BSCF expands infection prevention program
More than 50 hospitals in California will be joining the Blue Shield of California Healthcare-Associated Infection Prevention Initiative, an effort to curb the millions of dollars that are spent each year on healthcare-associated infections, or HAIs. In February, the BSCF announced it would commit up to $4 million to fund the project. Over the next two years the initiative aims to reduce the number of patients contracting HAIs by 2,000, reduce the number of patient hospital days by 15,000 and reduce the cost to patients and hospitals by $30 million.
NYC hospital stays open, sells main campus
New York City’s Victory Memorial Hospital, a historic, not-for-profit voluntary hospital and skilled nursing center, will remain open as the result of a $44.9 million sale of its main campus in Brooklyn. The campus was purchased by Sunset LG Realty LLC. When the transaction is completed, it will be one of the first successful sales and restructurings of medical services at a hospital slated for closure by the Berger Commission, a non-partisan panel created by former New York Gov. George Pataki and the New York State Legislature to review the regional and local supply of hospital and nursing home beds throughout the state.
Houston healthcare group joins e-invoicing network
Memorial Hermann Healthcare of Houston will use electronic invoicing to automate its accounts payable and supply chain processes. The 14-hospital system has joined with Atlanta-based OB10, a B2B e-Invoicing network, in an effort to reduce processing costs. The network is designed to deliver suppliers’ invoices within minutes of their submission so that hospitals will be able to provide real-time invoice processing that will maximize the back-end purchasing card payments into supplier’s bank accounts.
Medicare awards nearly $25M in hospital P4P pilot
A pay-for-performance project has resulted in a 15.8 percent boost in quality over three years at 250 hospitals across the country, the Premier healthcare alliance reported in late June. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services awarded nearly $25 million under the joint initiative with Premier. CMS awarded incentive payments of more than $7 million to 112 top-performing hospitals in Year 3. The project, which ran from 2003 to 2006, has been extended by CMS for an additional three years through September 2009.