New York Presbyterian Hospital

FL medical center expects operating losses to double; Two TN hospitals agree to pay $7.9 million for overbilling Medicare;

Anne Zieger — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:38:30 -0500

> Miami Beach's Mount Sinai Medical Center is telling investors that it expects its operating losses to double this year, and go up even more next year. Article

> Two West Tennessee hospitals have agreed to pay a $7.9 million settlement for overbilling Medicare. Article

> The newest member of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors is already trying to get Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital reopened after it was closed last year for failing to meet minimum care requirements. Article

> A hospital worker at New York Presbyterian Hospital was suspended after the employee failed to report NFL star Plaxico Burress's self-inflicted gunshot wound. Article

And Finally... If you can't afford Christmas decorations, the solution is not to steal them from your neighbors. Article

Adaptibility important for the future of hospitals

Dan Bowman — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:26:31 -0500

What are hospitals of the future going to have to do to keep up with increasing challenges in the field of healthcare? According to a new whitepaper put out by The Joint Commission entitled Health Care at the Crossroads: Guiding Principles for the Development of the Hospital of the Future, a lot.

Five areas in which hospitals will have to take action, according to the report, are economic viability, adoption of technology, patient-centered care, staffing and hospital design. Economically, hospitals will be expected to "increase efficiency and reduce costs," among other things. Technologically, hospitals will have to make changes that can reduce the workload, while at the same time being easily integrated. "The Joint Commission has brought together broad expertise in health care to point to directions for optimizing health care in hospitals," said Dr. Herbert Pardes, president and CEO of New York Presbyterian Hospital. "Hospitals have an enduring role in the delivery of health care and have provided major contributions to enhancing the treatment of disease."

With healthcare costs at an all-time high and the diversity of new patient complications, Dr. Mark R. Chassin, president of The Joint Commission, hospitals will continue to be under scrutiny, even in the best of times.

"As they have been in the past, hospitals must be equally transformative as the future unfolds," Chassin said. "The Joint Commission urges hospitals and public policymakers to use the principles in this report to achieve that aim."

For more on The Joint Commission's whitepaper:
- view the press release
- check out the whitepaper

NY hospital worker charged with massive file theft

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 06:59:56 -0400

A New York hospital employee was charged this weekend with stealing almost 50,000 patient files and selling some of them. The worker, patient admissions representative Dwight McPherson, was accused of stealing records from New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center starting in March 2006 on. The files stolen probably contained little or no medical information, but did include patient names, phone numbers and Social Security numbers--fertile ground for identity theft. McPherson previously had told investigators that a Brooklyn man offered him money in exchange for personal information on male patients born between 1950 and 1970. McPherson then sold the man 1,000 files for $750. He also admitted to selling another 1,000 patient documents to a different man. Hospital officials now are attempting to contact patients whose records were stolen.

To learn more about the file theft:
- read this New York Times piece

Poll Question: What are your thoughts on the trend of personal information being leaked?