Detroit to get first new hospital in 30 years; Dallas' Parkland hospital safety report 'imminent'

A selection of hospital news from Michigan, Texas, California and Rhode Island.

The Detroit Free Press: Detroit Medical Center Begins Construction Of $78M Heart Hospital
The Detroit Medical Center today broke ground for a new $78 million, five-story heart hospital scheduled to open on the health system's midtown Detroit campus in two years. The new DMC Heart Hospital is the first hospital to open in Detroit in 30 years. ... The new building is a major turning point for a program that "hit rock bottom" eight years ago, Duggan said, when cardiologists and heart surgeons left for jobs in the suburbs and open-heart surgery operations declined here (Anstett, 1/17).

The Dallas Morning News: Report Likely To Require Immediate And Dramatic Improvements At Parkland Memorial Hospital
The release of a report outlining patient safety problems at Parkland Memorial Hospital is imminent and is likely to require the public facility to make immediate and dramatic improvements, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said Tuesday (Jacobson, 1/17).

The Associated Press/Boston Globe: RI Urged To Give Green Light To Hospital Merger
Political, business, and union leaders in Rhode Island are urging the state to approve a proposed merger of a Boston-based hospital chain and a financially troubled medical center in Woonsocket (1/18).

Los Angeles Times: Former Exec At Pasadena's Huntington Hospital Sentenced For Fraud
A former executive at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena was sentenced to three years in federal prison and ordered to pay $4.8 million in restitution for running an elaborate kickback scheme that scammed the hospital into paying for work that was never done, the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles said (Stevens, 1/18).