hospital ceo

> It looks like a large percentage of Maryland residents approve of increasing health care coverage in the state by slapping a higher tax on cigarettes. Article

> Children's Hospital in Philadelphia plans to launch a special unit for mothers carrying a fetus with a known birth defect. …

Faced with substantial state budget cuts, the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health will stop accepting inpatient admissions to all state hospitals and psych units as of Wednesday. The state currently manages about 850 inpatient psych beds, but those are full. Clinicians will only be able to accept more patients when the patient population begins to recede. The closure comes in response to the elimination of 170 Department of Mental Health positions, taking place as part of Governor …

It's not often that you see a hospital CEO walk away from the lucrative, high-profile job to take on the backbreaking work of nursing. But that's just what former respiratory therapist and Milton Hospital CEO George Geary did. At age 56, he went to nursing school, and now, at age 59, is working overnight shifts at a Boston-area hospital as a green recruit. It's not that Geary failed at being a CEO--Milton Hospital has run in the black for 14 years--it's because he wants to be closer to patients. Article

> Bariatric patients could generate $1 billion in annual revenues for hospitals by 2010. To accommodate them, hospitals will need to buy new equipment that meets their needs. Release

> A group of Georgia's non-profit hospitals won a …

While it's tough getting doctors wired, that's far from the only issue in making electronic medical records as useful and powerful a tool as they could be. Even when hospitals succeed at getting physicians to adopt EMR technology, those records usually don't "talk" to records created by other health systems and hospitals, says Paul Levy, CEO of Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, in a recent blog entry. As he notes, the situation in Boston is a perfect example. His medical …

Denver hospitals and doctors are starting to work closely together to provide outpatient services, putting aside traditional rivalries in the interest of reaping profits on higher-margin care and avoiding costly competition. True, hospitals are continuing to pursue their own outpatient projects--Denver health system HealthOne, for example, runs a total of its own 11 ambulatory surgery centers--but many of the region's recent or upcoming hospital outpatient building projects include at …

Despite having the highest number of doctors per capita in the nation, Massachusetts is facing a shortage of primary care doctors, according to a report released by the Massachusetts Medical Society. Many physicians go into specialties, clinical work, academics and corporate positions rather than practicing primary medicine. Diminishing reimbursements, aging baby boomers and the high cost of medical school haven't helped the problem. "Demand for adult medicine is almost insatiable. We …

> The AARP released a report on pharmaceutical prices that notes that the cost of brand-name prescription drugs rose 6.5 percent in 2005. Article

> Years after September 11, a majority of those who survived the attack on the World Trade Centers are experiencing problems rangina from respiratory illness to severe mental health issues. …

> Iowa Methodist Medical Center settled a lawsuit involving a former patient who says a surgeon used a Medtronic pacemaker because administrators wanted to win a $1 million payment from the company. Report

> A media frenzy is shaping up after a pair of anesthesiologists scheduled to participate in an execution in California refused to participate, saying they could …

>  A series of articles in the Baltimore Sun this week questions how effectively the Maryland Board of Physicians is policing doctors in the state. Article

> San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced plans for a 75- to 100-bed medical center for the homeless. Supporters say the measure could take pressure off other hospitals in …