Hospitals

MetroHealth to participate in national program to improve patient safety, quality — MedCity Evening Read, Dec. 9, 2009

MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland is one of 42 public hospitals selected to participate in the Patient Safety Initiative at America’s Public Hospitals program, which aims to improve patient safety and quality.

By Mary Vanac on December 10, 2009

News and notes from a day in MedCity, Ohio:

MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland is one of 42 public hospitals selected to participate in a program that aims to improve patient safety and quality, according to Crain’s Cleveland Business. Under the Patient Safety Initiative at America’s Public Hospitals, hospitals will try to boost patient safety and quality care, share best practices on safety, and create patient and community programs to build confidence in care at public hospitals. Local doctors, safety and quality leaders and hospital executives will be part of the effort, the outcomes of which will be measured.

Gov. Ted Strickland has tapped one of his top policy advisers to oversee Ohio’s Medicaid programs, according to the Columbus Dispatch. Amy Rohling McGee, 39, of Columbus, was named interim executive director of the Executive Medicaid Management Administration. She replaces Cristal Thomas, who left after she was appointed by the Obama administration as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Region V director in Chicago. McGee has been Strickland’s executive assistant for health and human services policy since 2007.

The state is partnering with four large retail chains to give all Ohioans access to flu treatment drugs this season, according to an Associated Press story in the Akron Beacon Journal. The Ohio Department of Healthhas agreed with Giant Eagle, Kroger, Meijer and Walgreens to send them medications from the state supply if their commercial supplies run out. The stores can charge patients an administrative fee of up to $3.70. The state has roughly 1.5 million courses of treatment available, mostly Tamiflu, and said it can get more from the federal government.

Franklin County Commissioners Paula Brooks, Marilyn Brown and John O’Grady intend to provide $7 million over five years to fund clinical research and community outreach efforts to prevent premature births. Â Nationwide Children’s Hospital said today that preterm birth is the largest contributor to infant mortality in Franklin County, accounting for almost one-third of infant deaths. The funding will support a new community prevention initiative — Ohio Better Birth Outcomes — which is a collaborative effort between the county’s health systems, government and community organizations.

Between manufacturing facilities and patients stand many middlemen involved in the distribution and financing of pharmaceuticals, according to a report by Morningstar Inc. These include drug wholesalers like Cardinal Health in Dublin. Cardinal counts drugstore retailers Walgreen and CVS as its two biggest customers. Bulk deliveries to the warehouses of such large customers carry operating margins around 0.4 percent, compared with roughly 2 percent for non-bulk deliveries. As bulk customers steadily account for a larger percentage of sales, overall operating margin will decline.

Cleveland’s aspirations of being a leading center of biomedical device manufacturing could take a step forward when the Medical Mart and Convention Center opens in 2013, according to Site Selection magazine. The center, being developed by MMPI— manager of Chicago’s Merchandise Mart, among other properties — will bring together buyers and sellers of medical equipment and help showcase Cleveland’s substantial health care and biotech communities. “Cleveland is on the path to develop the critical mass for a sustainable biomedical industry cluster,” says Peter Gingras, president and CEO of Proxy Biomedical Inc., an Irish biomaterials company that opened a facility in the city within the year.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat, Â announced that four Ohio community health centers have been awarded $24.8 million for facility improvement and new technology through the Community Health Centers Facility Investment program. Butler County Community Health Consortium Inc. will receive $4,669,197; Capital Park Family Health Center in Franklin County, $4,417,688; Healthsource of Ohio Inc. in Clermont County, $9,764,690; and Muskingum Valley Health Centers Inc. in Morgan County, $5,997,980.