Tom Oxholm, chairman of the WakeMed board, has written a letter to the editor apologizing to the public for Medicaid being billed for overnight stays when patients did not in fact stay overnight.
Read the latest story on the legal settlement WakeMed case
WakeMed and Duke Raleigh rehabilitation centers both won approval this week from the N.C. Medical Care Commission to increase the number of patient beds at their facilities.
The commission approved Certificates of Need for 12 new beds at Duke Raleigh, and it authorized eight of the 12 beds requested by WakeMed for its Raleigh campus, said Jim Jones, spokesman for the state Division of Health Service Regulation.
Rehab facilities benefit patients who are not ill enough to require hospitalization but need additional treatment, such as physical therapy or other special services following an accident, stroke, surgery or a major illness.
Certificates of Need are required for expansions of hospitals, nursing homes and other medical facilities to prevent overbuilding of medical facilities and help keep health-care costs under control.
This latest approval will allow WakeMed to expand the number of beds at its rehab hospital from 84 to 104. WakeMed was awarded 12 new rehab beds in November.
Stan Taylor, vice president of corporate planning at WakeMed, said WakeMed does not plan on appealing the state’s decision to approve the addition of eight beds rather than 12.
Certificate of Need requests submitted but turned down by the commission this week included Johnston County Hospital’s request for 18 beds and a proposal from the University of North Carolina Rehabilitation Center to expand by 12 beds.
Staff writer Renee Elder
WakeMed Health & Hospitals said Wednesday it will invest about $100 million over five years on a comprehensive, system-wide health record system, the largest IT investment in WakeMed's history. It will replace about 130 software programs and applications with a unified system that connects hospitals, clinics, pathology labs and doctors' offices on a single network.
WakeMed's decision to begin negotiations with Epic Systems culminates 18 months of vetting competing medical records systems. WakeMed expects to install the system in 2015, with staff training to get underway next summer.
The 8,300-employee health system's transition to electronic health records is prompted by the The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly called Obamacare. The health care law will reward doctors and hospital that use electronic records with Medicare and Medicaid patients, and penalize those that don't achieve certain usage levels with electronic records.
Other health systems are making similar investments. Duke University Health Systems is replacing 135 electronic networks with an Epic Systems product over seven years at a cost of more than $500 million.
WakeMed will hold a groundbreaking Friday for its new Garner Healthplex, which is being built on a 20-acre site off U.S. 70.
The 50,000-square-foot facility is expected to be completed by August. It will include a 12-bed emergency department, lab and imaging services and physicians offices.
WakeMed is spending $17 million on the project, and will hire 150 people to staff the facility.
The hospital system got approval from the state to build the Garner Healthplex in 2009.
WakeMed Health & Hospitals announced Monday that it is adding a general surgery practice in Harnett County next month.
The practice, called Harnett Surgical Associates, is being formed by two doctors, Tommy Chang and Sandy Hawkins-Rivers, who previously were a part of Village Surgical Associates in Dunn.
That office will close next month but the new practice will retain the same phone number.
Our series on hospitals began today. There's one online element that we couldn't put in the newspaper. Go here to see a hospital bill that shows how charges range all over the place at Triangle hospitals. A day in a cardiac intensive care room can bring a charge of $730, or $3265, depending on what hospital you're in. A chest x-ray? Anywhere from $98 to $394.
Reporter John Frank was at the meeting of the House Select Committee on State Assets, which was discussing whether UNC Health Care should own Rex Hospital, among other things. By John's account, it was not a very comfortable meeting for the UNC Health Care brass. Read his Dome post.
Recently, reporter Jane Stancill wrote a story talking about how the UNC system had lost a lot of its allies in the legislature. Her story and John's reporting today are connected.
WakeMed Health & Hospitals announced today that the family of Clarence and Alice Aycock Poe have donated the Longview House, also known as the Poe House, and two acres on which it sits.
WakeMed has also purchased an additional 13.5 acres of adjacent land where it expects to eventually expand its Raleigh campus off New Bern Avenue. The hospital system paid $4 million for the land last month.
WakeMed CEO Bill Atkinson said in a release that the hospital doesn't have any specific plans for the Poe property at the moment.
Clarence Poe was a notable civic leader and founder of The Progressive Farmer, once one of the South's most influential publications.
WakeMed Health & Hospitals will open its sixth emergency department in the county on Friday in the Brier Creek area of northwest Raleigh.
The 50,000-square-foot Brier Creek Healthplex includes an emergency department with 12 private treatment rooms, diagnostic imaging, lab services and physicians offices, including a Wake Orthopedics office.
Friday's event will run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. The first 500 visitors get a free first aid kit.
The center is located just off U.S. 70 at 8001 T.W. Alexander Drive.
WakeMed and Rex Healthcare announced new affiliations with medical groups today.
The Carolina Cardiovascular Surgical Associates is joining WakeMed's Wake Speciality Physicians Network while the Clinton Medical Clinic is joining the Triangle Physician Network, a joint network operated by Rex Healthcare and the UNC Health Care System.
CCSA includes four doctors and is led by W. Charles Helton.
The Clinton Medical Clinic has a staff of more than 65 that serves eastern North Carolina communities in Sampson and other surrounding counties.
Today's announcements are part of a trend of medical practices aligning themselves with large health care systems.
