Care Coordination

The traditional hub and spoke model in healthcare, which puts hospitals at the center of care delivery, is changing to focus more on ambulatory care, according to a Jones Lang LaSalle report.

Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, Wash., reduced its emergency department throughput time 28.5 percent by sharing real-time data with staff, according to a report in Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's online library, "Promising Practices."

Saint Alphonsus Medical Center Nampa (Idaho) announced the completion of its new emergency department.

New Milford (Conn.) Hospital, a part of Danbury, Conn.-based Western Connecticut Health Network, announced that the health network has presented the New Milford Zoning Commission with plans for a $10.8 million emergency department at its facility.

Buffalo, N.Y.-based Kaleida Health announced that it will collaborate with Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo to provide cardiac care at its Gates Vascular Institute, also in Buffalo.

North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, based in Great Neck, N.Y., has entered into a clinical collaboration agreement with CVS Caremark's MinuteClinic.

Here are two recent examples of initiatives that have reduced emergency department visits by frequent ED users.

Hutchinson (Kan.) Regional Medical Center has announced its plans to embark on a $5 million expansion and renovation of its emergency department.

Piedmont Medical Center in Rock Hill, S.C., has received approval from Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare's board of directors, its parent company, to begin a $19.8 million expansion of its emergency department, according to a report by The Charlotte Observer.

In January 2012, St. Luke's Hospital in Cedar Rapids, part of Des Moines-based Iowa Health System, embarked on an initiative to reduce patients' non-emergency visits to the emergency department. Under St. Luke's ED Consistent Care Program, a committee of providers…