Rochester General is among many hospitals across the country trying to turn down the volume at night. The initiative started a couple years ago but has been accelerated by research into the effect of noise on healing, and an emphasis under federal health reform on a range of quality measures. As a result, hospitals are paying more attention to patients’ stay as part of their overall care. Rochester General, like others, is educating its medical, housekeeping and transport staff on the importance of piping down.
Researchers at three U.S. practices found doctors' initial concerns about the extra time it would take to write out notes and answer patients' related questions didn't pan out. And almost everyone who got access to their notes for the study wanted to keep seeing them, even if some patients were concerned about privacy issues. "We were thrilled by what we learned," said Dr. Tom Delbanco, who worked on the study at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Delbanco led the study with Jan Walker, a nurse at Beth Israel. They and other researchers implemented the program at Beth Israel, Geisinger Health System in Northeast/Central Pennsylvania and Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.
West Penn Allegheny Health System officials say they were startled when, at an Aug. 30 meeting, Highmark president and CEO William Winkenwerder Jr. and his staff told them they wanted the health system to file for bankruptcy. The two parties had signed an affiliation agreement last November, with both sides saying they were committed to stabilizing and preserving the region's second-largest health system as it labored under nearly $1 billion in debt obligations. Since May 2011, Highmark had infused $400 million, half in loans and half in grants, to help WPAHS reopen West Penn's emergency department in Bloomfield and renovate Forbes Regional in Monroeville, where it is competing with the newly opened UPMC East hospital.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Congress' leading critic of nonprofit abuses, has asked three of North Carolina's largest hospitals to share information about their use of a rapidly growing discount drug program, saying they don’t appear to be passing along the "massive" savings to patients. Instead, the discounts appear to be subsidizing "bottom line operating margins," Grassley wrote in a letter that was emailed Friday to the heads of Carolinas Medical Center, Duke University Health System and UNC Hospitals. The letters cite a recent investigation by the The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer of Raleigh.
As of today, Medicare will start fining hospitals that have too many patients readmitted within 30 days of discharge due to complications. About two-thirds of the hospitals serving Medicare patients, or some 2,200 facilities, will be hit with penalties averaging around $125,000 per facility this coming year, according to government estimates. Data to assess the penalties have been collected and crunched, and Medicare has shared the results with individual hospitals. Medicare plans to post details online later in October, and people can look up how their community hospitals performed by using the agency's "Hospital Compare" website.
With a Monday target for submitting their lists of "essential health benefits" to the federal government, 15 states and the District of Columbia have made their choices and 17 more states are expected to do so in the next few weeks, according to consulting firm Avalere Health. The health law lists 10 broad categories of essential benefits. States have latitude within those categories, and so far nearly all have selected as a benchmark for minimum coverage one of the three most popular small group health plans available to residents now.