Hospitals Keep Eye on Patient Satisfaction

Local hospital administrators are focusing on improving everything from catering menus to patient and staff communication since Medicare last year began paying them partly based on patient satisfaction scores under the health care overhaul.

While Medicare has been publishing patient satisfaction scores since 2008, it wasn’t until last year that the system began withholding 1 percent of its payments to eye hospitals. In the next few years, the federal government plans to double its withholding to 2 percent. That money goes into a pool and is distributed as bonuses to hospitals that score above the national average.

“It’s put patient satisfaction at the forefront,” said Derick Ziegler, administrator and CEO of Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis. “It has put more money at risk, and now hospitals have to earn those dollars.” Patient satisfaction scores determine about 30 percent of the bonuses, while the rest of the bonus is distributed based on meeting certain clinical measures. Continue Reading...

Optical Express Saved By Founder David Moulsdale

Laser eye surgery firm Optical Express has been saved from collapse by its founder, preventing the loss of 1,600 jobs in the UK and Ireland.

David Moulsdale has bought all the debt that the firm owes to the Royal Bank of Scotland and injected more money into the High Street chain.

The bank had refused to lend Eye Treatment Optical Express any more money.

The Glasgow-based firm said it was now in a "highly secure position for continued growth".

The intervention by chairman Mr Moulsdale, who founded the firm in 1991, has saved Optical Express from being another High Street retail casualty, following the high-profile deaths of Comet, Jessops, Clinton Cards and others in recent years.

Optical Express - which has about 93 stores and 54 consultation centres - owed more than £30m to RBS and asked for a further loan in order to pay staff, according to the Sunday Times.  Continue Reading...

US Medical Volunteers Offer Eye Surgery

An American volunteer team of eye doctors in the Marshall Islands is about to start providing cataract operations and other services for nearly two weeks.

This month’s ophthalmology team visit, organised by California-based Canvasback Missions, is following up on a successful visit made about the same time a year ago.

It will be followed in August by the arrival of a team of ear, nose and throat specialists, who will also spend two weeks screening patients and conducting surgeries.

A Canvasback team coordinator, Jacque Spence, says the eye team will focus on doing cataract surgery, diabetic retinopathy laser treatments and dispensing glasses.

The team expects to do about 200 cataract surgeries. Majuro Hospital medical staff has been pre-screening scores of patients in preparation for visit.

Canvasback Missions has been providing medical and dental services to the Marshall Islands since the 1980s.