Daily roundup: May 17, 2012

Bite-sized hospital and health industry news

Topics: Around the Nation

May 17, 2012

  • Colorado: Colorado Public Radio/Kaiser Health News this week interviewed Phil Kalin—head of the Center for Improving Value in Health Care—about the upcoming launch of All Payer Claims Database, a secure database that will include claims data from commercial health plans, Medicaid, and Medicare for Colorado residents. The database will make Colorado one of 14 states that has or is working to implement a searchable database for health prices and quality (Whitney, Colorado Public Radio/Kaiser Health News, 5/16).
  • Connecticut: Hartford Hospital on Tuesday hosted U.S. Navy physicians for medical training using high-tech mannequins. The physicians tested their emergency care and diagnosis skills on the mannequin, which was controlled by a physician through a computer program that controls the mannequin’s pulse, breathing, and responses to questions through a microphone (Weir, Hartford Courant, 5/15).
  • Illinois: The Rockford Register Star over the weekend spotlighted continued renovations at 396-bed Rockford Memorial Hospital. The renovations are intended to modernize the hospital’s most trafficked three medical departments as part of a master plan to modernize the 60-year-old facility over the next three to five years. In addition, the Register Star notes that one of the hospital's biggest capital projects is the $40 million installation of a new electronic medical records system (Westphal, Rockford Register Star, 5/13).
  • Pennsylvania: The health care industry has replaced manufacturing as the biggest industry in the Pittsburgh region, in part because of UPMC's rapid growth. Currently, about one in five private-sector jobs in the area is in a hospital, physician's office, or other health care settings (Lee, Los Angeles Times, 5/13).

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