News in brief - Oct. 24/31, 2005

Physicians buy 2 Tenet hospitals - Florida Blues, Humana team up on EMR - Wiley acquires InfoPOEM - Two health networks move ahead

Physicians buy 2 Tenet hospitals

Tenet Healthcare Corp. plans to sell two California hospitals to a privately held group that is owned by doctors.

The Dallas-based hospital chain said it had reached an agreement to sell the 81-bed Community Hospital and 109-bed Mission Hospital, both of Huntington Park, to a company called Karykeion, which includes about 25 physicians on staff at the hospitals. The company was formed for the transaction. The sale, which is subject to regulatory approval, was expected to generate about $3 million in proceeds after taxes.

The hospital facilities are among 27 hospitals that Tenet said it would sell or divest as part of restructuring efforts announced in January 2004.

Florida Blues, Humana team up on EMR

Humana Inc. and BlueCross BlueShield of Florida announced Sept. 29 that they would offer authorized physicians access to their members' claims-based electronic medical record in 2006. The payer-based record will include patient demographic and clinical information contained in claims but will exclude results and diagnoses for psychiatric, substance abuse and HIV-related treatments. The insurers said their offering would help improve patient safety, care and reduce unnecessary services and fraud.

Wiley acquires InfoPOEM

Scientific publisher John Wiley & Sons announced Oct. 6 that it had acquired InfoPOEM, a Charlottesville, Va.-based company that sells evidence-based medicine content and a Web-based software that enables physicians to access that content at the point of care via handheld devices, desktop computers or online. Terms were not disclosed.

Two health networks move ahead

A Delaware initiative to implement a statewide health information network received start-up funding in the form of a $4 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The state, which has been working on the initiative for years, will receive $1 million annually over the next four years.

Separately, the San Diego County Medical Society selected Santa Clara, Calif.-based Sun Microsystems Inc. to provide the information technology infrastructure for its countywide health networking initiative, which is called the San Diego Medical Information Network Exchange. The initiative is seeking to link physicians, hospitals, health plans, pharmacies, laboratories and other entities so that they can easily exchange health information of San Diego county's 3 million residents.