Integration of healthcare information is attracting major investments. On August 29, 2005, Per Se Technologies, Inc. and Wolters Kluwer NV announced that they would acquire NDCHealth Corp. They will pay $700 million and assume $270 million in debt. Per Se provides billing services to physicians throughout the country. AmeriPath, Inc. is one of its customers. NDC Health provides electronic health claims processing and prescription data services.
CLARIFICATION
THE DARK REPORT recently heard from Ken Flowers, CEO of Uropath, LLC in Arlington, Texas. In the TDR of August 22, 2005, we had reported that his resume was posted on the American College of Healthcare Executives’ (ACHE) Web site. Flowers acknowledged that, indeed, his resume was posted there. But it belonged in the ACHE’s “resource” section, not in the “looking” section and has been moved. Flowers indicates much positive progress at Uropath and stated that “things are not anything but great at Uropath!”
HOSPITAL ON WHEELS TRAVELS TO GULF COAST FROM NORTH CAROLINA
Providing healthcare services in the wake of a disaster is the goal of “Carolinas MED-1,” a fully-equipped, mobile hospital. It was set up in the parking lot of a KMart in Waveland, Mississippi just four days after Hurricane Katrina passed through the city. The core of the mobile hospital is built around two 53-foot tractor trailers. One has slide-out walls and creates a 14-bed hospital complete with operating facilities, a full pharmacy, telecommunications for off-site consulting, and diagnostic capabilities in laboratory, radiology and ultrasound. The support truck carries an awning and tent system that can accommodate up to an additional 85 beds.
ADD TO: Mobile Hospital
MED-1 was developed in North Carolina from its experience in post-hurricane disaster relief. Federal grants helped fund the project. MED-1 is based in Charlotte and is managed by Carolinas Medical Center (CMC). It takes just 30 minutes to set up and is staffed by approximately 40 physicians, nurses and other staff from CMC and other medical facilities throughout North Carolina. MED-1 is a great example of how new health technologies and the miniaturization of equipment allow health services to move ever closer to patients.
TRANSITIONS
•Bob Copeland, Vice President and Chief Information Officer at AmeriPath, Inc. in Palm Beach Gardens, left the company in August.
•Chuck Locke, Vice President of Development and Administration at American Esoteric Laboratories, Inc. in Nashville, Tennessee, left the company this summer.
•Frederick L. Kiechle, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman of the Department of Clinical Pathology at William Beaumont Hospital and Medical Director of Beaumont Reference Laboratory in Royal Oak, Michigan, left the organization in August.
