- Arkansas: The Arkansas College of Osteopathic Medicine begins classes next week for its inaugural class. The school's first class, comprised of 150 students, was selected from several thousand applicants, college officials said. Of the initial class, 64 percent come from the college's "service area" of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas, and 23 percent are first-generation college graduates (AP/Sacramento Bee, 8/1; Times Record, 4/18).
- Illinois: Hospital Sisters Health System (HSHS) has named Joan Coffman president and CEO of St. Mary's Hospital. Coffman, who is scheduled to start her new position Sept. 5, comes to St. Mary's from HSHS St. Joseph's Hospital, based in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, where she was president and CEO (Haefner, Becker's Hospital Review, 8/2).
- Indiana: A Veterans Affairs clinic in Peru plans to double its size next year. According to Jay Miller, associate director of operations for VA's Northern Indiana Health Care System, the clinic will expand to about 20,000 square feet, allowing it to treat about 6,000 veterans—up from about 3,000 currently. The clinic also plans to add three new primary care providers, for a total of six (AP/Sacramento Bee, 8/1).
Build the hospital of the future
The fundamental assumptions underpinning traditional acute care strategy are becoming increasingly weaker—which means current hospitals aren't suitable for future market demands.
This white paper shares tactics for significantly restructuring fixed costs by reallocating services across the system and rightsizing excess inpatient capacity.