KNOXVILLE, Tenn.—The University of Tennessee Medical Center broke ground this month on its new cancer institute. The 100,000-square-foot facility will more than double the size of the current cancer institute. The institute is expected to cost $25 million to construct and equip. The building should take about a year to erect. All of the medical center's outpatient cancer services, including CT and PET scans, will be offered there. The building also will house a breast center, a chemotherapy infusion center and clinics for surgical, medical, radiation and gynecological oncology.

BALTIMORE—The Maryland Board of Physicians revoked the medical license of Dr. Mark Midei, who was accused of exaggerating his patients' artery blockages to justify cardiac stents. The allegations were among several issues resolved in a $22 million False Claims Act settlement paid last year by St. Joseph Medical Center, Towson, Md., where Midei was employed from 2008 to 2009. The board wrote in the decision that Midei's violations were “repeated and serious” and that he unnecessarily exposed patients to harm and increased the cost of their care. “The board has given little weight to the fact that Dr. Midei was not paid per stent inserted,” the board wrote. Midei testified, the board said, that “he understood he was a big generator of business for the hospital” and that the hospital's “goal was to hold onto the stent business that it saw slipping away.” The board will not accept an application for reinstatement for two years. Midei's attorney did not return requests for comment. St. Joseph mailed letters informing 585 of Midei's stent patients that subsequent review of their cases yielded different conclusions. Many of them have filed lawsuits against Midei and the hospital, and Midei is suing St. Joseph for defamation. Midei's volume of stent procedures also drew an investigation by the Senate Finance Committee, which concluded that unnecessary procedures he performed cost the government $6.6 million.

John Haupert

ATLANTA—A search committee for Atlanta's public, safety net provider has settled on a choice to fill its top leadership spot: John Haupert, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Parkland Health & Hospital System, a public system in Dallas. The board of Grady Memorial Hospital Corp., which controls Grady Memorial Health System, is set to vote Aug. 8 on the selection, and if approved, Haupert would start the job Oct. 8. The system's biggest component is Grady Memorial Hospital, which has 689 acute-care beds and 261 skilled-nursing beds. The system also operates six neighborhood health centers and a rehabilitation center. Grady's previous president and CEO was Michael Young, who left in June to become president and CEO of 599-bed PinnacleHealth in Harrisburg, Pa. Young was hired in 2008 by Grady's newly established independent operating corporation and was credited with turning around the struggling system, which turned a profit in 2009 but reported an $11.2 million loss in the first three months of 2011.

BETHESDA, Md.—Surgical Care Affiliates, a Birmingham, Ala.-based for-profit developer and operator of ambulatory surgery centers and surgical hospitals, has entered into an agreement to manage the operations of a Johns Hopkins Medicine-affiliated surgery center in Bethesda. Terms were not disclosed. Suburban Outpatient Surgery Center, located inside the Suburban Outpatient Medical Center, is part of the not-for-profit Suburban Hospital Healthcare System, which became affiliated with Johns Hopkins in 2009. According to a Surgical Care Affiliates news release, some 2,000 procedures are performed annually at the center, and SCA will implement its management systems there as well as launch new service lines and specialties. “We believe our management systems can improve surgical care in Maryland and other areas, and this is another step forward in SCA becoming the partner of choice for leading health systems,” Andrew Hayek, SCA president and CEO, said in a news release. In April, SCA entered into a similar agreement with Kentucky's not-for-profit Jewish Hospital & St. Mary's HealthCare system to manage two surgery centers in Louisville.

HOUSTON—Texas Children's Hospital and Scott & White Healthcare signed a 20-year affiliation that includes joint research, education and outreach programs. The partners will train emergency and operating room nurses to work in the Children's Hospital at Scott & White, which is scheduled to open later this year, according to a news release announcing the agreement. Texas Children's Hospital, a 474-bed hospital in Houston, and Scott & White, a five-hospital system based in Temple, Texas, last month launched a joint continuing medical education venture, according to the release. The agreement will introduce new clinical services at Scott & White, the news release said.