California: Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital System interested in acquisitions
In January 2014, Santa Clara Valley Health and Hospital System (San Jose, CA) announced its interest in acquiring O’Connor Hospital (San Jose, CA) and Saint Louise Regional Hospital (Gilroy, CA) from Daughters of Charity Health System (Los Altos, CA). Buying one or two hospitals would eliminate the need to spend $600 million to replace about 100 licensed beds the county expects to lose because an older Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (San Jose, CA) building has not been seismically retrofitted. O’Connor and Saint Louise reportedly need anywhere from $10 million to $20 million of seismic work to meet standards beyond 2030. The acquisitions would also address the demand created by tens of thousands of county residents expected to sign up for health insurance under the state insurance exchanges. Any hospital purchase would have to be approved by at least three of the five Santa Clara County supervisors.
Virginia: Rappahannock General Hospital signs LOI to join Bon Secours Virginia Richmond Health System
Rappahannock General Hospital (Kilmarnock, VA) signed a letter of intent to join Bon Secours Virginia Richmond Health System (Richmond, VA), two years after they entered into a clinical affiliation agreement. The agreement will include the hospital, Chesapeake Medical Group (Kilmarnock, VA), and the hospital’s foundation. The agreement awaits applicable approvals.
DC: DoD uses EHR interface to help reduce VA disability claims backlog
The US Military Health System (DoD) (Washington, DC) launched the Health Artifact and Image Management Solution (HAIMS), which makes electronic health records automatically available to service members who have separated or discharged from the military since January 1, 2014, and also available to US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) (Washington, DC) providers, in order to help expedite disability claims. This is another attempt to reduce the disability claims backlog at the VA. The result is an interface from DOD to VA through HAIMS, which represents the two organizations working together collectively to solve a problem and coming up with a solution, a timetable, and a way to put the solution in place on schedule.