Parkland Hospital struggles with 1,300 unfilled positions; Largest Boston hospitals pay chiefs up to $3 million

Aug 17 2012

Local news outlets report on developments at area hospitals.

The Dallas Morning News: Parkland Staffing Reaches 'Crisis Mode' -- Over 1,300 Unfilled Positions
Vacant jobs at Parkland Memorial Hospital have reached "crisis mode" -- almost 16 percent, or more than 1,300 unfilled positions -- a top official said Wednesday. Parkland's board of managers was presented a grim picture of an understaffed facility and a lagging effort to keep track of how many jobs were available. The situation was further crippled by the hospital's inability to process tens of thousands of job applications. ... The vacancies have forced the hospital's remaining staff to work extra hours, causing some employees to simply quit, especially overworked nurses (Jacobson, 8/15).

The Boston Globe: Boston-Area Hospital Bosses Earn Up To $3 Million
Chief executives for the Boston-area's largest hospitals mostly earned pay packages between $1 million and $3 million in 2010, and several received bonuses for attracting more patients, improving care, or simply by agreeing to take the job. Several large academic medical centers changed leaders during 2010, making it difficult to compare salaries from prior years. In at least two cases -- Boston Children's Hospital and Tufts Medical Center -- hospitals awarded their top executives sizeable increases (Kowalczyk, 8/16).

Kaiser Health News: Denver Health: Low Readmission Rate Not Easy To Emulate
If Denver Health can do it, every hospital ought to be able to do it. That's the implicit challenge of the new Medicare penalties for high hospital readmission rates that will be hitting 2,211 American hospitals come October. Denver Health, despite being a safety net hospital, won't be paying a penalty: It has an enviably low readmission rate. But there's a problem says Medicare's poster child: Denver Health's quality chief calls the new policy imprecise and perhaps unfair, too (Whitney, 8/16).

Los Angeles Times: Hoag, St. Joseph Form Hospital Partnership In Orange Country
Two nonprofit hospital companies with a major presence in Orange County announced plans for a partnership as the federal health care law spurs more consolidation nationwide. St. Joseph Health System and Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian said Wednesday they have agreed on an affiliation among seven of their hospitals in Southern California (Terhune, 8/15).

Minneapolis Star Tribune: Minn. Hospitals Outpace Nursing Homes In Flu Shot Program
Minnesota nursing homes are lagging behind hospitals in a state program designed to boost flu vaccination rates among health workers, officials said Wednesday. Last year, 197 health facilities took part in the program, known as FluSafe, and 42 succeeded in vaccinating at least 90 percent of their employees, said a report by the Minnesota Department of Health. So far, nearly 75 percent of Minnesota hospitals have joined the voluntary program since it started in 2010, but only about 25 percent of the state's nursing homes have done so, officials acknowledged (Lerner, 8/15).