary trade shows, and a medical education and symposium center.
The project would bring the total available space at the Nashville Medical Trade Center to approximately 2 million square feet. The company is also exploring a possible public interaction center facing Broadway, such as a museum or a broadcast center devoted to healthcare issues.
If a decision is made on a new convention center in Nashville by early next year, construction on the Medical Trade Center could begin as early as the summer of 2010.
As the Senate begins the floor debate on the healthcare reform bill, one issue that will be threaded through the debate is how effective reform measures will be in containing healthcare costs.
In its review of the bill earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) said that enacting the Senate Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would result in a net reduction in federal budget deficits of $130 billion over the 2010-2019 period.
But are the cost-containing mechanisms there? In a media conference before the Thanksgiving holiday, Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag said the Senate bill moves in the cost-cutting direction, and cited a recent letter from a group of 23 economists supporting that direction by meeting four pillars of reform:
Deficit neutrality or budget neutrality over the next decade.
The excise tax on high end insurance policies that will raise revenues, but curtail growth of higher-cost plans
A Medicare commission to improve quality and contain costs.
Delivery system reforms aimed at efficiency
Nancy Ann DeParle, head of the White House's Office of Health Care Reform, went so far to say that the changes in the Senate bill will turn out to "be broader and deeper than what CBO and OMB predictions are.
In a separate move, the cost-containment discussion got an additional boost with release of a letter by Jonathan Gruber, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology economist, who said in a study that showing the Senate bill would slash hundreds of dollars from annual insurance premiums in the individual market.
In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), Gruber wrote that CBO also projected that the cost of an individual policy in the non group market would be $5,500 without reform, but $4,460 with reformmdash;or 20% less.
Critics of the cost-containment provisionsmdash;such as America's Health Insurance Plansmdash;have their doubts. Karen Ignagni, AHIP's president, said the Senate bill needs to go further to encourage systemwide cost-containment.
A new policy decision made by a Northern England hospital has struck a chord among a unique niche: florists. The 650-bed York Hospital announced it will ban flowers from all patient rooms beginning December 1 in an attempt to curb infections—and clutter.
"We've had a really significant focus on de-cluttering all our ward clinical areas over the past two or three months," says Libby McManus, chief nurse for York Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. "Quite often what happens is the room may be clean, but since it's untidy it gives the impression of not being clean."
Patient rooms at York Hospital can contain up to five beds, each with a chair and a locker, making space scarce. Nurses have been complaining about the nuisance of flowers for a long period of time, McManus says.
"In our high-risk areas we already have a ban on flowers and plants because patients are already at risk in those areas from the spores that flowers and plants carry," she says. "We decided to roll it out to the rest of the hospital because sometimes patients get numerous bouquets of flowers and because there's nowhere to put them and they get in the way."
Banning flowers in certain departments because of space restraints and germ concerns is common in many hospitals, but eliminating flowers entirely is rare, says Christine Nutty RN, MSN, CIC, president of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology.
"The majority of the ICUs and cardiac care units ban flowers and part of that is for lack of space," she says. "They have so much equipment in the critical care unit they do restrict the flowers being brought in. It's for cleanliness as well as a space issue."
Before making the decision to ban flowers, York Hospital administrators surveyed patients for their opinions. They focused on maternity patients, who tended to receive the most flowers, and found that the majority wouldn't mind receiving their flowers at home rather than the hospital.
"Everyone wants to buy mum flowers, but mum doesn't stay in hospital that long anymore," McManus says. "Once she has a baby she's home within hours, so we decided it'd be a good idea for people to enjoy their flowers for longer at home."
Though this measure has been received well by patients in York, Nutty says similar policies are not likely to be implemented in the U.S. anytime soon.
"I think it's unlikely that they would ban them in all settings because it's such an uplifting thing for patients that come into the hospital," she says. "They go into such emotional stress when they're in the hospital and a lot of hospitals work very hard to make that person feel that they are at home. They want them to have an environment that is pleasing and pretty, so they allow the flowers."
Flowers and plants aren't completely absent from York Hospital, however; there is plenty of greenery in the chapel and outdoor courtyards.
"We want to make sure that patients have access to these kinds of things, but not right at their bedside," McManus says. "It's a local decision we've decided to make and we'll see how it goes."
A CPA with more than 25 years experience in healthcare finance has been named CFO for Wellmont Health System. Elizabeth Ward will join Wellmont's executive leadership team Jan. 11. She will succeed Truman Esmond, who served as the health system's interim CFO since November 2008.
Tenet Healthcare Corp. and its affiliates Hilton Head Hospital and Coastal Carolina Hospital announced the appointment of new CEOs. Mark O'Neil Jr. became market CEO of Hilton Head Regional Healthcare, which includes Hilton Head Hospital, Coastal Carolina Hospital, and associated outpatient centers, effective Nov. 30. William J. Masterton joins Coastal Carolina Hospital as its CEO and report directly to O'Neil.
John Hirsch, MD, resigned this week as CEO of Forest Park Hospital after less than a year on the job. The stint as CEO was Hirsch's second at the hospital, having also served in the role from December 2004 to August 2005. Prior to his first run as CEO, Hirsch failed in an attempt with other physicians to purchase the hospital. Success Healthcare LLC of Boca Raton, FL, purchased Forest Park and St. Alexius hospitals of St. Louis last December from Envision Hospital Corp. of Arizona. The company named Jim O'Keefe as interim CEO of Forest Park. O'Keefe previously worked as an executive at BH1 and Baptist Hospital in Nashville, TN. Most recently O'Keefe served as interim CFO of Cape Cod Healthcare in Massachusetts.
James Utterback has been named CEO of M2Gen, a wholly owned for-profit subsidiary of Moffitt Cancer Center, effective Dec. 7. Utterback will be responsible for developing and implementing effective growth strategies, determining commercialization opportunities, and establishing and executing pharmaceutical company-funded clinical trials.
Patty White, RN, has been named the new president/CEO of Chandler Regional Medical Center, a Catholic Healthcare West hospital. White will begin the transition immediately from her role as COO at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, and took on the new role at Chandler Regional full-time as of Nov. 30. She replaces David Covert, who went to Charlotte, NC-based MedCath Corp. as senior vice president in May. Mark Kem, CFO of Chandler Regional, has served as interim president for the past six months.
HCA has named Joseph A. Sowell, III, as senior vice president/chief development officer, effective Dec. 1. Currently a senior partner at Nashville-based healthcare law firm Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, Sowell, 53, will be responsible for all activities related to mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures for HCA, which operates 163 hospitals and 105 ambulatory surgery centers in 20 states and England.
