News in brief - May 2, 2005

Computer thieves take patient info - For-profit hospital chain grows - MinuteClinic hires medical director - Passport Health makes acquisition - Calif. nurse-staffing law goes into effect

Computer thieves take patient info

On March 28, the offices of San Jose (Calif.) Medical Group, a large multispecialty group, were burglarized and two computers containing the personal and medical information of 185,000 current and former patients were stolen.

The computers, which were stored behind the locked doors of an administrative office, contained the names, addresses, medical information and Social Security numbers of patients, according to a statement the group posted on its Web site.

The group has notified the affected patients by letter, urging them to contact credit bureaus and to place a fraud alert on their credit file to protect themselves against potential identity theft, though it had no indication that their information had been misused. Police are investigating the break-in.

For-profit hospital chain grows

LifePoint Hospitals Inc. has completed its acquisition of Province Healthcare Co., creating a company with 50 hospitals in mostly non-urban areas in 20 states.

The merger, valued at about $1.7 billion, was finalized on April 15, said Brentwood, Tenn.-based LifePoint. Leaders said the deal would help bring the company to the forefront of the hospital industry.

The merged company has approximately 5,285 licensed beds and would have had combined revenues of about $1.9 billion in 2004.

Prior to the merger, LifePoint operated about 29 hospitals, and Province owned or leased about 21 acute-care facilities.

MinuteClinic hires medical director

MinuteClinic, a Minneapolis-based company that has opened small no-appointments-needed medical clinics in Cub Food and Target stores in the Twin Cities and the Baltimore area, has hired a former medical director of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota as its medical director.

Jim Woodburn, MD, was the national account medical director of the Minnesota Blues plan. As MinuteClinic's medical director, Dr. Woodburn is responsible for "cultivating relationships with the physician community" in both Minnesota and Baltimore and in markets where the company plans to expand, MinuteClinic said in a news release. He also will work to get MinuteClinic accepted as an in-network provider for more insurance networks.

MinuteClinic was founded in 2000 and now owns 14 clinics. Its sites are staffed by nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

Passport Health makes acquisition

Passport Health Communications Inc., a Franklin, Tenn., claims clearinghouse, has agreed to acquire Healthworks Alliance Inc. Terms of the transaction, which is expected to close in May, were not disclosed.

Healthworks Alliance, King of Prussia, Pa., sells software and database applications that enable physician groups and hospitals to validate claims for compliance with insurance companies reimbursement requirements and to manage appeals of denied claims.

Calif. nurse-staffing law goes into effect

A law requiring California hospitals to have one nurse for every five patients, on the clock at all times, is finally being implemented after months of legal wrangling, eliciting cheers from nurses who say it will improve patient safety and cries from hospitals who say it is too great a burden.

The nurse-patient ratio was supposed to take effect in January, but emergency regulations backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger halted it, and a court battle was waged. But after a judge ruled to suspend the regulations in March, the state health department advised California's roughly 400 acute care hospitals to implement the measure.

That means the hospitals now have to meet the 5-to-1 minimum staffing level for all medical, surgical and medical-surgical mixed units, which covers most patient beds. Other hospital units already had staffing ratio requirements that took effect in 2004.

It also means that staffing ratios must be implemented at all times -- covering even when a nurse takes a break -- and that some of the staffing flexibility previously afforded to emergency departments is gone, said Ken August, spokesman for the California Dept. of Health Services.

Already, hospital leaders say the pinch is being felt. They claim that the measure is too burdensome because there aren't enough nurses available and the cost is overwhelming, especially to financially-strapped facilities.