Christian G. Zimmerman, MD, FACS, MBA, is chairman, medical director of Idaho Neurological Institute, and co-chairman, Spinal Medicine Institute, at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, ID.

CMS has approved Colorado's Medicaid eligibility expansion program that requires charging Colorado hospitals $600 million in fees to access matching federal Medicaid funds, according to a report by the Denver Post.

Carilion Stonewall Jackson Hospital in Lexington, Va., and Bedford (Va.) Memorial Hospital will be closing their maternity departments by the end of the year, according to a report in the Washington Post.

In a proposed strategic alliance, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix plans to shift many of its pediatric cases to Phoenix Children's Hospital so that St. Joseph's can focus on a few adult services, according to a report…

In 2006-2008, there were nearly 1 million patient safety events among Medicare patients, costing $8.9 billion, according to a new study by healthcare ratings organization HealthGrades. The number of incidents was virtually the same as reported in last year's study.

The trend over the last five years has been a continued, dedicated effort to establishing standards and steps for improving patient safety. Major accreditation agencies have become increasingly active in establishing guidelines and are joined by hospitals and surgery centers…

HCAHPS, or the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, is a standardized survey tool used to measure adult inpatient perception of the quality of care they receive at a given hospital. Developed by CMS and the Agency for…

If you are looking for the report on "Challenges Facing 10 Hospital Service Lines," please click here.Hospital nurses spend one-quarter of their time on non-patient care, such as fulfilling regulatory requirements, providing the same information several times and securing equipment…

Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downer's Grove, Ill., can be characterized as an organization that is constantly improving. Each year it works to make its already high patient and physician satisfaction ratings even higher. In the summer of 2004, the…

A recent study from the RAND Corp. found that hospitals in California spent over $193 million on air pollution-related hospital events from 2005-2007.