APPOINTMENTS
· Steve Blades became the interim chief executive officer for the Louisiana Heart Hospital on the Northshore in August. The Cardiovascular Care Group, Lacombe, La., acquired the hospital last year from the MedCath Corp. Blades will replace Charles Nasem, who was CEO for the past nine months and is leaving to pursue a new opportunity in Oklahoma City. Prior to joining CCG, Blades was executive vice president and COO of Cardiovascular Care Affiliates.
· José Baselga, M.D., will become physician-in-chief of Memorial Hospital, New York City, on Jan. 1. His responsibilities will include the management of patient care delivery in Memorial Hospital as well as at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center clinics and regional sites. Currently, Baselga is chief of the division of hematology/oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate director of the MGH Cancer Center.
· James LaBelle, M.D., will become chief medical officer and corporate senior vice president of Scripps Health, San Diego, on Jan. 1. He will succeed Brent Eastman, M.D., who will retire in at the end of the year. LaBelle is currently corporate vice president for quality, medical management and physician co-management at Scripps.
· The American Society for Healthcare Engineering of the American Hospital Association elected Philip C. Stephens president-elect for 2013; he will become ASHE president in 2014. He is the FMG senior specialist at Carolina Health Systems in Charlotte, N.C. Stephens will succeed Mark A. Kenneday, who will become president on Jan. 1.
· Michael Regier became vice president, legal affairs, and chief legal officer for the Atlantic Health System, Morristown, N.J., in September. Regier joined Atlantic Health System following five years as senior vice president, legal and corporate affairs and general counsel for VHA Inc.
· Mark McPhee, M.D., became senior vice president of clinical coordination of Truman Medical Centers, Kansas City, Mo. McPhee was a founding partner of Mid-America Gastro-Intestinal Consultants, GI Diagnostics Inc. and Plaza Gastroenterology Associates.
· Joy Curtis became senior vice president for human resources Cambridge Health Alliance, which operates three hospital campuses and a network of primary and specialty care practices in Cambridge, Somerville and Boston's metro-north communities in Massachusetts. The appointment formalizes the duties she has covered on an interim basis since July 2011. Previously, Curtis was chief people officer at international law firm Ropes & Gray, LLP, in Boston.
· Stan B. Berry became corporate vice president and chief executive officer for Adventist Health home care services, Roseville, Calif., on Oct. 1. For the past five years Berry was the administrator of Shriners Hospitals for Children in Honolulu.
·Nia Wright, R.N., became senior director of surgical services at Anne Arundel Medical Center, Annapolis, Md. She joined AAMC in 2010.
ACQUISITIONS
· Catholic Health Initiatives, Englewood, Colo., and PeaceHealth, Vancouver, Wash., signed a nonbinding letter of intent to create a new regional health care system. The partnership will create an integrated health system in the region, combining seven Catholic Health Initiatives hospitals in Washington and Oregon with nine PeaceHealth hospitals in Washington, Oregon and Alaska. Leaders of Catholic Health Initiatives and PeaceHealth expect to form the new system before June 30, 2013, after completing the due diligence and approval process. The two organizations will be equal partners in the fully integrated health care system serving the northwest region.
· MedStar Health, Columbia, Md., will acquire Southern Maryland Hospital Center, Clinton, Md. SMHC will be MedStar's 10th hospital and its seventh in the state of Maryland.
· Aurora Health Care, Milwaukee, and Iasis Healthcare, Franklin, Tenn., announced a wide-ranging partnership that includes a joint venture, Aurora Iasis Health Partners, to pursue health care acquisitions, new construction, management of facilities and development of clinical services with an initial focus on new and existing markets in Wisconsin and northern Illinois. The first project will be a cancer care center in Kenosha, Wis. In addition to the joint venture, not-for-profit Aurora and for-profit Iasis are exploring a variety of other affiliations, including sharing clinical practices and leveraging operational capabilities across the two organizations.
· The Marquette ( Mich.) General Health System Board of Trustees and Duke LifePoint Healthcare finalized the transaction for Marquette General to be acquired by Duke LifePoint. Under the terms of the agreement, Duke LifePoint will invest $350 million in capital improvement projects and physician recruitment over the next 10 years. As part of the acquisition, Marquette General's pension program has been fully funded and Duke LifePoint has assumed the hospital's obligations for all active employees under its contract with the Michigan Nurses Association.
· Ascension Health Alliance, the parent organization of Ascension Health, signed a memorandum of understanding with Marian Health System intended to lead to the three regional health systems that comprise Marian Health System becoming part of Ascension Health. Marian Health System was founded in 1989 and is sponsored by the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother. It consists of three regional systems: Via Christi Health in Wichita, Kan., which is currently an Ascension Health affiliate; Ministry Health Care in Milwaukee; and St. John Health System in Tulsa, Okla. The organizations anticipate completing the process and reaching a definitive agreement by the end of the first quarter of 2013.
· Care New England and Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island have cleared the first step in their partnership discussions with the signing of a letter of intent. The two entities entered into exclusive discussions in June noting that a partnership between MHRI and CNE could create an integrated delivery network as the health care system transforms into a new population-based model.
· Memorial Health System in August joined University of Colorado Health. Colorado Springs voters agreed to lease Memorial to UCHealth, a decision that brings approximately $1.8 billion to the city over time. The decision, made in a special election, marks the first change in governance for Memorial since it was acquired by the city of Colorado Springs in 1943. Although the city will retain ownership of Memorial's buildings, the organization's employees and operations will be transferred to UCHealth. Additionally, Memorial Hospital for Children will now be operated by Children's Hospital Colorado. UCHealth formed earlier this year when Aurora-based University of Colorado Hospital and Fort Collins-based Poudre Valley Health System merged.
· HealthPartners and Park Nicollet Health Services signed an agreement to combine their organizations and create a comprehensive, integrated health care delivery and financing organization serving the entire Twin Cities metro area in Minnesota and western Wisconsin. The agreement will unite the nonprofit organizations under a combined, consumer-governed board of directors, creating a 1,500-physician multispecialty group practice integrated with the HealthPartners health plan. The combined operations will include Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park; four HealthPartners hospitals Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Lakeview Hospital in Stillwater, Hudson Hospital in Hudson, Wis., and Westfields Hospital in New Richmond, Wis.; and a comprehensive system of medical and dental clinics across the Twin Cities and western Wisconsin.
· Baptist Healthcare assumed ownership of the Baptist Health Richmond (formerly Pattie A. Clay Regional Medical Center) in Richmond, Ky. Kentucky's Baptist Health owns five acute care hospitals with more than 1,600 licensed beds in Louisville, Lexington, Paducah, Corbin and La Grange, and manages the 300-bed Hardin Memorial Hospital in Elizabethtown.
PROJECTS
· Longview (Texas) Regional Medical Center Work started a 175,000-square-foot expansion. The project will add nearly 100 acute care, private rooms; a three-story tower; and also third and fourth floors to the medical center's existing tower. The new fourth floor will house the medical center's intensive care unit. The 12 existing ICU beds will relocate from the first floor and 12 beds will be added to the unit. The first floor also will be renovated and expanded into a 31-bed surgical unit. The 25-bed intermediate care unit, on the second floor will expand to 33 beds. Eight oncology beds will be added, bringing the total to 41 beds in those two areas. Inpatient renovation and expansion on the third floor will expand women's services throughout the floor. A new main entrance and a new emergency department entrance are planned. The expansion and renovation will be done in phases and is slated for completion in late 2013. Ascension Group Architects, Arlington, Texas, is the architect for the expansion project.
· The St. Anthony North Medical Pavilion (a hospital-affiliated freestanding emergency department and medical office building) in Westminster, Colo., was completed in August. The $26 million, 48,000-square-foot medical pavilion was developed in collaboration with NexCore Group LP, a real estate developer, and St. Anthony North Hospital, a full-service, acute care community hospital and member of Centura Health. The two-story medical pavilion is the first facility to be constructed on St. Anthony North's 35-acre Greenfield campus.
· Construction is under way on a $5.8 million, 23,000-square-foot renovation of the eighth floor of the Shoenberg Pavilion on the Barnes-Jewish Hospital north campus in St. Louis. The renovation will create a new 25-bed patient division while relocating an ICU. McGrath & Associates is the general contractor and construction manager on the project, which began in July 2012 and will be completed in May 2013. OWH Inc. is the architect.
· On Sept. 6, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford broke ground on a $1.2 billion expansion that will add 521,000 square feet of building space and more than 3.5 acres of healing gardens and space to the facility's existing 293,000 square feet in Palo Alto, Calif. The expansion is adding 150 patient rooms, space for advanced diagnostic and treatment therapies, new patient care units and expanded support services.
· Construction has begun on the $12 million Aquilino Cancer Center on the Shady Grove Adventist Hospital campus in, Rockville, Md. The freestanding, three-story, 51,000-square-foot comprehensive cancer center is slated to be completed by next summer.
· The 48,000-square-foot HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital in Cypress, Texas, is finished. The 40-bed hospital provides comprehensive inpatient and outpatient physical and occupational therapy services. Gresham, Smith and Partners design services for the new HealthSouth facility included architecture and interior design. It was built by Hoar Construction Co.
NAME CHANGE
· Indiana Heart Hospital, part of Community Health Network, is changing its name to Community Heart and Vascular Hospital. Community Heart and Vascular Hospital is located in Indianapolis, on the Community Hospital North campus.
