By Andis Robeznieks |
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription After a brutal year that saw numerous projects put on the shelf, experts believe the healthcare construction industry is now on something of a rebound, but add that it probably won't be back in full swing until late this year at the very earliest. FULL STORY »
By Rebecca Vesely |
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription In Spartanburg County, S.C., one in 10 adults doesn't have any teeth. It's a shocking statistic that local providers learned just last year when they began assessing barriers to care among low-income uninsured. FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription As serious as the topic of patient safety is, I can't help but roll my eyes every time I hear a guest speaker at a healthcare conference or banquet say “it's like a jumbo jet crashing every day for a year” when they're putting into perspective how many people die annually from medical... FULL STORY »
By Gregg Blesch |
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription As Bruce Moilan took his life on an irreversible new course, he didn't tell his wife of more than 30 years or their three grown children. Nor did he, or could he, tell his colleagues at South Texas Health System, the target of his whistle-blower lawsuit that triggered a secret, multiyear federal... FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, a not-for-profit electronic health-record testing group, was part of a wave of organizations and individuals filing official public comments on two federal rules governing the meaningful use and certification of EHRs. Both rules... FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription The Food and Drug Administration and the Canadian regulatory agency Health Canada have each approved the importation of molybdenum-99 from the Warsaw, Poland-based Maria Research Reactor for use in producing the imaging isotope technetium-99m, according to a news release. The uranium byproduct will... FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription A jury in Harris County, Texas, rejected antitrust claims leveled against Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, Houston, by a group of physicians whose competing hospital in Houston failed in 2007. The investors in Houston Town & Country Hospital alleged that the eight-hospital system orchestrated... FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription HCA, Nashville, said in a securities filing that it issued $1.4 billion in 10½-year, senior secured notes, or 40% more than the $1 billion in notes it initially proposed to sell when it announced the issue earlier this month (March 8, p. 12). The bonds carry interest of 7.25%, payable in cash... FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription The Senate voted 62-36 to approve a $138 billion bill that would temporarily prevent Medicare payment cuts to doctors as well as extend federal Medicaid assistance and COBRA premium subsidies. Senate policymakers were pressing the House to go to conference on the bill. The House had passed an... FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription Virginia lawmakers passed legislation that aims to thwart any federal requirement that individuals buy health insurance. At least 29 statehouses are considering similar so-called Health Care Freedom Acts, but Virginia is the first to approve the bill (Feb. 15, p. 6). Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a... FULL STORY »
By Rebecca Vesely |
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription In Spartanburg County, S.C., one in 10 adults doesn't have any teeth. It's a shocking statistic that local providers learned just last year when they began assessing barriers to care among low-income uninsured. FULL STORY »
By Matthew DoBias |
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription Democrats on Capitol Hill inched closer to finishing a yearlong effort to reshape the U.S. healthcare system. House and Senate leaders completed a last-minute agreement that importantly includes a student loan measure, with rank-and-file members saying they were optimistic that a bill can pass this... FULL STORY »
By Jennifer Lubell |
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription An edict from the White House to expand fraud and abuse audits on a governmentwide basis puts the heat on hospitals to keep their shops in order and free of error, some industry experts claim. FULL STORY »
By Joe Carlson |
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription Investors and analysts last week looked favorably on the first half of a $1.3 billion bond offering for Ascension Health, bolstered in part by the not-for-profit healthcare giant's plans to close and consolidate operations in Southeast Michigan while strengthening operations in growth markets. FULL STORY »
By Melanie Evans |
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription Early rumblings of the 2008 credit crisis pushed healthcare borrowers into a torrent of debt refinancing that year. Now, hospitals and health systems are bracing for another crush of deals, as a raft of bank guarantees on bonds sold during the crisis expire next year. FULL STORY »
By Shawn Rhea |
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription St. Joseph Medical Center has sent letters to an additional 169 former patients notifying them that they might have undergone unnecessary stenting, according to a written statement issued by the Towson, Md., hospital. FULL STORY »
By Andis Robeznieks |
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription Healthcare delivery continues to be unsafe and will probably remain that way for some time unless medical schools make substantial improvements in how they teach patient safety, according to Unmet Needs: Teaching Physicians to Provide Safe Patient Care, a report issued by the National... FULL STORY »
By Jessica Zigmond |
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription Industry analysts last week evaluated the potential sale of publicly owned Psychiatric Solutions, calling the company a strong buyout candidate and saying a deal could trigger additional acquisition activity in the behavioral health segment. FULL STORY »
By Gregg Blesch |
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription The U.S. Justice Department may have signaled it's delivering what providers have long asked for: the stomach to scuttle health plan mergers. Or not. FULL STORY »
By Joe Carlson |
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription After recent controversies in Oregon and Texas where Catholic hospitals were caught performing surgical birth-control procedures that violate bishops' ethical principles, observers say they believe other Catholic hospitals are probably doing the same thing. FULL STORY »
By Gregg Blesch |
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription As Bruce Moilan took his life on an irreversible new course, he didn't tell his wife of more than 30 years or their three grown children. Nor did he, or could he, tell his colleagues at South Texas Health System, the target of his whistle-blower lawsuit that triggered a secret, multiyear federal... FULL STORY »
By Andis Robeznieks |
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription After a brutal year that saw numerous projects put on the shelf, experts believe the healthcare construction industry is now on something of a rebound, but add that it probably won't be back in full swing until late this year at the very earliest. FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription A total of 186 respondents participated in the 31st annual Construction & Design Survey. This year's total includes 97 architecture firms, 30 construction management companies, 27 general contractors, 21 development firms and 11 design-build firms. FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription SAN ANTONIO—The Veterans Affairs Department has awarded two contracts totaling $41.5 million to create a polytrauma center for the care of severely injured veterans and to improve existing wards at the Audie L. Murphy VA Medical Center in San Antonio. One award for $37.2 million will... FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription A federal jury convicted the owner of a medical clinic of healthcare fraud and money laundering for billing Medicare more than $3.4 million in the names of four physicians whose identities were stolen, the U.S. attorney's office announced. FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription Rush University Medical Center agreed to pay $1.5 million to resolve allegations that the 681-bed teaching hospital entered into prohibited lease arrangements for office space provided to two physicians and three practices, the U.S. Justice Department announced. FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription HARTFORD, Conn.—The University of Connecticut Health Center would expand and renovate its John Dempsey Hospital under a proposed network between the academic medical center and other Connecticut hospitals and health systems. The $352 million proposal—of which just $25 million has... FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription What do you think?Write us with your comments. Via e-mail, it's mhletters@crain.com; by fax, 312-280-3183. FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription As serious as the topic of patient safety is, I can't help but roll my eyes every time I hear a guest speaker at a healthcare conference or banquet say “it's like a jumbo jet crashing every day for a year” when they're putting into perspective how many people die annually from medical... FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ... must persuade her rank and file to swallow the Senate version of the healthcare bill and take it on faith that any objections will be mollified in a subsequent ‘reconciliation” bill. ... Instead of worrying about how a healthcare vote might play in... FULL STORY »
By Samuel Levey |
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription Nearly 50 years ago, Gerhard Hartman, Thomas McCarthy and I published our 1961 survey of all graduate programs in hospital administration in existence in the United States and Canada. FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription I propose raising the bar one step higher and model the CMS regulations and enforcement after those of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission... FULL STORY »
By Linda Knodel |
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription It was Sept. 9, 1975. I was a diploma nurse just one year out of college, and my supervisor tapped me on the shoulder and said, “I need you to cover for an upcoming maternity leave in a different department.” This temporary coverage in the chronic dialysis unit lasted more than 11 years... FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Free Access A list of the nation's healthcare spending by industry sector analyzed in aggregate. Source: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Published March 15, 2010. FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription Kevin DiLallo was named group vice president of Universal Health Services, King of Prussia, Pa., effective March 22, according to a news release. FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription James Mazzo, president of Abbott Medical Optics, took over as chairman of the Advanced Medical Technology Association, a medical-device industry lobby group, on March 3, according to an AdvaMed spokesman. Mazzo, 52, who will serve a two-year term, succeeds Michael Mussallem, chairman... FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription “We doctors are extremely good at rationalizing. Somehow we manage to figure out how the very best care just happens to be the care that brings us the most money.” FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription While Outliers is generally opposed to using jargon, we're compelled to share a few medical expressions patient-safety advocate Robert Wachter posted on his “Wachter's World” blog. (Wachter is widely credited with coining the term “hospitalist,” so much so that a... FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription “Drink two and call me in the morning,” is what Jason Ludlow, director of hospitality and retail sales at the Cooper Mountain Winery in Beaverton, Ore., says as he poured a sample of the 2007 pinot noir Doctors Reserve for Outliers and other visitors exploring the state's... FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription The Truth About Nursing has no issue with Mariah Carey's talent, but the Baltimore nurse advocacy group is scathing in its review of the pop singer's recent video for “Up Out My Face,” in which Carey appears dressed in a high-heeled, low-cut nurse costume. FULL STORY »
