Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Ga. Rural Hospitals Seek Partnerships To Survive Financial Challenges; Serious Mistakes Made At D.C.'s United Medical Center Led To OB Ward Shutdown
Georgia Health News: Seeking Partnerships Is A Survival Strategy For Rural Hospitals
“Looking for a partner’’ seems like a theme best suited to a high school dance or a dating website. That phrasing, though, is increasingly used in health care to describe financially strapped hospitals’ efforts to seek a combination with a system that has a better bottom line. (Miller, 8/14)
The Washington Post: Dangerous Mistakes Led To Shutdown Of United Medical Center Obstetrics Ward
D.C. regulators ordered the only full-service hospital in Southeast Washington to stop delivering babies last week because of dangerous mistakes the hospital’s staff made with multiple pregnant women and newborns, a letter obtained by The Washington Post shows. In one case, the hospital’s staff members did not take critical steps to prevent the transmission of HIV from an infected mother to her newborn .... In another, a morbidly obese woman who was about 35 weeks pregnant and had come to the hospital with trouble breathing was not properly monitored or treated, despite a history of potentially fatal blood-pressure problems. (Jamison and Nirappil, 8/14)
Modern Healthcare: C-Suite Pay Raises Target Transformational Healthcare Leaders
Hospital and health system executives' compensation continues to soar and will likely maintain that pace as organizations search for a narrowing set of qualified executives to lead more complex operations across a consolidating healthcare landscape. The most significant annual pay hikes are being doled out to executives who are believed to be best qualified to navigate the path to a system that increasingly favors value over volume. Incentive packages tend to focus on systemwide metrics, including reducing variation in care and unnecessary procedures, patient satisfaction and other measures that follow new reimbursement models. (Kacik, 8/14)
KCUR: Kansas Official To Outline Privatization Plan For Osawatomie State Hospital
One way or another, Tim Keck wants to replace the state’s aging Osawatomie State Hospital with a new mental health treatment facility. Though he is meeting with some resistance, the secretary of the Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services is pushing lawmakers to consider privatizing the state-run psychiatric hospital, which in recent years has been beset by operational problems. On Tuesday Keck will outline a privatization plan submitted by a Tennessee-based company to stakeholders and legislators during a 1 p.m. meeting at hospital’s administration building. (McLean, 8/14)
Wyoming Public Radio: Wyoming Hospitals Surveyed For Safety, Quality
Twelve hospitals across the state participated in a survey by the Leapfrog Group, which works with the Wyoming Business Coalition on Health to evaluate providers in the state. ...According to Wyoming’s Leapfrog Program Manager Linda Witko, encouraging providers to evaluate the safety and quality of their facilities will lower the cost of health care by reducing accidents and misdiagnoses. (Elder, 8/14)
KCUR: Work By Kansas City Artists Enhances KU Medical Center's New Education Building
Amid its ultramodern lecture halls, the University of Kansas Medical Center's new health education building is also a showcase for several Kansas City artists. University leaders say the $82 million facility at the corner of 39th Street and Rainbow Boulevard, designed by Helix Architecture + Design, was shaped with student engagement in mind. But the years-long project also included formation of the University of Kansas Medical Center Art Commission. Saralyn Reece Hardy, director of KU's Spencer Museum of Art, and Leesa Fanning, contemporary art curator at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, were among the architects and university administrators charged with locating artists for the project. (Onianwa, 8/14)
