Healthcare Administration

Reusable medical devices were largely displaced by disposables when advances in plastic technology met the age of AIDS. But now, hospitals are re-using single-use items multiple times, aided by industrial reprocessing companies. The practice slashes supply costs. Usually the devices work fine, but sometimes they don't, with disastrous results. This story in The New York Times describes a heartbreaking case where a breathing tube tip damaged by reprocessing has permanently …

The Government Accountability Office issued two hospital-related reports Friday. The first praises proposed changes in Medicare reimbursement for hospitals. The second says large not-for-profit hospital systems are doing better at overseeing executive compensation. CMS is considering adjusting inpatient DRG payments using national average cost-to-charge ratios, rather than basing them strictly on cost data as is done for outpatient payments, a strategy that the GAO says makes sense. CMS's …

Hospitals around Chicago are sweating from more than the 100-degree heat. The Cook County tax assessor is doing a detailed examination of property owned by more than 50 not-for-profit hospitals. The Chicago Tribune reports that some have received unnerving letters that they read as threatening their tax-exempt status. State's Attorney Lisa Madigan is after not-for-profits in general to make sure they fulfill their charity care obligations. A downstate hospital's property tax …

California hospitals try to be earthquake-proof, while Gulf Coast hospitals worry about withstanding hurricanes. They think they've got problems. At Western Galilee Hospital in Israel, about five miles from the Lebanon border, patients are kept safe in a maze of underground bomb shelters set up to be a complete 200-bed hospital. Tunnels are wide enough to ferry patients by ambulance from the helicopter pad outside, and operating rooms sit above the facility in bomb-proof bunkers. Deputy …

Philadelphia-area hospitals are watching with anxiety as a new facility, built with prefab techniques, rises in Bucks County. The Philadelphia Inquirer compares it to building with Lego blocks. Built by Diversified Specialty Institutes of Nashville, TN, DSI Bucks County is the first new hospital in the area in more than a decade which is overbedded already, the Inquirer says. The new hospital will focus on breast care and will have 24 beds, six operating rooms, a cancer …

Five Staten Island doctors are suing the Health Insurance Plan of New York, claiming that HIP has interfered in their relationships with their patients. Their practice, the Staten Island Medical Group, was dissolved in May after being taken over by PivotHealth, a Brentwood, TN-based physician practice management company. PivotHealth, on contract with HIP, was providing administrative services to Staten Island Medical. The practice was subsequently re-formed as the Staten Island Physicians …

Less expensive equipment and partnerships with larger facilities are allowing smaller community hospitals to offer treatments once limited to the big city. But city hospitals may suffer as significant numbers of patients decide to stick closer to home. This story in The Flint Journal of Flint, MI analyzes the impact on larger providers as services like radiation therapy, angioplasty and cardiac rehab move out into rural areas. Patients sometimes drive an hour or more each way to …