rural hospitals

Press Release: Patients broadly define medical ‘errors’

One Georgia consultant argues that cheap generic drugs a la Wal-Mart and retail clinics will lead to "chaos" in the healthcare system. With many hospitals, particularly rural hospitals, on the edge financially, changes in consumer health services uptake could doom some hospitals to extinction, he suggests. Article

According to a new Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) study, over half of U.S. hospitals are facing financial struggles. Rural hospitals and those not affiliated with a health system--almost half of hospitals--are particularly at risk from competitors. Financial pitfalls come from many directions, including competition from doctor-owned facilities, lower government reimbursement rates, high debt and spending on necessary infrastructure and IT improvements. Some hospitals …

> Humana shares fell on Friday after a prominent Credit Suisse analyst said the company's problems enrolling recipients into Medicare Part D may cause potential customers to move to other plans. Article

> The Center for Science in the Public Interest released a report that concludes that most of the top hospitals in the country are doing little anything about high levels of trans fat in the …

> President Bush has been handed a great opportunity to make changes to the healthcare system. It is tempting to imagine what his predecessors might have done if placed in the same situation. Blog

> The approval of a new form of inhalable insulin last week may mark the beginning of a new era in diabetes care, but the real problem …

> CDC awarded BearingPoint a $9.8 million contract to support the National Center for Public Health Informatics, a unit of the CDC. Release

> HHS released version 2 of its Family Health Portrait system. The Web-based system allows users to create a record of their family health history, a process which can pinpoint potential problems. Web site

> The …

Spending on healthcare information technology will grow at a rate of 11 percent per year over the next five years, according to a new market research report by Kalorama Information. By 2009 sales of HIT services and products should reach $38 billion. The report cautions, however, that the US government lacks "a coherent program of support" for healthcare IT investment.

- see this article from Government Health …

> A legal challenge to HCA's sale of five of its rural hospitals in West Virgina and Virgina to LifePoint has forced a delay in the transaction, the company said. Article (Wall Street Journal sub. req.)

> The American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress heard a warning that HIV and Hepatitis C infection rates have soared at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Nearly one-third of ER admissions tested positive for …

Lawyers representing a group of patients pursuing malpractice action against a West Virginia osteopath said HCA is trying to dodge a financial bullet by selling off all of its hospitals in the state to LifePoint Hospitals for $330 million. The group argues that the Nashville-based chain only announced plans to sell the four hospitals involved after it learned that a West Virginia court intended to set aside state malpractice caps in the case, potentially leaving it liable for hundreds of …

Hospitals and Health Networks has released its annual ranking of the most-wired hospitals in the US. The journal also ranks the 25 most-improved, most-wireless and most-wired small and rural hospitals. Most wired hospitals are much more likely to have most of their physicians using CPOE and medication alert systems -- 41 percent versus 27 percent for all hospitals surveyed and 8 percent for the least-wired. Incidentally, these numbers seem to significantly overstate the accepted …