hospital administrators

Evidence is piling up, in study after study, that it just makes sense to limit work shifts for residents and interns. In today's example, which comes from the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers at Yale-New Haven Hospital collected data on treatment and outcomes …

It's the usual story: hospitals say they are paying their CEOs what they feel they must, and consumers don't like the numbers. This time the tale is playing out in Connecticut, where a newspaper analysis of state CEO salaries has highlighted some big increases. Last year, eight Connecticut hospital administrators earned more than $1 million, according to an analysis of state data by the Hartford Courant. The highest paid was Middlesex Hospital CEO Robert Kiely, whose compensation …

Seven out of every eight hospital administrators believe that the problem of overcrowding has not subsided in the past year, and in many cases has gotten worse, according to a survey by the American College of Emergency Physicians and by patient-flow software vendor TeleTracking. A full 60 percent report that the overcrowding has forced their facilities to divert patients in need of urgent or emergent care. And although more than 70 percent of hospitals responding to the survey have a …

Over the past year, regulators kept up the pressure on voluntary hospitals to prove that they were providing a reasonable level of charity care. Not only did the IRS continue to scrutinize tax-exempt hospitals, state tax authorities and federal legislators got their licks in, too. Overall, over the …

As in many other states, a group of Ohio employers have gotten together and begun issuing quality ratings for the state's hospitals. And as is often the case, the report has drawn much criticism from hospital administrators. This is the third year in a row that the group, the Employers Health Coalition of Ohio, has issued its Consumer Guide to Ohio Hospital Quality. The report, which grades 153 of the state's hospitals on a five-star scale, uses key three quality indicators to …

Hospital-physician partnerships just ain't what they used to be. With physicians investing in competing entities like ambulatory surgical centers and refusing to take emergency department call without generous extras, hospital administrators are getting exasperated with them. And with independent physicians losing out to hospitalists, and in some cases, seldom visiting the hospital at all, many don't get a warm fuzzy feeling about their local hospital administrators either. Unfortunately, …

> CIGNA plans to buy a regional Tennessee health plan. Article

>  The Service Employees International Union is accusing Universal Health Services' behavioral health division of understaffing and poor case management, allegedly leading to unsafe conditions for patients. …

Given the growing trend toward high-deductible, consumer-driven health--and larger co-pay requirements--patients are paying closer attention to their medical bills. And when they're hit with an unexpectedly large bill from a medical clinic deemed "hospital based," some are hitting the roof. Hospital administrators say that they need to charge facility fees to cover their overall operational costs. But industry attorneys say that this practice is likely to face significant challenges in …

The planned sale of an Atlanta-area hospital has been postponed until the end of 2006, as hospital administrators work to provide the Federal Trade Commission with the more than 10 years of physician and patient utilization data the agency has requested. While the proposed sale of 143-bed Newnan Hospital to Piedmont Healthcare has gotten approval from the state's attorney general, the FTC has expressed concern about the deal, given that Newnan is the only hospital in Coweta County. …

Community hospitals in Massachusetts are alarmed by the current trend of well-known Boston hospitals extending their services into the suburbs. Tufts-New England Medical Center, New England Baptist Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have all planned to open suburban offices or have done so already. This could spell big trouble for lesser-known community hospitals. "With their strong brand names and reputations for excellence, many expect they …