Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, Ill., and Affinity Healthcare, a multi-specialty physician practice in Riverwoods, Ill., have signed a letter of intent to merge, according to a report by the Daily Herald.

Many hospitals are looking to buy up ASCs from physician-owners and convert them into hospital outpatient departments that command higher reimbursements than ASCs. Other hospitals are seeking to have HOPDs operate like ASCs. While physicians cannot directly own HOPDs, they…

On Feb. 11, David Thoene, managing member of Medical Surgical Partners, presented a Webinar titled "Hospital-Doctor Joint Ventures: A Highly Efficient Physician-Engagement Tool" that highlighted reasons for and benefits of creating hospital-physician ASC joint ventures. Here he addresses two questions…

Ohio State University's private physician practice, OSU Physicians, will join OSU Medical Center, according to a report by the Columbus Dispatch.

Marc Halley, CEO of Halley Consulting Group in Westerville, Ohio, has worked for many years with hospital-owned medical practice networks across the country, facilitating financial turnarounds, organizing effective governance between employed physicians and hospital executives and developing methods to improve…

Co-management arrangements are relatively new pay-for-performance programs whereby hospitals engage physicians to manage and improve entire hospital service lines (e.g., cardiovascular, orthopedics, etc.). These arrangements place emphasis on achievement of pre-established quality and performance metrics and can offer significant improvements…

Patients who are infected with methicillan-resistant Staphylococcus aureus after surgery are 35 times more likely to be readmitted to the hospital and can cost hospitals around $60,000 more than patients who are not infected, according to a report in American…

A recent study by Duke University Medical Center researchers found that post-surgical infections significantly increase the chance of hospital readmission and death and cost as much as $60,000 per patient, according to a Duke Medicine news release.

Leawood, Kan.-based Nueterra Healthcare, a leading developer and manager of physician-owned surgical facilities, has been recognized by CTQ Solutions for achieving an unparalleled level of patient satisfaction by achieving above average scores on all 29 key performance indicators measured by…

A mere 44 percent of hospital boards responding to a Health Affairs survey said that healthcare quality is among the top two criteria used to evaluate their CEOs, according to a report in American Medical News.