Cleveland Hospitals’ Tax Exemptions Called Into Question With Building Boom, High Revenues
Nonprofit private hospital systems are required to provide what is known as a community benefit in order to maintain tax-exempt status. But in places like Cleveland, where the medical systems are among the largest employers and help drive the economy, some community advocates would like to see them also provide money to help fund services. News services also report on other hospital news from around the country.
Cleveland Plain Dealer:
Big 3 Hospitals Say Community Benefits Equal $1.3 Billion In Tradeoff For Tax Exemption
From MetroHealth's massive $946-million transformation project on West 25th Street to the Cleveland Clinic's $515-million on-site health education campus to University Hospitals' new $24-million women and children's center in Midtown, each of the systems are using their financial success to expand their footprint. .... as nonprofit entities, taxes aren't levied on most of their property. In a place like Cuyahoga County, where rates of infant mortality, opioid addiction and chronic illness are perpetually high, critics question if the healthcare behemoths are doing their part for the community. Hospitals, on the other hand, say the millions they spend each year on community health outreach and caring for the county's poorest more than makes up for forgone property taxes. (Christ, 8/19)
Nashville Tennessean:
Tennessee Hospitals Face Shortages In Vital Drugs And Supplies
For five days in May, ambulances in Putnam County, Tennessee, lacked a tool that acts as the first line of defense against heart attacks and other emergencies: basic adrenaline. "It comes in a different form, a different concentration. But we were out of that, too," said Sullivan Smith, medical director for the county's EMS team. "That's the first drug you give when somebody's heart stops. That's the drug you give when you have that life-threatening allergic reaction to a bee sting or peanut allergy." (Field, 8/17)
The Wall Street Journal:
Regulators Threaten Funding Of Indian Health Hospital In South Dakota
An intoxicated 12-year-old girl tried to strangle herself with a call-light cord and shoe laces after being left alone last month at a hospital on the Rosebud Sioux reservation. A mentally disturbed 35-year-old man died of cardiac arrest the next day at the same hospital after being restrained by medical staff, who didn’t follow proper procedures. These incidents, cited in a federal report released Friday, were among the reasons that regulators are threatening to withdraw critical funding from the South Dakota facility, operated by the U.S. Indian Health Service. (Frosch, 8/17)
Sioux Falls (S.D.) Argus Leader:
Federal Report Reveals Patient Died Needlessly In South Dakota IHS Hospital
The notice comes more than two years after the Rosebud Indian Health Service hospital was cited for similar shortcomings, which forced the agency that runs it to shut down the emergency room for seven months and close other departments. In the months since, IHS closed down the hospital's surgical and obstetrics and gynecology units. And the emergency department has again come under federal scrutiny. Hospital administrators said they had a plan in place to resolve the problems and in a letter to federal officials pointed to perceived inaccuracies in the assessment. (Ferguson, 8/17)
ProPublica/Houston Chronicle:
St. Luke’s Heart Transplant Program To Lose Medicare Funding Today
The heart transplant program at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center is set to lose federal funding today, a serious blow to a Houston hospital long regarded as one of the nation’s best for cardiac surgery. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced in June that it would cut off funding for heart transplants this month after concluding that the hospital had not done enough to correct issues that led to a high rate of patient deaths in recent years. (Ornstein and Hixenbaugh, 8/17)
Kansas City Star:
Shawnee Mission Medical Center Asks About Spiritual Health
Questions like: Do you have any spiritual beliefs that would influence your care? Do you have someone who loves you? Do you have something that brings you joy? Do you have a sense of peace today? The questions are part of a rebranding by Shawnee Mission Medical Center’s parent organization, Adventist Health System, as it seeks to refocus on its faith-based roots. (Marso, 8/18)
NPR:
Why Hospitals Are Getting Into The Real Estate Business
But why is a hospital getting into the housing business? A body of evidence points to a link between living in areas of concentrated poverty and health. It's something doctors at Nationwide Children's were seeing first-hand. "It's remarkably frustrating as a physician to see patients over and over and over again from these very high-risk communities," says Dr. Kelly Kelleher, director of the Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice at Nationwide Children's Hospital. "Houses that are falling apart, plumbing problems, mold, rat infestations, violence. You see 25 kids a day, and maybe two-thirds of them are in these desperate straits." (Chisholm, 8/19)
The Star Tribune:
Mayo Patient's 'Escape' Amplifies Growing Problem
A carefully plotted escape from Mayo Clinic last year — by a young woman and her parents who clashed with her doctors — was a bizarre example of a growing concern: patients leaving hospitals against medical advice. Few such incidents are as dramatic as the one reported this week by CNN, in which a southern Minnesota woman named Alyssa Gilderhus was taken from her room under false pretenses by her stepfather, who wheeled her to the parking lot and then hustled her into the family car before nurses could stop him. (Olson, 8/19)
ABC News:
Nurse Sues Hospital, Saying It Obeyed Patient Who Didn't Want A Black Caregiver
A Michigan nurse is suing the hospital she works at for racial discrimination after it allegedly complied with the request of a patient who said she didn't want to be looked after by an African-American woman and used an expletive to describe her. ... When Williams, who is black, reported the incident to a supervisor, expecting her to reject the patient's request, the supervisor instead forbade Williams from going into the room again and replaced her with a white nurse, according to the complaint. (Biswas, 8/16)
WBUR:
Boston Children's Hospital Constructs Penis For Transgender Man — A First In Mass.
With the surgery center, Children's is now the first hospital in Massachusetts to offer phalloplasty, and said it is the only pediatric hospital in the U.S. where patients can get this procedure. ... Children's is prepared for an angry response from those who believe the hospital's role should be to help patients who are uncomfortable with their body learn to live in it. (Bebinger, 8/17)
Dallas Morning News:
Surgeon Admits Role In Million-Dollar Kickback Scheme Involving Dallas Hospital
A Mesquite physician has admitted his role in an alleged $200 million health care fraud involving a defunct Dallas hospital. Dr. Wade Barker, a bariatric surgeon, co-founded Forest Park Medical Center and sat on its board of directors, court records say. He filed papers on Thursday, agreeing to plead guilty to conspiracy to pay and receive health care bribes and kickbacks in connection with the bankrupt hospital. (Krause, 8/18)
