Archived California Healthcare News

How good a hospital is St. Mary Mercy Livonia Hospital in Michigan? Depends on whom you ask. The Leapfrog Group, a respected nonprofit that promotes patient safety, gave an “A” to St. Mary Mercy. The company Healthgrades named it one of America\'s best 50 hospitals. But the Joint Commission and U.S. News and World Report omitted St. Mary from their best hospital lists. Consumer Reports gave it an average safety score of 47 points out of 100, citing high numbers of readmissions, poor communication with patients and excessive use of scans. Medicare, which has a new program rewarding hospitals for meeting certain quality measures, is reducing St. Mary\'s payments by a fraction this year.

Hospitals in California and elsewhere are taking more steps to combat potentially deadly infections of Clostridium difficile among its patients, but are being mostly thwarted in their attempts to curb new cases. The bacterial infection, known in healthcare as C. diff, is typically hospital-acquired and kills about 14,000 patients nationwide every year. In California, there were more than 13,300 such infections reported by hospitals between March 2010 and March 2011, according to data they submitted to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development.

A bill requiring California\'s acute care facilities to provide certain levels of charity care in order to preserve their not-for-profit status has pitted the hospital sector against the legislation\'s labor-oriented backers. Assembly Bill 975, co-authored by Assemblymen Rob Bonta, D-Oakland, and Bob Wiecowski, D-Fremont, would mandate not-for-profit hospitals spend a minimum of 8% of their annual operating margin on charity care starting in 2015. If the hospital operates any outpatient clinics, the clinics would also have to spend 5% of their net annual revenues on charity care.

Illinois plans to more than double the annual licensing fees it charges physicians in an attempt to strengthen sanctions against bad physicians and speed up the disciplinary process. Gov. Pat Quinn said he intended to sign the bill, which was passed by the state House of Representatives last week, into law

Indiana University Health Tables Critical Care Tower

The Indiana University Health system has decided to indefinitely postpone construction on a new 250-bed inpatient critical care tower.

DHCS Selects Health Plans For Rural Expansion

The California Department of Health Care Services has selected four health plans to expand the Medi-Cal managed care program into 28 mostly rural counties.

A new study by UCLA researchers has discovered a link between low levels of English proficiency among health plan enrollees and difficulty in accessing healthcare. According to the study, which was undertaken by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, as many as 1.3 million Californians with limited proficiency in the English language are enrolled in health maintenance organizations. Most are enrolled in plans that are designed to serve low-income enrollees, although nearly 10% are enrolled in commercial plans.

David P. Blom is one of thousands of hospital executives across the country who are bracing for a reduction in Medicare payments as part of a series of federal spending cuts that began last week. Blom, 58, is president and chief executive officer of OhioHealth, a Columbus, Ohio, based not-for-profit healthcare system that includes 18 hospitals, 23 health and surgery centers, home-health providers and other facilities.

Few Participate In Medical Research

A new study by the University of Michigan concludes that only a small percentage of Americans participate in medical research.