Charlotte Tyson

A health care manager who once served as a nurse has been appointed chief nurse executive at LewisGale Regional Health System.

The newly-created position will be filled by Charlotte Tyson, LewisGale announced today.

Tyson most recently served as chief operating officer for LewisGale Medical Center in Salem.

The regional health system, which includes four hospitals and more than 40 patient care facilities in Southwest Virginia, recently decided to create an executive-level position to oversee nursing services.

“Nurses are the backbone of our heath system and often the first encounter our patients have with LewisGale,” Victor Giovanetti, president of the health system, said in a prepared statement.

As LewisGale evolved into a regional health system, officials saw the need for market-wide leadership in the nursing field, he said.

Tyson will be responsible for all nursing services at LewisGale’s flagship hospital in Salem. She will also work with the chief nursing officers at the system’s other three hospitals in Alleghany, Montgomery and Pulaski counties.

Tyson joined LewisGale in 1984 as a staff nurse. Since then, she has served as director of oncology and medical surgical services, director of quality and risk management, and chief nursing officer.

A new chief executive officer has been appointed at LewisGale Hospital Montgomery.

Alan Fabian, who started Jan. 2 at the Blacksburg hospital, most recently served as CEO of Dauterive Hospital in Louisiana, another HCA-owned facility.

Fabian has more than 20 years of experience in health care and is a fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives.

“We are excited to have him as part of the LewisGale family as he shares our commitment to high-quality, compassionate care,” Victor Giovanetti, president of Lewis Gale Regional Health System, said in prepared statement.

Fabian replaces Scott Hill, who left LewisGale Hospital Montgomery in September to become chief operations officer for Columbus Regional Healthcare System in Georgia.

Worried patients who received one of the tainted steroid injections linked to the deadly fungal meningitis outbreak continue to trickle into area hospitals for examinations.

While the numbers have slowed considerably, both Carilion Clinic and LewisGale Regional Health System report a small, but steady stream of emergency room visits related to the outbreak that has killed 28 and sickened 377 in 19 states.

So far this week, five patients have arrived at one of four LewisGale emergency rooms, said spokeswoman Joy Sutton. One person was admitted for treatment after a spinal tap tested positive for meningitis, she said.

At Carilion, about two patients a day arrive to be evaluated and most recently, they have not been testing positive for meningitis, spokesman Eric Earnhart.

As of today, public health officials have confirmed 46 cases and two deaths in Virginia linked to the outbreak. The official count, which has continued to grow, has lagged behind the numbers seen at area hospitals as health department officials verify that the cases are tied to the outbreak. Read more »

LewisGale Medical Center notified 45 of its cardiac patients last week that they had received a drug from the Massachusetts specialty pharmacy at the center of the deadly fungal meningitis outbreak.

All the patients received a “cardioplegia solution” during heart surgery that had been made by New England Compounding Center, said LewisGale spokeswoman Nancy May in an email.

“While these medications have not currently been confirmed as causing infections and authorities believe the risk is very low, we have notified these patients out of an abundance of caution as advised by U.S. Food and Drug Administration,” May said.

May said patients were contacted by mail and phone.

The move comes after health investigators said last week that more people may be at risk for infections beyond those who received spine injections for pain. The FDA said products from New England Compounding may have caused other infections in patients who had eye operations or open-heart surgery. The warning was based in part on two heart transplant patients who got fungal infections, but it is unknown if the company’s medication caused the infections, according to the Associated Press.

Medicare made a mistake.

In calculating the fines hospitals must pay for having too many patients readmitted within 30 days of being discharged, the government used some old data, according to NPR and Kaiser Health News.

It means that hospitals run by LewisGale Regional Health System and Carilion Clinic, are subject to slightly higher penalties, than what I previously shared on this blog.

“The changes were tiny, averaging two-hundreds of a percent of a hospital’s regular Medicare reimbursements,” Kaiser reported.

See a list of penalties by hospital all of the penalties here.

LewisGale Regional Health System has added a chief medical officer to its senior leadership in an effort to focus on quality and patient safety issues.

LewisGale announced Tuesday that it has hired a physician from Florida to fill the new role. Dr. Gary Winfield, 55, previously worked for LewisGale’s parent company, HCA Inc., in several roles. Most recently, he was acting division chief medical officer for HCA’s South Atlantic division.

Previously, the Salem-based system did not have a marketwide chief medical officer overseeing patient care standards at its four hospitals in Southwest Virginia. Instead, LewisGale relied on medical directors and medical executive committees at each of the hospitals to oversee physician staff and issues related to patient safety and quality, spokeswoman Nancy May said.

The move is in line with LewisGale’s efforts to integrate the four hospitals into one system, she said.

Starting today, Medicare is fining hospitals that have too many patients readmitted within 30 days of being discharged.

The penalties are relatively small, with the Associated Press reporting the average amounts to about $125,000 per facility. But the broader implication is part of a national push to reduce hospital spending and improve the quality of health care by eliminating what have been labeled as unnecessary hospital readmissions.

The penalties are part of President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

This year, the penalty is capped at 1 percent of a hospital’s Medicare reimbursements. Most hospitals will pay less. In coming years, the maximum penalties will increase to 2 percent and then 3 percent.

“The smallest penalties are one hundredth of a percent, which 50 hospitals will receive,” reported  Kaiser Health News, an arm of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

In Southwest Virginia, the penalties range from hospitals that are being not penalized to LewisGale Hospital Pulaski, which received the maximum 1 percent penalty, according to the data collected by Kaiser.

According to Kaiser, the Carilion Clinic and LewisGale Regional Health System hospitals being penalized are:

• Carilion New River Valley Medical Center, 0.7 percent
• Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, 0.06 percent
• Carilion Tazewell Community Hospital, 0.49 percent
• LewisGale Hospital Alleghany, 0.25 percent
• LewisGale Hospital Montgomery, 0.34 percent
• LewisGale Hospital Pulaski, 1 percent
• LewisGale Medical Center, 0.61 percent

Two of the four hospitals in the LewisGale Regional Health System were recognized today as being among the top performing hospitals in the nation.

The Joint Commission, which provides accreditation for the nation’s hospitals, released its list of hospitals that have consistently followed recommendations for the best ways to treat common illnesses like heart failure, pneumonia and stroke. The top performers met the protocols for care in certain areas at least 95 percent of the time.

Among the 620 hospitals who earned the praise on this year’s list are LewisGale Hospital Pulaski and LewisGale Hospital Alleghany. The Joint Commission said its list represents about 18 percent of the hospitals it accredits.

Eleven Virginia hospitals were recognized by the Joint Commission’s report. The Pulaski hospital earned its place on the list for its care of patients with heart failure and pneumonia, as well as those receiving surgical care. The Alleghany hospital was a top performer in meeting the standards of care for pneumonia and surgical care.

The commission is relatively new to the list of organizations rating hospital care having first released its list of top performers last year. Kaiser Health News reported that teaching hospitals have a harder time making the list and some of the country’s best known medical centers were not among those praised by the commission.

MedExpress Urgent Care will open the doors on its Roanoke location today.

The West Virginia-based MedExpress has been part of an urgent care boom for the region as the company has quickly opened locations throughout the state, including clinics in Salem and Christiansburg.The newest center is at 4092 Electric Road. Read more »