> Peter Adamo, CEO of Philadelphia-based Roxborough Memorial Hospital, believes his facility will be a late adopter when it comes to accountable care. In an interview with NewsWorks, he says that ACOs fit well in communities either with a sole provider or with mega systems that have closely clustered facilities. "We're easily 10 years away from something like that," Adamo says. Interview
> Hospital prices increased by two-tenths of a percent last month, and were 2.1 percent higher than at this time last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics; Producer Price Indices report, released this week. AHA News Now reports that, similar to the overall figure, the subgroup of general medical and surgical hospitals increased 0.2 percent in July, and was 2.3 percent higher than in July 2011. Brief
> Better antibiotic use, improved room-cleaning strategies and better standards of care all helped The Jewish Hospital-Mercy Health in Cincinnati reduce its Clostridium difficile (C. diff) rate by 50 percent over six months in 2009, a figure that has grown to 80 percent since, USA Today reports. "We weren't inventing anything new with this project," hospital infection control specialist Azalea Wedig tells the newspaper. "It was based on science, it was based on evidence, on best practices." Article
And Finally… In this story, "busy" is a synonym for "stupid." Article