Modern Healthcare articles from December 2005

Modern Healthcare archives from December 2005

Less is more profitable.(Physician Affairs)(ambulatory surgery centers )(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... Smaller ambulatory surgery centers reported higher net income per case than larger facilities, in spite of the latters' greater cost efficiencies, according to a study by the Medical Group Management Association. The difference may reflect...

Visits up, Bed Count Down.(community hospitals patients traffic)(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... Patient volume at U.S. community hospitals continued to climb in 2004, as total available beds fell, according to the American Hospital Association. Roughly 909,000 people were either admitted to a hospital or received outpatient care last...

Other Voices.(health insurance planning)(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... "The No. 1 holiday shopping nightmare this year isn't taking place at the malls or the big-box outlets. It's at our senior centers, where Americans over 65 are trying to figure out which private health insurance plan to enroll in to get their...

Kirch succeeding Cohen as president of AAMC.(Physician Affairs)(Darrell Kirch appointed as president of Association of American Medical Colleges)(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... Byline: Michael Romano Darrell Kirch, M.D., dean of Penn State College of Medicine and senior vice president for health affairs at Pennsylvania State University, Hershey, Pa., was named the new president of the Association of American...

Infection report raises hackles; Hospital group calls infection-cost study misleading.
December 5, 2005... Byline: Andis Robeznieks The sticky question of who foots the bill for hospital-acquired infections is at the center of a dust-up in Pennsylvania between an independent state agency and the state's hospital association. The dispute...

Bariatric plan raises concerns; Surgeons would like more Medicare patients covered.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 5, 2005... Byline: Matthew DoBias A proposed rule on how the CMS would cover bariatric and gastric banding surgeries is getting mixed reviews from doctors who are credentialed to perform those procedures. Bariatric surgeons chided the CMS'...

Got $1 million and some time? Doc promises a whole new you.
December 5, 2005... For the person who has everything except the perfect face and body, cosmetic surgeon Stephen Greenberg is offering the ultimate holiday gift. The gift, a head-to-toe body re-creation for $1 million, was unveiled at a news conference on...

Waging war on inefficiency; As hospitals continue to grapple with rising pay and benefits costs, executives look for new weapons in their fight for productivity.(Special Report)
December 5, 2005... Byline: Melanie Evans In 2003, hospitals scored a victory in the battle to contain their single largest expense: labor. Continued improvements in productivity cut the number of workers needed to triage, treat and bill patients to its...

Nominations sought for 'most powerful' doc-execs.(Physician Affairs)(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... Byline: David Burda, editor Do you know a physician who doesn't think he or she is powerful? I thought so. How about a healthcare executive? Same. That's why our first annual ranking of the 50 Most Powerful Physician-Executives in...

$73 million ... and counting? Beth Israel resolves Medicaid billing fraud allegations.
December 5, 2005... Byline: Mark Taylor Last week's $73 million whistle-blower settlement with New York City's Beth Israel Medical Center was one of the largest single hospital cost-reporting fraud cases. But it won't affect the hospital's current renovation...

Feds probe R.I. hospital; Roger Williams puts CEO on administrative leave.(chief executive officer)(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... Byline: Joseph Mantone Roger Williams Medical Center, a not-for profit 143-bed hospital in Providence, R.I., placed its president and chief executive officer, Robert Urciuoli, on paid administrative leave and said the hospital is under...

Scrushy ducks fraud charges.(Richard Scrushy cases)(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... Byline: Joseph Mantone Richard Scrushy was dealt another legal victory-at least for now-when a federal judge threw out the two fraud claims in the Securities and Exchange Commission's civil complaint against the founder and former chief...

Needed: one set of standards; IOM calls for universal pay-for-performance criteria.(Institute of Medicine)
December 5, 2005... Byline: Matthew DoBias Without a single playbook to rely on, pay-for-performance programs are not going to work, according to a just-released report from the Institute of Medicine. The healthcare industry across the board must be using...

HMO dreams end in court; Barry Scheur began the Oath of Louisiana with big plans; now he stands accused of fraud after the HMO's collapse.(Medical plan)
December 5, 2005... Byline: Laura B. Benko It was only a few years ago that self-described "managed-care iconoclast'' Barry Scheur was making headlines-and millions of dollars-by adopting and breathing new life into struggling provider-owned HMOs. In...

Whistle-blower training; Senate bill would require False Claims Act instruction.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 5, 2005... Byline: Mark Taylor The budget bill passed by the Senate Nov. 4 includes a provision that would require healthcare providers paid by Medicaid to train and educate staff about the federal False Claims Act. If the provision remains in...

Large systems make it work; Moody's report cites centralization, downsizing.
December 5, 2005... Byline: Cinda Becker Large multistate hospital systems are finally getting it right. Formed in large part during the merger and acquisition frenzy of the go-go '90s, the multistate systems, most of them Catholic-sponsored, are now...

A new suitor for Beverly; North American is out; Fillmore is looking to buy.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 5, 2005... Byline: Joseph Mantone Beverly Enterprises is once again searching for a buyer 11 months after rumors of a change of ownership started to circulate. Last month, the nation's second-largest nursing-home provider said the investors who...

Eager to comply; Administrators cite benefits of joining CMS study.(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)
December 5, 2005... Byline: Mark Taylor Why should a hospital voluntarily invite federal investigators into its offices to peruse its dirty laundry? That's the question Alice Polley, vice president of clinical services for Sturdy Memorial Hospital in...

Retired exec gets board appointment.(Dan Wilford appointed to LHC Group)(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... Byline: Melanie Evans Dan Wilford, former president and CEO of Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, isn't slowing down in retirement. Late last month, LHC Group, a Lafayette, La.-based home- and long-term-care company, became the fourth...

"Speak no evil' is a risky policy; Reference checks on former workers can be tricky for healthcare employers.
December 5, 2005... Byline: Paul Snitzer and Lisa Clark Hospitals, like all other employers, seek to avoid litigation and contentious disputes with their former employees. Many of them use a seemingly innocuous litigation-avoidance technique: refusing to...

Patient survey endorsed; NQF report details proposed questionnaire.(National Quality Forum)(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... Byline: Joseph Conn The National Quality Forum last week released a 76-page report endorsing the federal government's proposed survey form to assess patient satisfaction at hospitals, a milestone in a three-year effort by the CMS and the...

Balancing privacy, outsourcing; Docs advised to resolve HIPAA issues with foreign companies in contracts.
December 5, 2005... Byline: Andis Robeznieks The difference between a recommendation and a requirement resulted in a significantly different outcome for the American Medical Association's stance on patient privacy and the foreign outsourcing of health...

Reaping big donations; Not-for-profits buck trend in healthcare philanthropy.
December 5, 2005... Byline: Cinda Becker Not-for-profit hospitals held their own as the beneficiaries of philanthropic dollars in 2004 at a time when healthcare interests as a whole, including patient-advocacy organizations and research foundations, suffered...

RSNA meeting sets records; New imaging technology draws overflow crowds.(Radiological Society of North America)
December 5, 2005... Byline: Joseph Conn The Radiological Society of North America's annual meeting and trade show in Chicago last week was even bigger than last year's massive get-together, according to Dave Fellers, chief executive officer of the...

Blues pursue new data deal.(data mining)(Brief Article)
December 5, 2005... Byline: Joseph Conn The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations is getting away from the controversial business of selling data analysis to 14 Blues plans. But the plans involved in the 6-month-old data-mining flap...

Triumph of common sense; Evidence-based cardiac guidelines work best: study.
December 5, 2005... Byline: Andis Robeznieks A new study appears to confirm the obvious: Using common sense in healthcare leads to better outcomes for patients. Or more specifically, using evidence-based guidelines while treating heart-failure patients...

Late News; La. system furloughs 459.(Louisiana State University Health Sciences)
December 5, 2005... The Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center furloughed 459 people, including 139 doctors, or 18.5%, of a medical staff of 750. Acting Chancellor Larry Hollier said Hurricane Katrina wiped out seven of the system's teaching hospitals;...

A true businessman; Remembering Peter Drucker, father of modern management theory.(Lauer's Letter)(Editorial)
December 5, 2005... Byline: Charles S. Lauer, Vice President-Publishing/Editorial Director Some years ago, I was honored to be asked to moderate a symposium at Claremont Graduate University in California. I was told there would be close to 40 healthcare chief...

On the move ...(News Makers)(Vassar Bros)
December 5, 2005... HOSPITALS, SYSTEMS Richard Henley, 49, executive vice president of Vassar Bros. Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., has resigned to become president and CEO of Pocono Health System in East Stroudsburg, Pa. Donna McGregor, who has been...

Triumph of common sense; Evidence-based cardiac guidelines work best: study.
December 5, 2005... Byline: Andis Robeznieks A new study appears to confirm the obvious: Using common sense in healthcare leads to better outcomes for patients. Or more specifically, using evidence-based guidelines while treating heart-failure patients...

Wiping out waits; Calif. hospital's ER sees patient satisfaction rise.(Special Feature)(Brief Article)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Ed Finkel A set of standard protocols for common patient complaints has enabled the emergency department at San Antonio Community Hospital to greatly improve its patient-satisfaction scores while reducing wait times, earning the...

Hospitals treat more lung infections.(The Week In Healthcare)(Brief Article)
December 12, 2005... The rate of pneumonia hospitalizations per 1,000 population increased 29% among Americans ages 65 and older to more than 2.3 million cases between 2000 and 2002 from about 1.6 million cases between 1988 and 1990, according to a report in the...

Palliative care takes root; 60% more hospitals offering end-of-life comfort.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Melanie Evans Specialty care to meet the spiritual and medical needs of dying patients-called palliative care-made steady gains in U.S. hospitals in recent years, even though insurers don't typically reimburse for such care,...

Late News; Fla. legislators OK Medicaid pilot.(Bon Secours Cottage Health Services' CFO pleads guilty to fraud)(Legacy Health System appoints Lee Domanico)
December 12, 2005... Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's plan to move Medicaid beneficiaries into private managed-care plans won approval from Florida's Legislature in a special session. The bill, which awaits Bush's signature, authorizes a one-year pilot program starting July...

Short-term victory for U.S. But Canada may be better at chronic care for heart failure: study author.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Andis Robeznieks A recent journal report affirms the notion that the U.S. provides quality acute care, but also indicates that there's room for improvement in chronic care. The report, released Nov. 28, compared 30-day and...

Above the rest; Honoring 2005 Spirit of Excellence Award winners.(Special Feature)
December 12, 2005... Byline: David Burda, editor Modern Healthcare congratulates the winners and honorable mentions of the 13th annual Spirit of Excellence Awards, co-sponsored by Sodexho Health Care Services, based in Avon, Conn. This year's competition drew...

HHS targets Fla. hospital; South Beach could be closed or forced to sell.(The Week In Healthcare)( Health and Human Services)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Mark Taylor Allegedly failing to comply with the terms of a corporate integrity agreement it signed in a civil fraud settlement could doom a South Florida for-profit hospital to closure or a forced sale. Last week's...

New weapons for an old fight; Ablation treatment slowly gains ground in cancer care as it begins to win over patients and physicians.(Medical Advances)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Joseph Mantone A new type of cancer treatment is slowly gaining traction, and its supporters say turf wars and referral patterns are the reasons why the acceptance is moving at glacial speed. The technology in question is...

Surgical infections pared; Pa. hospital rectifies 'frightening' situation.(Special Feature)(Brief Article)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Ed Finkel Three years ago, only 48% of surgical patients received antibiotics within an hour of incision and just 11% had them discontinued within 24 hours at Monongahela (Pa.) Valley Hospital, a 253-bed stand-alone facility. The...

Employee orientation a whole new ballgame; Interactive sports-themed sessions make for better first impression.(Special Feature)(King's Daughters Medical Center)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Ed Finkel When Nickie Hess started working at King's Daughters Medical Center 18 years ago, she slogged through a traditional classroom-and-videos orientation session. "It was very long, very drawn out,'' recalls Hess,...

Working despite disabilities; Cincinnati system reports low turnover, high work ethic.(Special Feature)(Brief Article)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Ed Finkel To slow its turnover rate and boost the work ethic of its labor force, the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati two years ago began hiring people with disabilities through a screening program set up by the Ohio...

Music offers relief; Patients reduce pain, stress through Ky. hospital's therapy program.(Special Feature)(Kentucky)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Ed Finkel A patient at Norton Audubon Hospital who became a paraplegic with limited use of his arms and hands desperately missed playing the keyboard in his brother's band. Music therapist Jenny Branson enabled him to recapture...

An open mind; Words of wisdom for those who want to make learning a lifelong pursuit.(Lauer's Letter)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Charles S. Lauer, Vice President-Publishing/Editorial Director It's that time of year again. As one year comes to a close and another awaits, many of us pause to reflect on where we are in life. I know I do. There are always things...

Helping the invisible; South central Wis. center treats homeless patients.(Special Feature)(Brief Article)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Ed Finkel Many residents of Rock County, Wis., did not think they had a homelessness problem as recently as a decade ago. But Mercy Health System, which has three hospitals with about 184 total beds, knew better. Emergency room...

Wellness program drives ahead; Rolling doctor's office in Columbus, Ohio, helps lower infant mortality.(Special Feature)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Ed Finkel Expectant mothers on the south and west sides of Columbus, Ohio-particularly teen mothers-were less likely than most to avail themselves of prenatal care, and a 1992 study of babies born at OhioHealth's Grant Medical...

Patient-care model works wonders; Erie Family Health Center sorts out roles, space issues to deliver results.(Special Feature)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Ed Finkel In the past three years, Erie Family Health Center has boosted the portion of mothers who seek prenatal care in their first trimester to 77% from 44% and reduced babies with low birth weight to 5% from 8%, all while...

Getting satisfaction; The CMS survey publicly revealing patient satisfaction with hospitals is one step closer to becoming a reality.
December 12, 2005... Byline: Joseph Conn A 31/2-year effort by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the CMS to develop a patient survey for publicly comparing hospital satisfaction is on its way toward implementation with the Dec. 7 closure of a...

Guidant bidding war; Boston Scientific bests J&J's offer for devicemaker.(Late News)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Cinda Becker Johnson & Johnson's bumpy $21.5 billion acquisition of Guidant Corp. hit another pothole last week when Boston Scientific Corp. upped the ante with a surprising $25 billion offer. Boston Scientific's bid for...

Hospital-at-home care "effective'; Elderly can benefit from novel program: study.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Laura B. Benko It's long been known that hospitalization can be tough on the elderly. Frail or chronically ill patients can pick up secondary infections, lose functionality or become anxious and confused by the unfamiliar...

Seeking safe harbors; Health IT groups don't support rules to bypass Stark.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Andis Robeznieks The federal government's proposed moves to roll back some of its antikickback regulations won't help spur the use of health information technology as intended, according to members of the health IT community. ...

New service provides `cool' tour of U.S. hospitals-data included.(Outliers: Asides & Insides)
December 12, 2005... Morgan Stanley, the New York investment bank and equity-research firm that has compiled hospital reports for years, is taking an entirely different look at the industry-a stunning new perspective that uses software developed by a unit of Google...

Incentives linked to access woes.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Joseph Mantone Pay-for-performance programs may be blocking access to healthcare for the less affluent, according to a study published Dec. 6 by Health Affairs. Increasingly, individuals in less-affluent areas are having...

Attentive docs minimize lawsuits; Good bedside manner can deflect legal threats: experts.(Physician Affairs)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Dave Lenckus Physicians who have a congenial bedside manner overall and who apologize to patients and their families when treatments or procedures go wrong minimize their own and their hospitals' medical malpractice risk, said...

Paying for improvement; Incentive models need to be refined to reward incremental quality advances.(Editorial)(Editorial)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Todd Sloane, Assistant Managing Editor/Op-Ed In early February 2006, a national forum on pay-for-performance (or P4P, as it has become known over my strenuous objections) will convene in Los Angeles. Leading experts and policymakers...

Dissatisfied patients; Consumer-driven health plans not so great: survey.(The Week In Healthcare)(Brief Article)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Matthew DoBias The few Americans enrolled in so-called consumer-driven health plans are less satisfied with their coverage than those enrolled in more traditional plans, according to a survey conducted by the Employee Benefit...

Not prepared for disaster; Feds get D+ for readiness, hospitals not much better.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Michael Romano For the first time since it began examining the nation's level of emergency preparedness after Sept. 11, the Trust for America's Health has analyzed the hospital industry's efforts in laying the groundwork for...

CMS to train H-CAHPS staff.(Brief Article)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Joseph Conn With the questions and methodology for the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Providers and Systems satisfaction survey set, the next step will be to arrange training sessions for survey administrators, according to...

Undisputed benefit; CMS program offers a chance to resolve patients' complaints out of court.(Commentary)
December 12, 2005... Byline: William Rollow A hip-replacement patient of Bruce Haupt, an orthopedic surgeon practicing in South Charleston, W.Va., died while recuperating. Haupt's procedure went smoothly and no medical errors occurred, but the patient's...

Scrushy quits board; Ex-CEO says he was denied powers as a director.(The Week In Healthcare)(Brief Article)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Joseph Mantone Richard Scrushy resigned from the board of HealthSouth Corp. on Dec. 5, but said he plans to nominate at least one director for the elections that are scheduled for Dec. 29. A spokesman for the Birmingham,...

CHI's discount plan; Some uninsured will pay managed-care prices.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 12, 2005... Byline: Melanie Evans Catholic Health Initiatives, the second largest U.S. Roman Catholic health system in terms of staffed beds, began to roll out a program that charges uninsured patients unable to qualify for financial aid the same...

Medicaid access and reimbursement.(Physician Affairs)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... High Medicaid fee levels in a community increase the probability that physicians will accept Medicaid patients, according to a study conducted by the Center for Studying Health System Change. But high fee levels do not necessarily lead to high...

Late News; Scrushy sues HealthSouth.
December 19, 2005... Richard Scrushy sued HealthSouth Corp., Birmingham, Ala., for breach of contract, seeking $70 million from the rehabilitation company he founded, which fired him as chief executive officer in March 2003. The lawsuit in Jefferson County (Ala.)...

Nursing student growth not enough.(The Week In Healthcare)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... Enrollment in bachelor-degree nursing programs was up 13% in 2005, the fifth consecutive year of growth, according to preliminary data from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. But nursing programs also rejected roughly 32,600...

Will feds lead the charge? Quality groups wonder if they'll be overshadowed.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 19, 2005... Byline: Matthew DoBias A move to have the federal government standardize and oversee quality improvement initiatives has some health policy executives questioning the long-run viability of programs already in existence. With one...

Other Voices.(Opinions)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... "What you do on your own time increasingly looks like it could be your employer's business. Smokers are the focus right now as businesses look at ways to contain healthcare costs, with some companies increasing the insurance premiums of smokers...

Corrections & Clarifications.(Corrections)
December 19, 2005... The sub-headline on a Dec. 5 story ("$73 million... and counting?'' p. 18) incorrectly stated that the whistle-blower settlement by Beth Israel Medical Center, New York, over Medicare billing fraud allegations was instead for Medicaid fraud...

Oversight shortfall; Survey shows boards need stronger conflict policies.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 19, 2005... Byline: Melanie Evans Chief executives face mounting oversight from governing boards of not-for-profit hospitals and health systems, but directors and trustees failed to make similar reforms stick among themselves, a new survey shows. ...

Taking stock of 2005.(Special Report)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... Byline: Neil McLaughlin, managing editor Whew! If you liked 2004, a busy and tumultuous year, you must have loved 2005. It began with providers responding to an international disaster and ended with the mop-up of a domestic...

Retreat results in resignations.(Late News)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... Byline: Mark Taylor The chief executive officer and two other top officials at 799-bed Mount Carmel Health System, Columbus, Ohio, resigned after a review by the system's parent, Trinity Health, found they had engaged in behavior that was...

Reimbursement fight; Calif. Medi-Cal physician payment rates set to fall 5%.(Regional News)
December 19, 2005... Byline: Laura B. Benko For the second time in as many years, the California Medical Association has rallied a coalition of more than 50 local healthcare advocacy groups to fight a planned Medicaid reimbursement cut that the coalition warns...

Year in review 2005.(Special Report)
December 19, 2005... JANUARY U.S. healthcare providers mobilize quickly to help victims of the Asian tsunami as the death toll climbs past 100,000. Some critics contend that U.S. government officials were slow to respond to the disaster and that aid was...

Intro: By The Numbers.(By The Numbers)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... Byline: David May, Assistant managing editor/features Listen to the chatter among sports fans or commentary from your favorite sportscasters and you'll hear a nearly endless debate over whether certain professional athletes are "putting up...

Deadline nears for trustee nominations.(Opinions)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... The deadline is approaching for nominations to Modern Healthcare's annual Trustee of the Year competition. The awards, co-sponsored by executive search firm Witt/Kieffer, honor two outstanding trustees for their contributions to healthcare...

"A cause for great concern'; Hospitals still lacking on patient-safety efforts: study.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 19, 2005... Byline: Joseph Conn Six years after a seminal Institute of Medicine report on patient safety, hospital patient-safety systems still don't come close to meeting IOM recommendations, according to a study in the Journal of the American...

Fast start for hospitals; $1.8 million will help create rapid-response teams.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 19, 2005... Byline: Cinda Becker The nation's largest healthcare philanthropy is throwing its weight behind hopes for the fast adoption of rapid-response teams, dispensing $1.8 million in grants to jump-start such programs at a minimum of 225...

Up and down; Hospital prices increase, overall CPI takes huge drop.(Late News)(Consumer Price Index)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... Byline: Melanie Evans Hospital prices spiked sharply in November even as gasoline costs plummeted and the nation's overall consumer price index posted its largest one-month drop since July 1949, federal figures show. The Bureau of...

MGMA wants more than just "safe harbors'.(Physician Affairs)(Medical Group Management Association)(Brief Article)
December 19, 2005... Byline: Joseph Mantone and Joseph Conn The Medical Group Management Association said the CMS' proposed changes to federal antikickback law won't help the government's goal of widespread adoption of health information technology. The...

A degree of experience; Higher education is no substitute for street smarts.(Lauer's Letter)(Column)
December 19, 2005... Byline: Charles S. Lauer, Vice President-Publishing/Editorial Director A few months ago, I had a friend confide in me that he had "no formal education.'' I asked him what he meant by that, and he said he was embarrassed to say he never...

In the Spotlight.(News Makers)
December 19, 2005... Universal Health Services, King of Prussia, Pa., awarded a $2 million bonus to Alan Miller, chairman, president and chief executive officer, for his role in the successful sale of the company's French hospital assets, which netted Universal an...

Ohio system gets LTAC hospital; Deal would end $10.7 million annual county tax levy.(Regional News)
December 19, 2005... Byline: Mark Taylor Hamilton County, Ohio, commissioners voted 2-1 last week to approve transferring the county's membership in 316-bed Drake Center, Cincinnati, to six-hospital, not-for-profit Health Alliance. The county has three of nine...

An embarrassment of riches; Industry's year was about profits and paydays, not patients.(Opinions)
December 19, 2005... Byline: Neil Mclaughlin, Managing Editor This issue is the last Modern Healthcare will publish in 2005. As usual, we offer readers a look back at the year in our Special Report, beginning on page 26. You will also find the top five stories...

Brainy academics 'pose' for science institute's calendar.(Outliers: Asides & Insides)
December 19, 2005... Nobel Prize winner Tony Leggett didn't hesitate when he was asked to pose as Mr. January in a pinup calendar. The physics professor didn't doff his clothes, but the image is still revealing. It is Leggett's buff brain that leads off a 2006...

Shorter shifts don't harm patient safety: Mayo study.(Physician Affairs)
December 19, 2005... Byline: Melanie Evans In a trial last spring, Mayo Clinic researchers cut 12 hours from residents' workweek, including swapping schedules that had a 30-hour shift for schedules with 14-hour shifts staggered round-the-clock. The...

Magellan sailing into radiology.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 19, 2005... Byline: Joseph Mantone Magellan Health Services is expanding into the radiology-benefits market to diversify its revenue as it tries to help insurers slow the growth in spending on imaging services. The Avon, Conn.-based...