CEDAR VALE, Kan.-The board of directors of 25-bed Cedar Vale Community Hospital said in a statement this month that it plans to close the hospital Aug. 31 because the facility does not generate enough operating capital to meet its obligations. The closing could be averted if the hospital finds a source of additional operating capital, the statement said. Neither directors nor administrators would elaborate on the statement.
OMAHA, Neb.-Nebraska's largest multispecialty medical group is changing its name from Physicians Clinic to Methodist Physicians Clinic in a move that is meant to reflect the group's 16-year affiliation with Methodist Health System. The name change reportedly started getting serious consideration last year after a survey of local consumers found that less than one-third of those polled were aware of the group's affiliation with Methodist. The survey also reportedly found that the system's 345-bed Methodist Hospital was the most-recognized and most-preferred hospital in the region. With more than 150 physicians on staff, Methodist Physicians Clinic has facilities in Nebraska City, Norfolk and Omaha in Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Glenwood and Red Oak in Iowa.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.-Northwest Community Hospital said it would begin construction this summer on a $250 million expansion and renovation project, now that the not-for-profit hospital has received permission for the four-year project from the Village of Arlington Heights. The project, expected to be completed in 2010, was approved by the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board in April. It includes an eight-story patient tower with 200 beds, a parking deck and remodeling of the current building. In all, the project will increase the 412-bed hospital's capacity to 488, as many of the new beds will be offset by remodeling shared patient rooms into private rooms. Bonds are financing half of the project's cost with the rest to be covered by reserves, philanthropic donations and operating funds, a Northwest spokesman said.
OVERLAND PARK, Kan.-Carondelet Health, Kansas City, Mo., said this month it has purchased a four-year option on 72 acres of land in Overland Park to build a hospital that would open in four to six years. Carondelet, a member of Ascension Health, St. Louis, operates two hospitals in Missouri: 272-bed St. Joseph Medical Center, Kansas City, and 134-bed St. Mary's Medical Center of Blue Springs. Nashville-based HCA owns two of the three acute-care hospitals for adults in Overland Park, a suburb of Kansas City, Mo. Kansas does not have a certificate-of-need law, but Carondelet said it will take six to nine months to obtain the permits and a zoning change needed to begin the project.
SPRINGFIELD, Mo.-Lester E. Cox Medical Centers said it closed its Cox North campus to acute-care inpatients as part of its plan to tear down the main hospital building and erect three new buildings. With the loss of attached inpatient beds, the Cox North emergency department is now classified as an urgent-care center under Missouri regulations, but the department offers the same services and staffing levels as before, spokesman Chris Whitley said. Cox North is still accepting behavioral inpatient admissions. The three new buildings will host the behavioral department, including inpatient beds; the Cox College of Nursing and Health Sciences; and the third building will be split between the urgent-care center and Cox's family medicine residents. Other non-inpatient departments will move into a building on the campus that will be renovated. Demolition of the main hospital building could begin as soon as early next year, Whitley said.
KANSAS CITY, Mo.-St. Luke's Health System acquired the assets and liabilities of Cushing Memorial Hospital, Leavenworth, Kan., effective July 1, for undisclosed terms. St. Luke's had managed the 74-bed hospital for five years under contract. Joining St. Luke's in full will give Cushing patients better access to the system's specialists and improve physician recruitment at Cushing. St. Luke's will form a new governing board for Cushing that will consist primarily of Leavenworth-area residents. Including Cushing, St. Luke's owns or operates nine hospitals.
COLUMBUS, Ohio-A new state law requires hospitals to report data on performance measures by April 2007 to a state Web site and to report average charges for their top 60 outpatient procedures by May 2007. Hospitals already are required to report average charges and volumes for their top 100 inpatient procedures-information that also will be available on the Web site. The law, signed earlier this month by Gov. Bob Taft, replaces an earlier mandate requiring hospitals to report data on 136 performance measures in nine service areas. The state health director will select a new set of performance measures developed or endorsed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the CMS, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations or the National Quality Forum. In addition, hospitals must post on their Web sites a price list with charges for room, board and other items. The state estimates it will spend $3 million to implement the new Web-based reporting system and an additional $2 million a year to operate it. Hospitals that use billing services are expected to pay vendors an estimated 25 cents per patient visit to aggregate and transmit the data to the state.
DAVENPORT, Iowa-Three-hospital Genesis Health System said in June it would cut 100 positions, or 2% of its workforce, and close a private-duty nurse division and a transitional-care unit at 427-bed Genesis Medical Center-Davenport, accounting for half the positions. Some of the positions cut may be unfilled, a spokesman said. The system blamed rising charity care, Medicare and Medicaid shortfalls, and higher expenses. Genesis earned estimated net income of $10.5 million on $466.7 million in revenue for its fiscal year ended June 30, the spokesman said. Projected charity care rose 1% to $8.5 million.
CINCINNATI-Prexus Health Partners filed plans to build a medical complex that would include a 30-bed surgical hospital in New Albany, Ind., across the Ohio River from Louisville, Ky. Tentative plans call for a 60,000-square-foot facility and a separate 10,000-square-foot building. Prexus, formerly known as Premiere Healthcare Partners, operates surgery centers in the Cincinnati area, as well as the eight-bed Butler County (Ohio) Medical Center in Hamilton, a small for-profit surgery hospital co-owned by local physicians.
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Northwest Community expects to finish the project in 2010.
