July 29, 2010 at 2:24 p.m.
Filed under:
Education,
Health care
By Bruce Japsen
An initiative designed to transform health care that was once led by First Lady Michelle Obama on Chicago’s South Side has linked more than 5,600 largely low income patients to a medical home in five years, but has faced challenges in helping these people maintain a relationship with a doctor or clinic, executives at the University of Chicago said today.
Five years after the Urban Health Initiative was launched by executives at the University of Chicago Medical Center and its then vice president of community affairs Michelle Obama as a way to educate patients on the best use of the emergency room, the effort has grown into a network of 25 community-based clinics and other providers of medical-care on a budget of more than $6 million a year. It is now poised to escalate research initiatives and teaching opportunities for physicians in hopes of becoming a national model for medical care in urban areas of the U.S. Get the full story »
July 15, 2010 at 4:08 p.m.
Filed under:
Health care
By Bruce Japsen
Chicago may have lost out on the heart-stopping NBA talent of Lebron James but may be getting the next best thing Cleveland can offer to repair damaged aortas and clogged cardiac arteries.
In a move likely to shake up the market for heart care in the Chicago area, the well-known Cleveland Clinic’s cardiac surgery program said Thursday that it has signed an affiliation agreement with Central DuPage Hospital in the western Chicago suburbs. Get the full story »
July 15, 2010 at 7:57 a.m.
Filed under:
Health care
By Bruce Japsen
Swedish Covenant Hospital on Chicago’s Northwest Side said it has opened a comprehensive back care center executives hope will position its growing campus for the future demands of health reform.
Known as the Chicago Back Institute, the hospital said it has invested $2.5 million in the project, including upgrades of existing neurological surgery equipment and purchasing new minimally invasive devices. Get the full story »
July 8, 2010 at 5:58 p.m.
Filed under:
From Crain’s Chicago Business | United Shockwave, a Des-Plaines based company that provides laser-based equipment to crush kidney stones, will pay out $7.3 million to settle charges that it received kickbacks from hospitals in exchange for patient referrals.
July 8, 2010 at 6:15 a.m.
Filed under:
Health care,
Litigation
By Melissa Harris
A group of doctors at Rush University Medical Center’s prestigious orthopedic department routinely overbooked their schedules and relied heavily on residents to perform surgeries, violating federal Medicare billing rules, according to a newly unsealed whistle-blower lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago.
The suit alleges that in one instance, a surgeon never entered the operating room to supervise a procedure. In others, a surgeon monitored residents performing operations via video feed while simultaneously performing his own operations in nearby rooms.
