TriStar Southern Hills Files CON

In December, TriStar Southern Hills Medical Center filed a Certificate of Need application for a free-standing emergency room to be built on 14 acres at the intersection of Old Hickory Boulevard and American General Way, just east of I-65. The filing follows a CON application submitted by the hospital in November to relocate an outpatient surgery center from the Southern Hills campus to its new satellite campus at the former AIG property, which HCA purchased in early 2014.

According to a statement from officials, the need for emergency services and outpatient surgical services in communities served by TriStar Southern Hills continues to grow. In the past 5 years, the hospital has seen emergency room visits increase by 24 percent, while overall admissions increased by 19 percent. The proposed emergency room is estimated to be an $11 million investment and includes a medical office building to accommodate physicians who plan to use the proposed relocated surgery center.

HSDA Approves New Alive Hospice Facility

In late November, the Tennessee Health Services and Development Agency approved Alive Hospice's plan to build a $10.8 million, free-standing hospice facility in Murfreesboro. The 10-bed, 21,300-square-foot facility, which will be located near Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital, will be the company's first inpatient facility in that county and will offer both adult and pediatric hospice care. Groundbreaking will occur later this year with a projected opening in June 2016.

Medalogix Named a Finalist in National Challenge

Nashville-based health technology company Medalogix, which provides analytic solutions in the post-acute care market, has been named a finalist in the Health Acceleration Challenge. Of nearly 500 applicants – including institutions like the Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, Kaiser Permanente, MD Anderson and more – Medalogix was chosen as one of only four finalists and has won $37,500 from the Harvard Business School, the administrator of the challenge.

The company will have a case study written about its innovative approach to end-of-life care by Harvard Business School, will present to senior healthcare execs at the Forum on Health Care Innovation conference in April and will compete for a $50,000 grand prize that is slated to be awarded at the end of the year.

Lewis Tapped to Lead Miller & Martin Health Law Practice

Miller & Martin recently announced Dave Lewis would head the firm’s healthcare practice for all three offices – Chattanooga, Atlanta and Nashville. He joined the firm in May 2014 after serving as vice president and associate legal council at LifePoint Hospitals. Lewis has been engaged in healthcare legal work for more than 25 years and is a past chair of the Tennessee Bar Association Health Law Section. Currently, Lewis serves as vice chair of the Physician Organizations Practice Group of the American Health Lawyers Association. He received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Tennessee.

Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About!

Awards, Honors, Achievements

The educational website Best Master of Science in Nursing Degrees recently recognized the "20 Most Innovative Nursing Graduate Programs in the U.S." and included Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. The editors said the “20 nursing schools were hand-selected from a huge choice of accredited master's programs” and were chosen as “respected pioneers in medicine, technology and nursing administration.”

John Marshall, who retired as CEO of TriStar Horizon Medical Center at the end of 2014, was recognized with the Tennessee Hospital Association’s highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, during the state association’s annual meeting last November. When he retired, Marshall had more than 42 years of service in the healthcare industry.

In November, HCA announced 115 of its licensed hospitals in the U.S., a full 85 percent of HCA hospitals, were included on The Joint Commission’s latest list of Top Performers on Key Quality Measures®. Included on the list were area TriStar medical centers including Centennial, Hendersonville, Horizon, Skyline, Southern Hills, StoneCrest and Summit. Similarly, Community Health Systems also had 106 of its affiliated hospitals recognized on the prestigious list, including Middle Tennessee facilities Gateway Medical Center in Clarksville and Heritage Medical Center in Shelbyville.

Two area executives are serving on the 2014-15 Medical Group Management Association Board of Directors. Stephen A. Dickens, JD, FACMPE, senior consultant of organizational dynamics with State Volunteer Mutual Insurance Co. in Brentwood, will continue to serve on the national board as immediate past chair and member of the MGMA Executive Committee. Yvette T. Doran, FACMPE, corporate director for Physician Operations Division II at Franklin-based Community Health Systems Professional Services Corporation, is a newly appointed director.

Harold H. Gregory, triage counselor for the Mental Health Cooperative’s (MHC) Mobile Crisis Team, recently was honored as the 2014 recipient of the Hope Award from the Nashville chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). Gregory has 26 years of professional experience in mental health and is the first line of communication for people who call the Mobile Crisis Line or walk into the MHC Crisis Center in MetroCenter.

Saint Thomas West Hospital was the only one in Tennessee named to Truven Health’s 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals, 2015. Saint Thomas West was recognized on the annual national list in the category of “Teaching Hospitals Without Cardiovascular Residency Programs.”

In its annual list to identify top hospitals in the nation for safety and quality, Leapfrog Group singled out TriStar Centennial Medical Center as being one of the best in the nation by naming the facility a ‘Top Hospital’ in the urban category, making TriStar Centennial one of only 60 to receive the distinction.

Andrew McDonald, LBMC Partner of Healthcare Consulting, has taken over as president for American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE) of Middle Tennessee.

Belmont’s College of Law National Health Law Moot Court Team competed against schools from all over the country at the National Health Law Moot Court Competition on Nov. 8 in Carbondale, Ill. After six rounds of arguments, the team ­– comprised of law students Courtney Lutz, Heath Henley and Ben Conrady and led by College of Law faculty member Amy Moore –was named National Champions.

In November, HighPoint Health System announced Sumner Regional Medical Center’s Information Systems Department was awarded a “Best Hospital IT Department” from Healthcare IT News. SRMC was one of only five winners in the “Small” category nationally.

Wishes Granted

The V Foundation for Cancer Research, one of the nation's leading cancer research funding organizations, recently announced nearly $15 million in awards for the 2014 Translational and V Scholar Grant recipients, who are transforming lab discoveries into clinical applications. In Nashville, Dineo Khabele, MD, of Vanderbilt University Medical Center, is one of the cancer researchers receiving a 2014 Designated Grant.  

The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services has been awarded two federal grants totaling nearly $5 million dollars to reduce the rate of suicides in the state. The funds, from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), will be focused on preventing suicides statewide. “The rate of suicides in Tennessee has been steadily increasing since the late 1980s,” said E. Douglas Varney, TDMHSAS Commissioner. “Suicide is a serious public health problem and a subject people are still very hesitant to talk about. These grant awards will allow us to address this threat and save lives.”

In other TDMHSAS news, a $1.5 million federal grant has allowed the state agency to increase funding to Veterans Court in Shelby, Montgomery and Davidson counties. The result is an expansion of services, over a three-year period, giving hundreds more service members in Tennessee the option of pursuing treatment and recovery programs rather than incarceration. The grant will allow all three courts to nearly double their capacity.

Green Named TriStar Horizon CEO

Following the retirement of longtime Chief Executive Officer John Marshall at the end of last year, Dustin Greene has been named to the CEO post of TriStar Horizon Medical Center.

For the past two years, Greene has served as TriStar Skyline Medical Center’s COO and was instrumental in the advancement of the TriStar Skyline’s oncology and stroke programs, as well as the launch of the hospital’s Provisional Level II Trauma program. Prior to that, Greene was COO at Eastside Medical Center, a 310-bed facility in Snellville, Ga. A Nashville native, Greene received his undergraduate degree from Samford University in Birmingham and his MBA from Belmont University.

BCA Adds Kozicki as Managing Director

Brentwood Capital Advisors, one of the South’s leading boutique investment banks, recently announced Scott Kozicki has joined the firm as a managing director and will lead the firm’s efforts in addressing the convergence of healthcare and technology.

Kozicki joins the firm after most recently working as director of Digital Health for Verizon, where he led the strategy, product development, regulatory, and operations areas. He is a founding member of JumpStart Foundry, co-founder of HealthCampNash and previously served as the CEO of Truu Health, Inc. and CTO for Healthways. In 1998, Kozicki co-founded and served as CTO of BlueStar Communications, a pioneering broadband services company headquartered in Nashville.

Accreditations & Certifications

Nashville-based FreseniusRx, a renal specialty pharmacy, announced last month that all of its pharmacists have begun the process of becoming certified renal experts. FreseniusRx is the first pharmacy to undergo renal certification with the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) and the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. The pharmacists will complete the full certification program, which focuses exclusively on renal disease and treatment, in summer 2015.

The Master of Science in Public Health (MSPH) program at Meharry Medical College has earned full reaccreditation from the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH), which granted the MSPH program accreditation for a seven-year term, extending to Dec. 31, 2021, the maximum period allowed.

Following an onsite review this past October, TriStar Southern Hills Medical Center has earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® for the management of joint replacement of the knee and joint replacement of the hip.

Centerstone’s Healthier Beginnings, a Healthy Families America affiliate in Columbia, has been accredited by Prevent Child Abuse America as a provider of high quality home visiting services to families who want to improve their child’s health, nutrition and developmental outcomes. The program is funded under an agreement with the State of Tennessee Department of Health.

Report Finds Pneumonia Vaccine Reducing Pediatric Hospital Admissions

In Tennessee, the introduction in 2010 of a new pneumococcal vaccine for infants and young children coincides with a 27 percent decline in pneumonia hospital admissions across the state among children under age two. That’s the lead finding of a report from investigators at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), released in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report in mid-November.

The recent decline in Tennessee comes on top of an earlier 43 percent decline across the United States coinciding with the introduction in 2000 of the first pneumococcal vaccine for children under two. The earlier vaccine (7-valent pneumococcal conjugated vaccine) provides protection against the seven most common strains of the bacterium, while the newer vaccine protects against six additional strains for a total of 13. The 72 percent decrease in pneumonia admissions among children under age two in Tennessee implies a reduction of more than 1,300 pneumonia admissions per year in this age group since 2000.

Shamoun, Born Join TriStar StoneCrest

TriStar StoneCrest Medical Center announced the addition of Dany K. Shamoun, MD, a fellowship-trained gastroenterologist, to its medical staff. Shamoun has joined Gastroenterology Specialists of Middle Tennessee in Smyrna. He received his medical degree, followed by an internship, from American University of Beirut in Beirut, Lebanon. Shamoun then completed his residency in internal medicine at The Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore and later completed a Fellowship in Gastroenterology and Therapeutic Endoscopy with University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore.

The medical center also recently welcomed Laura Born, MD, a board-certified family medicine physician, to the medical staff. She has joined TriStar Medical Group Family Physicians in Murfreesboro. Born received her medical degree from University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in Philadelphia. She then completed her internship and residency in family medicine at David Grant Medical Center, United States Air Force, in California.

Hendrix Joins The Surgical Clinic

Ashley Hendrix, MD, recently joined The Surgical Clinic PLLC, providing both breast and general surgery procedures at TriStar Centennial and Summit locations and at Saint Thomas Midtown. Her specialties include breast cancer, breast pain or lumps, breast biopsy, and axillary lymph node dissection.

Hendrix received her medical degree from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis where she also completed her residency. Hendrix then served as fellow and assistant instructor in Breast Oncology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. She is a board certified general surgeon with numerous association memberships including the American College of Surgeons, American Society of Breast Surgeons, Society of Surgical Oncology and American Society of Clinical Oncology.

Wang Introduces New Treatment for Blepharitis

Ming Wang, MD, PhD, founder of Wang Vision 3D Cataract & LASIK Center recently announced the introduction of a new eye treatment, BlephEx, for the red and painful chronic eye condition blepharitis. 

Wang said BlephEx is a new handheld device that allows a doctor to perform an in-office microblepharoexfoliation procedure, which removes the biofilm and its associated exotoxins that build up along the margin of the eyelid. He explained, that it is these exotoxins that cause the chronic inflammatory changes in the lid margin, which leads to the majority of dry eye and meibomitis. By removing these exotoxins every 3-4 months, the doctor can help the patient maintain clean, healthy lid margins, normalizing and maintaining natural tear function.

NHC Begins Construction in Bellevue

Murfreesboro-based National HealthCare Corporation has broken ground on a new assisted living and skilled nursing center in Bellevue that will expand its services in Davidson County. NHC Place at the Trace, represents a $38 million investment by NHC that will create more than 200 jobs.

Located at the intersection of Highway 100 and Pasquo Road, the three-story center totaling more than 135,000 square feet will include 172 beds – 90 will be skilled nursing with the remaining 82 for assisted living, including 22 for memory care patients. The center is scheduled to open in the spring of 2016.

Cool Springs Incontinence Institute Opens

Cool Springs Surgery Center recently launched the Cool Springs Incontinence Institute™ (CSII), making it the state’s only dedicated incontinence treatment center. CSII focuses solely on bladder and bowel incontinence and includes treatment options ranging from botox and diet modification to medication and minimally invasive surgery. The center is led by Melissa Kaufman, MD, PhD, and Barry Jarnagin, MD, FACOG.

In addition to offering patients access to a medical concierge who shepherds them through the treatment process, answering questions and handling appointments, the center also uses a consumer-focused website and social media to help de-stigmatize this common, yet seldom discussed condition. More than 51 million adults in the United States and 200 million people worldwide experience chronic incontinence issues.

M&A Mash-up

The year 2014 certainly went out with a bang as a number of prominent area healthcare companies announced new buys and buyers. A quick rundown of the fourth quarter M&A activity includes:

Brentwood-based Cogent Healthcare being acquired by Sound Physicians, the Tacoma, Wash.-based division of Fresenius;

Franklin-based Centerre Healthcare being sold to Kindred Healthcare out of Louisville, Ken.;

The acquisition of Minneapolis healthcare marketing firm Interval by Nashville-headquartered ReviveHealth;

Franklin-based MedSolutions selling to CareCore National out of South Carolina;

Anesthesia and pain management company PhyMed Healthcare Group becoming a portfolio company of Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan;

Surgery Center Holdings buying locally-based Symbion; and

Franklin-based Acadia Healthcare purchasing specialized behavioral health provider CRC Health Group out of California for more than $1 billion.

LBMC Companies Add Two

Marshall Messamore has joined LBMC Strategic Staffing, LLC in the role of Information Technology Search Consultant. Messamore was previously the director of Operations Systems Engineering for Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He earned his undergraduate degree from Arizona State University and his masters in Computer Science from the Air Force Institute of Technology. 

Elena McCown has joined LBMC Employment Partners, LLC as a program manager for Health & Wellness. McCown was previously a health educator for Calvert Memorial Hospital and certified as a health promotion director while serving as the fitness specialist for Cooper Corporate Solutions. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Texas State University in exercise and sports science.

State Preterm Birth Rate Continues to Improve

The seven-year improving trend in Tennessee’s preterm birth rate, helped give more babies a healthy start in life and contributed to the improvement in the national rate, according to the recent March of Dimes national report card.

Tennessee, which earned a C on the annual report card, had a preterm birth rate of 12.6 percent in 2013, down from 14.8 in 2006, the year the national rate peaked. The national preterm birth rate fell to 11.4 percent in 2013 – the lowest in 17 years -- meeting the federal Healthy People 2020 goal seven years early. Despite this progress, the nation still received a “C” on the annual report card and still has the highest rate of preterm birth of any industrialized country.

CHS Comings and Goings

In a number of announcements at the end of 2014, Franklin-based Community Health Systems, Inc. outlined plans for several facilities.

CHS declared plans to divest itself of ownership interest in the 116-bed Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center and related outpatient services to its Franklin-based neighbor, Capella Healthcare. Divestiture of the Hartsville, S.C. hospital was required under an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission following CHS’ January 2014 acquisition of Health Management Associates, Inc. (HMA).

As part of that same FTC agreement, CHS also recently announced subsidiaries of the company have executed a definitive agreement to sell substantially all of the assets of the 281-bed Riverview Regional Medical Center and related outpatient services in Gadsden, Ala. and of the 202-bed Dallas Regional Medical Center and related outpatient services in Mesquite, Texas to Prime Healthcare Services, Inc.

In November, CHS announced a subsidiary had acquired operational control of Gaffney Medical Center (GMC), a 125-bed hospital located in Gaffney, S.C. The acquisition was effective Nov. 1, 2014. Previously, GMC was owned through a joint venture between Novant Health and a subsidiary of HMA, which CHS bought last year. As a result of this transaction, Novant no longer retains an economic interest in the hospital.

NHI Acquires Senior Living Communities

Murfreesboro-based REIT National Health Investors, Inc. recently announced a deal to acquire eight senior living communities in the Southeast for $476 million. The facilities, totaling more than 1,600 beds, are located in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

National Health Investors Inc., a real estate investment trust based near Nashville, is spending $476 million to acquire eight senior-living communities in the Southeast.

Middle Tennessee Healthcare Execs Help Launch National Investment Firm

Cigna-HealthSpring President Herb Fritch and former BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee CEO Vicki Gregg have joined with 12 other national leaders to form Guidon Partners, a healthcare consulting and investment firm. The new company, which is based in Reston, Va., will help identify and finance growing healthcare companies, as well as offer operational guidance.

BlueCross, MissionPoint Launch Dual Network

This past fall, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and MissionPoint Health Partners began offering a dual-network insurance plan to help large employers in Middle Tennessee better manage their healthcare spending.

The dual-network plan allows members to use providers in both Blue Network PSM

and Blue Network MSM, with potential cost savings of up to 10 percent when they choose Blue Network M physicians or facilities. Participating members can also access MissionPoint’s Health Partners program, which offers clinical care coordination and assistance navigating the health care system. The new product is a result of BlueCross’ strategic partnership with MissionPoint, and it is available to self-funded employer groups with 1,000 or more members. 

Blue Network M is built primarily around the Saint Thomas hospital system. The network includes more than 1,800 physicians and clinical providers, including more than 60 subspecialties, 100 outpatient facilities and Monroe Carell, Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt – all collaborating to deliver high-touch medical management services through MissionPoint.

Amplion Implements Alarm Management Consulting Service

Nashville-based Amplion Clinical Communication recently announced the design of an Alarm Management Consulting service for hospitals and health systems aimed to address and satisfy the requirements for The Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goal (NPSG) on Alarm Management.

As technology advances, there are a multitude of clinical devices to support and monitor patients, yet each medical device has its own alarm capability, which has resulted in alarm fatigue and other pressing issues for clinicians that could impact patient safety. The Joint Commission has mandated that by the end of 2015, hospitals establish policies and procedures to improve alarm management. In January 2016, hospitals are expected to develop and implement strategies to address key areas of concern and to support effective alarm management.

Taking the initiative with Amplion is Kadlec Regional Medical Center, rolling out Amplion’s alarm management consulting service. Located in Richland, Wash., Kadlec is a 270-bed general medical/surgical, not-for-profit hospital that has been awarded for positive strides in patient safety and quality care over the years.

“I wanted to analyze our patient alarm needs before selecting an alarm management solution. Amplion listened and provided a customized alarm consulting service to help us meet the Joint Commission’s National Patient Safety Goal and developed the solution to meet our needs,” said Roy Kearns, Manager Clinical Engineering at Kadlec Regional Medical Center.

Cleveland, Ohio-based University Hospitals (UH) and Nashville-based Centerre Healthcare Corporation recently announced a joint venture to construct a comprehensive inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Avon, Ohio. This will be the second inpatient rehabilitation hospital that the two organizations have built together. They opened the UH Rehabilitation Hospital in Beachwood, Ohio in 2012.

Scheduled for completion in early 2016, the state-of-the-art facility in Avon will complement and broaden the services at nearby UH Elyria Medical Center. The UH Rehabilitation Hospital in Avon will feature all private rooms, dedicated therapy space, outdoor courtyards, Activities of Daily Living (ADL) training suites, and a special apartment to help family and patients practice daily living tasks and prepare for return home. The 55,000-square-foot facility will provide physical, occupational and speech language therapy along with specialized rehabilitation nursing and a wide range of clinical services for patients recovering from complex neurological, orthopaedic and cardiac conditions as well as traumatic injuries. The facility will also provide patients with highly specialized therapy programs and include a dedicated brain injury unit and specialized stroke program/unit.

HCA Acquires Dallas-based CareNow

HCA, which operates 165 hospitals and 113 surgery centers in 20 states and England, recently signed an agreement to acquire CareNow, a privately-held company with 24 urgent care centers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

CareNow will become a division inside of HCA, which has one of the largest healthcare provider networks in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex with 11 hospitals, more than 50 ambulatory sites, more than 5,000 active physicians and 12,000 employees. Founded in 1993, CareNow has grown to become one of the largest independent providers of urgent care, family practice, and occupational health services in the area. In 2013, CareNow centers served approximately 9 percent of the Dallas-Fort Worth population.

UL Safety Signs Contract with Providence Health & Services

UL Workplace Health & Safety recently announced a major deal with Providence Health & Services (PHS), the third largest not-for-profit health system in the United States. PHS will be implementing UL’s Occupational Health Manager (OHM) software platform throughout Employee Health Services and Injury Management Services.

UL Workplace Health & Safety’s OHM system has unique capabilities, including a Supervisor Portal and Adhoc Query Tool, incident management system, and opportunity to provide leading indicators and integrate tools for affecting loss prevention.