For the 10th straight year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is using the pressure of lower reimbursements to get hospitals to improve their numbers and cut down on the revolving door of readmissions.
Indiana University Health, the parent of Methodist Hospital, wants the sports medicine group to drop “Methodist” from its name.
The results seem to show that the pandemic is continuing to push hospitals to the limit, as patients flock to emergency rooms and surgical suites for care.
A federal judge in Indianapolis has tossed out Community Health Network’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department that alleges the hospital system engaged in a fraudulent scheme to keep patient referrals in its network.
The Affordable Care Act requires not-for-profit hospitals to tell patients about financial help, but it leaves the details for how that gets done or the extent of the assistance largely up to them. Patient counselors see little consistency.
Indiana University Health, the state’s largest hospital system, recently hired 700 traveling nurses to work in its 16 hospitals under 13-week contracts.
Riley Hospital for Children’s $142 million maternity tower is getting ready to make a big splash this fall in central Indiana’s highly competitive maternity-hospital market.
OrthoIndy is planning to expand its presence in Westfield by moving out of its current leased space and building a new $12.5 million facility all its own near State Road 32 and Austrian Pine Way. If approved, it could open to the public next summer.
Dr. Kris Box, the state health commissioner, said the National Guard teams are going to hospitals that have “exhausted all other options to staff their beds.”
The state ranks far lower—33rd—for “work environment,” according to the study, conducted by Wallet Hub, a financial consumer website.
Portia Bailey-Bernard of the Indy Chamber says projects like the $60 million redevelopment of the Stutz business campus and the expansion of IU Health’s downtown campus will help reshape the northern portion of downtown.
The problem, health leaders say, is twofold: Nurses are quitting or retiring, exhausted or demoralized by the crisis. And many are leaving for lucrative temporary jobs with traveling-nurse agencies that can pay $5,000 or more a week.
The order cites the recent strain on hospitals from the pandemic, and states they must report the number of hours each day they close their doors to ambulances bringing in new patients.
The state’s largest hospital system said the move was “needed to alleviate some of the enormous pressure our care teams are under and to reserve inpatient space for those who need it most.”
The Indiana Hospital Association on Tuesday said the recent surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations is putting a strain on the health care system. It said the situation could be avoided if Hoosiers would just get vaccinated.
On July 26, at least 10 hospitals across the Indianapolis area issued messages to ambulance drivers that their emergency rooms needed to limit incoming patients. Please try to find another destination, hospitals said. This is an extreme example of a phenomenon that has become much more common in recent months—ambulance diversions.
At emergency rooms across central Indiana, “No Vacancy” signs are flashing on at unprecedented rates.
Indiana University Health saw its earnings more than double in the first half of the year, to $414 million, compared to a year ago, as patients flocked back to hospitals and clinics, many for procedures they had postponed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The clock is ticking for workers at large hospital systems across central Indiana to get vaccinated for COVID-19 or risk losing their jobs.
Ascension’s decision to require vaccinations follows similar mandates by all three other major health systems here.
