Featuring hospital and health care headlines from the media and Web.

Iowa News

Cedar Rapids health care leaders going to Washington to help redesign system
Area health care leaders will travel to Washington, D.C., next week to lead efforts in redesigning health care. Ted Townsend, CEO of St. Luke’s Hospital and a member of the IHA Board, and Tim Charles, CEO of Mercy Medical Center, are among the group invited to attend the meeting May 26-27 by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (KCRG)

Rock Rapids announces major land acquisition
Rock Rapids community leaders gathered before a crowd of nearly 150 people Friday to announce the purchase of 146 acres of land on the city’s west side for commercial development, a water retention pond, single and multi-family housing construction and a possible building project for Merrill Pioneer Community Hospital. (Worthington Daily Globe)

Hospital mourns 2 crash deaths
Two deaths weighed heavy on the staff of St. Anthony Regional Hospital in Carroll, Iowa, on Friday. The staff lost one of their own, nurse Sheryl Stoolman, as well as one entrusted to their care, patient Norbert Hoffman, 75, when an ambulance crashed into the back of a semitrailer truck Thursday in Boone County. That accident left the staff reeling. “We miss her,” said Gary Riedmann, president of St. Anthony. (Omaha World Herald)

Fort Dodge nurse compelled to care for others
For Valerie Wubben, a registered nurse who works for Trinity Regional Medical Center in the cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation unit giving hope and help to patients who have been given a second chance at life, is the heartbeat of her job. (Fort Dodge Messenger)

Reform to help clinical trials
National health care reform and a new state law have removed one of the obstacles for cancer patients who choose to participate in clinical trials. The new laws will require third-party payers to support standard medical costs for patients who participate in clinical trials such as regular doctor visits and CT scans. (Iowa City Press-Citizen)

Liquid gold: Covenant now a depot for donated breast milk
Covenant Medical Center became a drop-off depot for the milk bank on May 1. The milk bank collects, stores and distributes human milk to those who request and need it. Jean Drulis, co-founder of the Mother’s Milk Bank of Iowa, said the substance, often referred to as liquid gold, is especially important for premature infants because it contains unique proteins, fats, carbohydrates, enzymes and immune system boosters the tiny babies need. (Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier)

U.S. News

Insurance regulators wrestle with definition of ‘unreasonable’ rate increases
The definition is critical because the health care reform law requires review and justification for premium increases deemed unreasonable, starting this year. Federal regulators do not have authority to outright deny rate increases, although the provision could help them pressure insurers hold down premiums. (Kaiser Health News)

$35M for Dartmouth health care delivery center
The historic health care overhaul legislation President Barack Obama signed in March will give millions of Americans access to health care, but “the real rocket science in health care right now is in the delivery,” said Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim, who has been promoting the idea of a national institute on health care delivery since arriving at Dartmouth last July. (Associated Press)

Climate changes for medical devices
Hospitals lack leverage when negotiating prices for high-cost implants like defibrillators and replacement hips because individual doctors, rather than hospitals, typically select the products they use in their patients. Since these doctors often aren’t hospital employees, they have little incentive to bargain-hunt. New health rules, however, call for more testing of ways to bring doctors’ financial interests more in line with those of hospitals. (Wall Street Journal)

States’ budget crisis hitting the most vulnerable: children
All over the country, the financial crisis has forced states to make historic cuts to close what the National Conference of State Legislatures found was an overall budget gap of $174.1 billion this fiscal year and has lawmakers looking to trim another $89 billion next year. That means slashing services to the one population they’ve long protected: children. The scope of the cuts is unprecedented, child advocates say. (Los Angeles Times)

Workplace set to remain key source of health coverage
The share of Americans who get health coverage through their jobs has been declining gradually for years, dropping to 63.3 percent of working-age adults in 2008. The question now is whether the new health law will accelerate that trend, and induce more employers and workers to turn to government coverage options. In the near term, at least for the total figures, that is unlikely. (Wall Street Journal)

Illinois hospitals achieve low infection rates
Some Illinois hospitals, including those in the Quad Cities, have successfully tackled their central line-associated infections, pushing their numbers close to zero, according to the new edition of the Illinois Hospital Report Card and Consumer Guide to Health Care. Some have gone a year or longer without a single one of these potentially fatal infections. (Chicago Tribune)

Oklahoma hospital fee proposal draws debate
A hospital fee could generate about $73 million to be use as state matching funds for health care, according to a recent proposal from the state’s hospital association. Those state dollars could attract about $136 million in federal health care dollars, officials with the Oklahoma Hospital Association said Friday. Hospitals would pay a 0.49 percent fee on all patient revenue and the fee would end in 2014, according to the proposal. (Oklahoma City Oklahoman)

Hospitals face levy to fund coverage
Many Massachusetts hospitals would be required to make a one-time contribution to a fund to help small businesses pay for health insurance, under legislation that the state Senate will vote on Tuesday. (Boston Globe)