By Modern Healthcare | May 05, 2012
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CHICAGO—Children's Memorial Hospital will give the public sneak peaks of its new $915 million, 23-floor replacement hospital this month. The Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago is set to open June 9, built in part thanks to a $100 million donation from the facility's namesakes. Officials for years have complained that they have outgrown the old 245-bed hospital, which stood on Chicago's North Side Lincoln Park neighborhood, and in 2004 the hospital board approved construction of a replacement facility. All rooms in the new facility will be private and each of the... FULL STORY »
By Beth Kutscher | April 28, 2012
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With a deal in place to acquire nearby Creighton University Medical Center, Alegent Health could soon increase its dominance in the Omaha, Neb., market.The takeover would consolidate four major hospital players into three and give Alegent roughly half of the adult acute-care market. FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | April 28, 2012
| Print Magazine
CHICAGO—The Cook County Board of Review denied Northwestern Memorial HealthCare's appeal of Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios' decision to put Prentice Women's Hospital on the property tax rolls, according to a financial disclosure filed last week by the Chicago-based hospital system. Last year, the Illinois Department of Revenue denied the hospital tax-exempt status, beginning in 2007, in part because Prentice did not provide sufficient charity care. Northwestern has appealed the Revenue Department's decision, but nonetheless, Berrios in October moved to start taxing the... FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | April 21, 2012
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SPRINGFIELD, Ill.—Fitch Ratings said Illinois' review of not-for-profit hospital property tax breaks could be a “negative credit development” for some of the state's healthcare borrowers. Fifteen unidentified hospitals are under review by the Illinois Department of Revenue, Fitch said in a newly released report. The New York-based ratings agency rates 19 hospitals and health systems in the state, the report said. Fitch analysts will separately evaluate each hospital's credit risk based on its property assessment, tax rate, credit profile and its plan to “absorb... FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | March 31, 2012
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ST. LOUIS—Five area primary-care practices are participating in a pilot project to improve care by adopting the patient-centered medical home model. The five practices are members of the St. Anthony's Physician Organization, which is affiliated with 602-bed St. Anthony's Medical Center in St. Louis. They will receive funding for a nurse to act as a care manager. Other personnel, such as a diabetes educator, will be available as well, and patients will have access to a secure online portal for communication with the practices, according to an e-mailed news release. The Missouri... FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | May 05, 2012
| Print Magazine
PITTSBURGH—Western Pennsylvania Hospital reopened its renovated 18-bed intensive-care unit as part of efforts to turn around West Penn Allegheny Health System. The system renovated and reopened the unit after executives reversed plans to downsize the hospital. The hospital's emergency room reopened in mid-February, and the system will resume cardiovascular services and renovate and expand labor and delivery. Plans also call for newly renovated hospital lobbies and waiting rooms, the system said. West Penn Allegheny, a financially distressed Pittsburgh health system, has reached a... FULL STORY »
At least nine healthcare organizations, including six out-of-state hospitals, have made bids to acquire a small, struggling hospital in a beachfront Rhode Island town. Westerly (R.I.) Hospital, a 100-bed facility, is under receivership. Lawrence & Memorial Hospital, a 252-bed in New London, Conn; South County Hospital, a 77-bed hospital in Wakefield, R.I.; and Westerly Hospital Holdco confirmed that they have submitted bids for the hospital. FULL STORY »
Steward Health Care System may soon be in position to become a significant player in Rhode Island's healthcare market. The Rhode Island Senate unanimously approved a bill this month that would remove a limit on the number of hospitals a for-profit company can buy in the state. The state legislation is closely tied to the Boston-based system's effort to acquire Landmark Medical Center, a 133-bed not-for-profit hospital in Woonsocket, R.I. FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | April 21, 2012
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MANHASSET, N.Y.—North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System has sent letters to about 100 patients from its North Shore University Hospital identified by law enforcement authorities as victims of identity theft, the system announced. Details disclosed were limited “because we do not want to compromise the integrity of the investigation,” according to a statement posted last week on the system's website. The statement noted, however, that nearly 1,000 people throughout the Northeast have been victimized by what it described as an “identity-theft ring that... FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | March 31, 2012
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PLATTSBURGH, N.Y.—Two hospitals in upstate New York signed a letter of intent to join Fletcher Allen Partners in Vermont. Adding Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital Medical Center, a 251-bed hospital in Plattsburgh, and the 25-bed Elizabethtown (N.Y.) Community Hospital would make Fletcher Allen Partners a four-hospital system. Fletcher Allen Partners is the newly created parent organization for the 419-bed Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, Vt., and the 83-bed Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin, Vt. “Pursuing an affiliation with Fletcher Allen Partners makes... FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | May 05, 2012
| Print Magazine
—On May 1, the Johns Hopkins Hospital opened the Charlotte Bloomberg Children's Center and Sheikh Zayed Tower, a 1.6-million-square-foot facility that cost about $1.1 billion. Named for New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's late mother, the Charlotte Bloomberg Children's Center has 10 surgical suites made for pediatric patients and 205 private patient rooms, including a 45-bed neonatal intensive-care unit and a 40-bed pediatric intensive-care unit. The Zayed Tower—named for the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the first president of the United Arab... FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | April 28, 2012
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SAN ANTONIO—Christus Santa Rosa Health System received approval from the board of 19-hospital Christus Health to go ahead with a $135 million renovation project to transform its downtown San Antonio campus into a free-standing children's hospital with up to 275 beds. Christus Santa Rosa had been working with the University Health System on such a project, but their letter of intent to do so was terminated March 1. According to a Christus Santa Rosa news release, the new project will be “a financially viable, privately and philanthropically funded, separately licensed,... FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | April 21, 2012
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NASHVILLE—St. Thomas Hospital has made a multimillion-dollar investment to transform itself into a national destination for neurosurgery. The 395-bed hospital has launched what it calls the Unity System, which brings together a number of technologies and encourages greater collaboration among specialists to treat brain and spine tumors. The project includes a $7.8 million investment to transform an operating room into a neurosurgical operating suite with upgraded equipment, as well as a $4.9 million replacement of a linear accelerator with more advanced technology. But the term... FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | April 21, 2012
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RALEIGH, N.C.—Rex Healthcare, a 658-bed hospital, launched Rex Strategic Innovations, a newly formed initiative that includes a venture-capital investment fund and a grant program aimed at improving quality and population health. The investment fund, known as Rex Health Ventures, kicked off with $10 million from Rex Healthcare in initial funds for startups, according to a hospital news release. Rex Healthcare said the initiative will bolster research and development, create jobs and improve care in the community. “In some cases, Rex will serve as an incubator or laboratory... FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | March 31, 2012
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PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla.—Martin Health System, Stuart, Fla., has finally kicked off construction of Tradition Medical Center, its new hospital in west Port St. Lucie, after a contentious 14-year approval process and legal struggle. The $110 million, 201,184-square-foot hospital is expected to open with 90 beds in 2014. It will have the potential to expand to 300 beds, according to a news release. Martin Health had been locked in a legal battle with HCA, which owns the nearby 194-bed St. Lucie Medical Center and 331-bed Lawnwood Regional Medical Center and had sought to block the... FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | May 05, 2012
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AUBURN, Wash.—Universal Health Services reached a definitive agreement to sell 120-bed Auburn Regional Medical Center to the MultiCare Health System. The deal, which would result in proceeds of about $98 million, is expected to close by September pending regulatory approval, Universal Health said in a news release. “Over the past several years, UHS has concentrated on mid-size markets where we hold market leading positions, and this market no longer fits our long-term strategy,” the publicly traded hospital operator said in the release. MultiCare, based in Tacoma,... FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | April 21, 2012
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ASHLAND, Ore.—Dignity Health appears to be making good with its plans to expand since changing its name from Catholic Healthcare West, as officials announced that the organization is in exclusive partnership negotiations with Ashland Community Hospital. The talks in Oregon are Dignity's first move toward expansion since the system rebranded itself and severed formal ties with the Roman Catholic Church in an effort to increase expansion opportunities beyond its three-state footprint of Arizona, California and Nevada. Ashland Community is a 36-bed secular hospital, and the... FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | March 31, 2012
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LOS ALTOS, Calif.—Ascension Health Alliance, St. Louis, and Daughters of Charity Health System, Los Altos, have signed a memorandum of understanding for Daughters of Charity to become part of Ascension Health, the alliance's hospital division. Terms of the memorandum were undisclosed by the two Catholic organizations, and there is no specific schedule for reaching a definitive agreement, according to a news release. Completion of the process is expected to come by year-end, the release states. Six-hospital Daughters of Charity shares roots with 76-hospital Ascension Health in... FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | March 17, 2012
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SALINAS, Calif.—A report from the California state auditor, Elaine Howle, determined that the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System violated the state’s open meetings act, and granted compensation for executives in the upper range of compensation levels while operating without a compensation policy and with limited transparency. The auditor’s report pointed to the $4.9 million retirement and severance package paid to former CEO Sam Downing as an example of relatively high compensation paid by the 269-bed public hospital. The report also found weaknesses in... FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | March 10, 2012
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SALEM, Ore.—Oregon is seeking federal approval to shift Medicaid beneficiaries into organizations that will coordinate patients' healthcare. Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber signed into law a bill that would establish, with federal approval, “coordinated-care organizations” to manage medical care using medical homes, if possible, under a global Medicaid budget. “Just one week after the bill was passed out of the Legislature, we sent the request to federal officials to give us the approval we need to implement a smarter model for providing quality care,”... FULL STORY »
