Modern Healthcare articles from January 2002

Modern Healthcare archives from January 2002

Improving care through integration.(SMG Marketing Group ranks Top 100 Integrated Healthcare Networks)(Brief Article)
January 7, 2002... For healthcare systems that have mastered the fundamentals of integration, the latest step has been tying everything together with technology to improve clinical outcomes. Intermountain Health Care, a 21-hospital system based in Salt Lake...

Conn. hospitals nix managed care.
January 7, 2002... A group of Connecticut hospitals and their affiliated physicians have become the latest providers to retreat from the managed-care business. Hartford, Conn.-based MedSpan, founded 12 years ago by the parent of 874-bed Hartford Hospital,...

Big issues; Healthcare bond market enjoys fruitful year.(not-for-profit hospitals, health systems increase number of issues in 2001)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 7, 2002... Spurred by lower interest rates and a pent-up demand for capital, not-for-profit hospitals and health systems tapped the bond market in greater numbers last year, increasing tax-exempt healthcare bond volume by 47%. After a lull in 2000,...

Hospital News.(multiple topics)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 7, 2002... Henry Ford losses increase. Michigan's second-largest health system increased its operating loss to $36.8 million for the quarter ending Sept. 30. Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System, which suffered a 2000 operating loss of $43.9 million, is...

Hospital finds hell hath no fury like a photographer scorned.(Frederick (Maryland) Memorial Hospital)(Brief Article)
January 7, 2002... Officials at Frederick (Md.) Memorial Hospital found themselves in the middle of an imbroglio of epic proportions after attempting to curtail the use of video and still photography in the birthing unit. What officials believed to be a minor...

Paperwork, paperwork; New extension on HIPAA comes with strings.(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996)(Brief Article)
January 7, 2002... When the federal government granted the healthcare industry some breathing room to comply with new claims-processing standards late last month, the extension came saddled with paperwork requirements. In fact, the onerous process of applying...

Commentary page to debut.(Modern Healthcare to add opinion articles from outside contributors)(Brief Article)
January 7, 2002... On Jan. 28 Modern Healthcare will begin publishing opinion articles written by outside contributors. This is an opportunity for other voices to be heard in our pages on issues important to the magazine's 80,000-plus readers, who are...

Pa. dispute heats up; UPMC considers selling in-house health plan.(UPMC Health System)(Brief Article)
January 7, 2002... A top executive of Pennsylvania's UPMC Health System says the network is hoping a sale or partnership will improve an in-house health plan created four years ago to compete against a rival. The potential sale could intensify the long-running...

Publisher's Letter.(economic aspects of the healthcare industry)(Brief Article)(Editorial)(Statistical Data Included)
January 7, 2002... In the past 26 years I have had the pleasure of meeting some wonderful people in our industry, both providers and vendors. Healthcare is filled with talented, dedicated people. But sometimes all of us become so busy doing our jobs that we lose...

Payment due; Report: CMS slacker for not collecting millions.(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)(Brief Article)
January 7, 2002... A new report critical of accounting practices at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has barely drawn a yawn from healthcare provider associations, frequently some of the CMS' biggest critics. Maybe that's because the Dec. 31...

Getting concrete on paperwork; Thompson, Scully set to try to make good on promise of regulatory relief.(Tommy Thompson, Thomas Scully)
January 7, 2002... When HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson convenes the first meeting of his Advisory Committee on Regulatory Reform this week in Washington, he is expected to highlight the bane of hospitals' existence with a visual aid: a 4-foot-high stack of...

News At Deadline.(multiple topics)(Brief Article)
January 7, 2002... Wound-care firm settles case. A wound-care company related to hospital giant HCA will pay $16.5 million to settle civil fraud charges, the U.S. attorney's office in New York announced. The agreement, signed by Hauppauge, N.Y.-based Curative...

Rx for nurses; Final version of staffing legislation in the works.(Nurse Reinvestment Act)(Brief Article)
January 7, 2002... The dozen staff nurses who meet to devise new strategies to recruit nurses for Carilion Health System hit the ceiling when one said that her daughter was told by a high school career guidance counselor that she was ``too bright'' to go into...

The clock is ticking; Early birds get the jump on helping patients.(what will be done with increased funding in 2002)(Brief Article)
January 7, 2002... Even as you read this the tone for this year may already have been set. Whether patients and your organization's staff will remember this year in healthcare as a success or disappointment was up for grabs at the stroke of midnight on Jan. 1....

Widening the web; WebMD buys MedicaLogic/Medscape's Internet unit.(Brief Article)
January 7, 2002... As online health companies struggle with cash shortages, WebMD, Elmwood Park, N.J., announced it has bought the Internet unit of MedicaLogic/Medscape, Hillsboro, Ore., for $10 million in cash. The deal, effective Dec. 26, gives to WebMD...

Outlook '02; The healthcare industry faces many of the usual financial, political and operational challenges, but some sectors begin the new year with strong vital signs.
January 7, 2002... If adversity tests our strength, healthcare could be in for a real workout in 2002. Continued fallout from the Sept. 11 attacks will heap new challenges onto an industry already straining under rising costs, bipartisan political bickering...

Hitting the brakes; Hospital merger-and-acquisition activity declines for third consecutive year.(Special Report)(Correction Notice)
January 14, 2002... Byline: Vince Galloro and Jeff Tieman ***** Correction: * In the 2001 mergers-and-acquisitions list (``Hitting the brakes,'' Jan. 14, p. 22), the status of the merger of Resurrection Health Care, Chicago, with two hospitals sponsored...

Hitting the brakes; Hospital merger-and-acquisition activity declines for third consecutive year.
January 14, 2002... Healthcare organizations spent a good deal of 2001 taking apart what they had previously pieced together. Many health systems, especially not-for-profits, that acquired physician practices and HMOs retreated from those businesses as costs rose...

Score one for hospitals; N.Y. AG losing battle to two affiliating facilities.(New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, Nathan Littauer Hospital and Nursing Home, St. Mary's Hospital)(Brief Article)
January 14, 2002... Two small, upstate New York hospitals scored another knockout in the second round of their legal battle to affiliate without undergoing court scrutiny of the proposed deal. The once quiet court case is getting noisier at a time when state...

Levy faces challenge in Boston.(Paul Levy, new president and chief executive officer of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 14, 2002... Paul Levy considers his new job of turning around Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center more challenging than the cleanup of Boston Harbor that he spearheaded in the late 1980s. Levy, 51, most recently a dean at Harvard Medical...

N.J. law allows docs to bargain.(Brief Article)
January 14, 2002... Doctors' groups are confident that a new antitrust exemption approved last week by New Jersey lawmakers will help pave the way for national legislation allowing independent physicians to bargain collectively with health plans. ``We believe...

HHS reg reform panel needs consumers' touch.(Health and Human Services Advisory Committe on Regulatory Reform)(Brief Article)
January 14, 2002... Memo to: Tommy Thompson, HHS, Washington From: Your pal Outliers Dear Tommy: As much as your Advisory Committee on Regulatory Reform is a good idea, it has had a really big problem, which is that it had absolutely no one on it who...

Exec pay gap grows between the sexes.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 14, 2002... Female healthcare executives were not surprised to learn that more men than women occupy executive-level positions in the industry. But some were surprised that women earn 19% less than men, a gap that in recent years has grown rather than...

Striking a balance; Thompson says he'll include consumer groups in regulatory reform task force.(Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson)(Brief Article)
January 14, 2002... HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson wasted no time in responding to pressure to add consumer advocates to a regulatory reform task force that critics had said was heavily weighted toward business interests. Medicare beneficiary groups welcomed...

Publisher's Letter.(marketing strategies)(Brief Article)
January 14, 2002... When I first started in sales years ago I learned a valuable lesson: Talking about the competition is unprofessional. Even though this still should be a cardinal rule of sales, I hear more and more companies and organizations beating up on...

Having no appeal; High court's rejection means end of road for hospital CEO, two physicians.(Dan Anderson, Ronald LaHue, Robert LaHue)(Brief Article)
January 14, 2002... The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal by a former Kansas City, Mo., hospital executive and two osteopathic physicians convicted in a kickbacks-for-referrals scheme and sentenced to prison terms that ranged from three years to 70...

Red Cross needs transfusion; Mission, blood supply imperiled by bureaucratic blunders.(Brief Article)
January 14, 2002... The American Red Cross, founded by Clara Barton ``to afford ready succor and assistance to sufferers in time of national or widespread calamities,'' is suffering its own homemade calamity, and needs a major disaster-relief effort. In the...

The Legal File.(Texas doctors plead guilty to income tax evasion, University Physicians close to settlement in Medicare billing fraud case)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 14, 2002... Texas docs plead guilty. Two Texas physicians pleaded guilty last month to income tax violations in an ongoing federal kickback investigation, said the U.S. attorney in Dallas. Fort Worth radiologist Victor Eugene McCall, 67, understated his...

Preparing for battle; HCA whistleblowers bring in big guns for trial.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 14, 2002... As the U.S. Justice Department's 9-year-old investigation into Medicare cost-reporting fraud at Nashville-based HCA chugs ahead on a dual legal track, the whistleblowers have brought in some big guns to get ready for court. Sources on both...

People.(Arden Hill Foundation; Horton Healthcare Foundation; HealthSouth New England Rehabilitation Hospital; St. Luke's Medical Center; St. Peter's Hospital; HealthEast Care System; Niagara Falls (New York) Memorial Medical Center; Methodist Healthcare)(Brief Article)
January 14, 2002... Presidents, CEOs * Robert DeValentino has been named president and executive director of the Arden Hill Foundation, Goshen, N.Y., and the Horton Healthcare Foundation, Middletown, N.Y. He had been executive director of the Horton...

Into the deep; Vandewater may buy Alabama not-for-profits.(David Vandewater; hospitals)(Company Profile)(Statistical Data Included)
January 14, 2002... Now David Vandewater has the chance to show he's really back. Sure, the former No. 2 executive at Columbia/HCA, the nation's largest for-profit hospital chain, has been back in the pool of acute-care hospitals since last July. That was when...

Bonus time; California association plans to reward physicians for good patient care.
January 14, 2002... A collaboration of California health plans, medical groups and employers is expected this week to unveil a statewide healthcare initiative that uses money from insurance premium increases to reward physicians for improving the quality of...

Picking up speed; Healthcare spending growth fastest in 12 years.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 14, 2002... The excitement generated by the federal government's announcement last week that the growth of national healthcare spending appeared to pick up speed in 2000 proves that sometimes it isn't so much what is said as who says it. National...

Fewer hospitals close doors in `01.(35 in 2001 versus 44 in 2000)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 14, 2002... In a sign that the hospital industry may have already purged most of its excess capacity, the pace of hospital closures slowed in 2001, according to data compiled by Modern Healthcare. Thirty-five hospitals closed during the year, compared...

Corrections, Clarifications.(Searcy Hospital, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)(Brief Article)(Correction Notice)
January 14, 2002... * Searcy Hospital, a psychiatric facility in Mount Vernon, Ala., incorrectly appeared on a list of the largest children's hospitals in the Dec. 24, 2001, By the Numbers supplement. Incorrect information was supplied by the American Hospital...

Healthcare task force cut; But Justice Department still watching for antitrust.(Brief Article)
January 14, 2002... Healthcare providers shouldn't interpret a recent organizational reshuffling at the U.S. Justice Department's antitrust division as a green light to violate federal antitrust laws. Charles James, assistant attorney general in charge of the...

Good scores don't equal good care; Study finds quality doesn't correspond with JCAHO rating.(Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations)
January 14, 2002... Hospital accreditation scores do not predict quality-of-care outcomes, a new University of Michigan study found. The study, to be published in the January issue of Quality Management in Health Care, found no relationship between the Joint...

In Brief.(Leapfrog Group; Memorial Hospital and Health System, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 14, 2002... Leapfrog to announce findings. The Leapfrog Group, a coalition of 90 large healthcare purchasers, will disclose this week in Washington how well hospitals in six urban regions measure up to its three patient-safety standards. The American...

Money, tempered by deficit spending.(small and rural hospitals)(Brief Article)
January 21, 2002... The news from Washington last week was good-but not great-for hospitals, which won a recommendation for a full inflation inpatient update for rural and small-city hospitals, as well as a full inflation update for hospital outpatient department...

Overhaul in works for EMTALA.(Emergency Medical Transfer and Active Labor Act)(Brief Article)
January 21, 2002... Hospitals last week received a promise from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Thomas Scully that one of the biggest thorns in the industry's side, the Emergency Medical Transfer and Active Labor Act, would get a ``fairly...

Understanding too well; How healthcare antitrust enforcement is eroding.(chiropractors and the Illinois State Medical Society)(healthcare antitrust issues)
January 21, 2002... ``An agreement filed Mar. 4 in U.S. district court ends a nearly decade-long battle between five chiropractors and the Illinois State Medical Society over the role of chiropractic in the health care delivery system. In their original 1976...

Publisher's Letter.(Modern Healthcare )(Editorial)
January 21, 2002... I've been publisher of this magazine for more than 25 years. In that time I've had the privilege of working with many talented individuals who have made Modern Healthcare the magazine it is today. Our mission has always been to give readers the...

Partisan splits may limit major policy changes.
January 21, 2002... The political and policy fallout from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks meant President Bush and Congress were diverted from their domestic agenda last fall, leaving many unfinished healthcare issues on the table. And that may result in a...

Healthcare politics front and center; A turbulent year is foreseen in Washington, but change may be incremental.
January 21, 2002... Expect a wild ride on the health policy front in Washington this year. After a year dominated by foreign policy action and domestic policy inaction, a plethora of holdover healthcare issues and an increasingly partisan environment on...

That paper jam may not be quite as thick as the rhetoric.(Medicare's hospital cost )
January 21, 2002... Much ado has been made about the complexity of Medicare's hospital cost report as being the biggest example of the crushing burden of paperwork faced by hospitals and other healthcare providers. In convening his Advisory Committee on Regulatory...

Up to the challenge; AMA head Maves ready to put controversy aside and take on his `dream job'.(Michael Maves takes over as American Medical Association chief executive)
January 21, 2002... Michael Maves, M.D., took over last week as the American Medical Association's fourth chief executive since 1997, inheriting a troubled organization struggling to reassert its relevance to the nation's 800,000 physicians. Settling into his...

Carolyn Lewis dies at 65; She was the first African-American to lead AHA.(American Hospital Association Chairwoman Carolyn Boone Lewis)
January 21, 2002... Carolyn Boone Lewis, the first African-American to hold the coveted post of American Hospital Association chairwoman, died of pancreatic cancer last week in her Washington home. She was 65. Lewis, who grew up in Wilmington, N.C., during the...

Employers brace for premium hike.(health insurance)(Brief Article)
January 21, 2002... Employers expect their healthcare premiums to rise nearly 13% this year-the largest jump in a decade-and to continue their double-digit climb in coming years, according to a recent survey of more than 2,800 employers nationwide. The...

Spend money to make money; Study: Medical groups benefit from ample budgets.(Medical Group Management Association)
January 21, 2002... For many businesses, increasing the number of midlevel staffers, raising the salaries of the best-paid employees and boosting expenses across the board usually don't translate into a financial windfall. Not so with America's most successful...

Debt will keep us together; Mount Sinai NYU Health fights rumors of split.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 21, 2002... As if merging two prominent, egocentric New York teaching hospitals was not difficult enough, Mount Sinai NYU Health is fighting the public perception that, like others before it, this great experiment in academic medicine has failed and the...

Life at the top; Philanthropy keeps Sloan-Kettering in the black.(Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center )
January 21, 2002... At least one New York hospital doesn't have to worry about weak operations. Philanthropy at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center runs so strong that short of giving away care, the cancer hospital says it delivers it far below cost. The...

Allina settles billing fraud case.(Allina Hospitals and Clinics)(Brief Article)
January 21, 2002... Allina Hospitals and Clinics, Minneapolis, last week settled allegations of Medicare billing fraud for $16 million and resolved the three whistleblower lawsuits that prompted the federal investigation. Allina did not admit guilt. Federal...

Web Survey.(Brief Article)
January 21, 2002... see printed publication for the following: December results: 'Looking forward to 2002'

A few key changes are on tap.
January 21, 2002... The keys to federal legislative success in 2002 aren't hard to figure out. Winning legislation is likely to cost little or nothing and have some momentum carrying over from last year. One exception may be in the area of bioterrorism...

Patient steering of another sort.(physicians believe capitated health insurance leads to inferior care)
January 21, 2002... More and more doctors, reacting to a personal perception that capitated health insurance leads to inferior care, are steering their sicker patients away from those plans, a new national survey has discovered. About one-third of all...

Henry Ford CEO plans to resign.(Henry Ford Health System, Gail Warden)(Brief Article)
January 21, 2002... Veteran hospital executive Gail Warden last week announced that he plans to step down as president and chief executive officer of five-hospital Henry Ford Health System in 2003 or 2004. Although the announcement came just days after...

Settling down; AHERF to pay $93.7 million to creditors, trusts.(Allegheny Health, Education and Research Foundation)
January 21, 2002... Closing another chapter in a bankruptcy that reads like an epic Russian novel, a large batch of lawsuits related to the 1998 collapse of the Allegheny Health, Education and Research Foundation was settled last week with a total of $93.7 million...

Which rules-state law or ERISA?; Patients' rights case before high court could have big impact on HMO enrollees.(Employee Retirement Income Security Act)(Brief Article)
January 21, 2002... While patient protection legislation remains stalled in Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court last week began hearing a case on whether states can require health plans to accept a second, outside opinion when there is a dispute with a patient over...

In Brief.(multiple brief articles)(Brief Article)
January 21, 2002... Year of stabilization ahead. It will be a ``year of stabilization'' for the healthcare industry's finances, Standard & Poor's said, predicting more credit-rating upgrades and positive outlooks after three years of decline. The New York-based...

Commentary page to debut.
January 21, 2002... Beginning with the Jan. 28 issue Modern Healthcare will publish commentaries written by outside contributors. The opinion articles should be clear, concise (approximately 850 words) and stick to one or two major points. They should not...

A new view of eye-care suit; Utah firm sees optometrists' case as groundless.
January 21, 2002... Citing a lack of proof or harm to consumers, Intermountain Health Care and its health plans last week sought to dismiss a $45 million November antitrust lawsuit filed against them and area ophthalmologists by 49 Salt Lake City-area optometrists...

Happy new year; New York lawmakers approve $1.8 billion to boost healthcare industry.
January 21, 2002... Christmas came a little late this year for New York's healthcare industry, but when it came, it showered gifts on everyone-from frontline hospital workers to the state's largest insurer, Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield. An election-year...

Henry Ford to cut and consolidate.(Henry Ford Health System)
January 21, 2002... Hoping to stem 2001 operating losses expected to top the $44 million lost in 2000, Detroit-based Henry Ford Health System will consolidate services at two hospitals, close three outpatient clinics and cut more than 500 jobs to achieve $70...

Costly coverage law; Battling uphill to change Hawaii's healthcare statute.(Prepaid Health Care Act,)
January 21, 2002... Hawaii employers and lawmakers are waging an uphill battle to amend a 27-year-old, federally protected healthcare statute that they see as outdated and detrimental to the state's small businesses. Called the Prepaid Health Care Act, the...

The little hospital that could; Rural Tennessee two-bed facility uses critical-access program to advantage.(Johnson County Health Center, Mountain City)(Medicare's critical-access hospital program)
January 21, 2002... When Lisa Heaton began reading stories about Medicare's critical-access hospital program, she wondered if Johnson County Health Center, Mountain City, Tenn., where she serves as administrator and chief nursing officer, would qualify. With...

`Wave of the future'; Leapfrog's release of hospital information sets off swell of activity.(Leapfrog Group)(National Quality Forum CEO Kenneth Kizer)
January 21, 2002... The man charged with shepherding in a new national era of healthcare quality called last week's release of hospital information by the Leapfrog Group the beginning of a revolution. ``This is the wave of the future; this is where it is...

Invitation only; HIMSS hopes survey will glean credible results.(Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society)
January 21, 2002... A widely cited healthcare industry survey on the uses of information technology has been overhauled to ensure that it represents the views of senior decisionmakers at provider organizations. Traditionally open to all comers at the...

A matter of antitrust; Revamp of task force appears to be up in air.(US Justice Department reorganization eliminates antitrust division's healthcare task force)
January 21, 2002... Less than two weeks after the U.S. Justice Department unveiled a controversial reorganization to eliminate its antitrust division's 17-attorney healthcare task force, a press conference on procedures for antitrust investigations, to be hosted...

The big fear: more Medicare payment cuts.
January 21, 2002... As the White House and Congress return to the familiar territory of deficit spending, they may also turn to a familiar remedy to stanch the bleeding: Medicare payment reductions. Most healthcare lobbyists fear that President Bush's budget...

Runaway costs; Runaway costsHealthcare inflation at highest level in 7 years.(Statistical Data Included)
January 21, 2002... Swelling prices for hospital services helped to drive healthcare inflation to its highest level in seven years during 2001, but industry observers said an era of big price increases could end soon. Healthcare prices rose 4.7% last year,...

Bankruptcy: Post-acute firms see slow recovery.(The Week in Healthcare)(Correction Notice)
January 28, 2002... Byline: Julie Piotrowski ***** Correction: * A graphic on p. 40 of the Jan. 28 issue listed an incorrect Chapter 11 emergence date for Kindred Healthcare, Louisville, Ky., The nursing home chain emerged from bankruptcy in April 2001....

Bankruptcy: Pa. firm's reorganization gets OK.(Home Health Corporation of America)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 28, 2002... Home Health Corporation of America, King of Prussia, Pa., said earlier this month it has emerged from Chapter 11 after receiving final approval from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., for its reorganization plan. The home-care...

Technology: AHA to take lead on IT; Catalyst role may speed pace of standardization.(American Hospital Association)(Brief Article)
January 28, 2002... The American Hospital Association last week detailed plans to play a catalyst's role in the standardization of information technology in healthcare, speeding up the glacial pace of progress among many industry groups. It's part of a larger...

Public Hospitals: Calif. hospital turns to voters.(Alameda Hospital)(Brief Article)
January 28, 2002... Beleaguered Alameda (Calif.) Hospital, home to the island community's only emergency room, is turning to the ballot box in a last-ditch effort to keep itself afloat. The 106-year-old facility is sponsoring a measure on the April 9 ballot...

Corrections & Clarifications.(Correction Notice)
January 28, 2002... * A story on Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York (Jan. 21, p. 22) incorrectly reported a Standard & Poor's bond rating. The underlying rating on Sloan-Kettering's $450 million in variable-rate bonds was AA. * Three-hospital...

Legal: Shelter for whistleblowers; Appeals court reinstates False Claims Act lawsuit.(in case involving the Minnesota Association of Nurse Anesthetists)(Brief Article)
January 28, 2002... A recent federal appeals court decision interpreting the federal False Claims Act may provide new support for whistleblowers. In reinstating a $1.3 billion, 7-year-old False Claims Act lawsuit in Minnesota, a three-judge panel from the 8th...

Absolute minimum; California announces its decision on nurse-staffing ratios, and other states watch and wait for the ripples to come their way.
January 28, 2002... Following months of waiting and almost two years of wrangling, California's hospitals learned last week how many patients the state government is likely to allow one nurse to legally manage. In an announcement that drew national attention and...

The hard lessons of September.(hospitals' roles in World Trade Center aftermath)(Brief Article)
January 28, 2002... The widespread anguish everyone was feeling on Sept. 11 finally hit home with me late that night on a street near my facility, NYU Downtown Hospital. A television reporter, who had in tow a family searching for a loved one who they believed was...

Inquiry: Red Cross under siege.(Public Citizen calls for congressional inquiry)(Brief Article)
January 28, 2002... Consumer advocates asked Congress to step in to spur improvements in the American Red Cross' violation-pocked blood safety record. Public Citizen, a Washington-based advocacy group, called on Congress to launch an inquiry after obtaining...

A new outlook; Our redesign is about more than just a prettier picture.(Brief Article)
January 28, 2002... Redesigning a magazine is a lot like family gatherings around the holidays. The first hour of the first party is great. Everyone loves everyone, and the smiles and hugs are plentiful. By the last hour of the last party, well, let's just say,...

Public Hospitals: Little deal may have big effect.(Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center will lease Bogalusa Community Medical Center)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 28, 2002... Bolstered by a new law that frees it to operate more like a business, Louisiana's public hospital system has reached a deal to take over the operations of 64-bed Bogalusa (La.) Community Medical Center. Although the transaction is relatively...

Quality: Critical-care push intensive.(University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine launches academic critical care medicine services)(Brief Article)
January 28, 2002... On the same day the Leapfrog Group released its controversial study on hospital quality earlier this month, a Pittsburgh medical school launched the nation's first academic department of critical-care medicine. Although the timing was...

Other voices.
January 28, 2002... ``(If politicians) would get outside the self-reverential Beltway and talk to GOP and Democratic governors, they might be startled to find a growing prairie revolution in favor of at least one reform: helping states expand the Children's Health...

Chains: Ardent to take Carraway apart.(Ardent Health Services to acquire Carraway Methodist Health Systems hospitals)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
January 28, 2002... Ardent Health Services, Nashville, wants to dismantle three-hospital Carraway Methodist Health System, Birmingham, Ala., the moment it closes on the purchase of the system. Ardent spokesman Michael Drescher confirmed that Province...