January 27, 2010 -- Hospital Impact has been ranked one of the top 50 healthcare blogs by Wikio.
Join our online community!
Latest Posts
Hospital Leadership Series
Hot Topics
Happy thanksgiving! Well, in the spirit of this holiday, I'd like to share one news story that made some shareholders very, very thankful, I'm sure.
A very weird thing happened last week. Burke Whitman went from being CFO at Triad Hospitals to President/COO at HMA. That's not particularly weird, as Burke Whitman is a highly-sought after hospital exec who just returned from serving in Iraq.

The weird thing was Wall Street's response. As a result of one man's job switch, Triad's stock lost more than 3% that day or $120,000,000 in market cap whereas HMA stock gained 8% or $460,000,000 in market cap.
No offense to Mr. Whitman, as he's a great exec and a great soldier, but $460,000,000? Assuming that Mr. Whitman will make a comparable salary to the rest of the HMA Exec Team ($570k - $1.5MM), he probably represents the best $1MM dollars HMA has ever spent.

Once in a while, you bump into people who think their hospital CFO is a turkey, but Mr. Whitman is anything but - just ask the shareholders of HMA who, I'm sure, are having a very happy thanksgiving.
Safety TipHospital facilities built today do not include asbestos, but many older buildings still have asbestos components in them. Steam pipes, boilers and furnace ducts were often insulated with an asbestos blanket or asbestos paper tape because of their fireproof and insulating properties. Resilient floor tiles were made from vinyl asbestos. Asbestos cement was employed in roofing, shingles and siding materials. The hazard of this carcinogen increases when the fibers become airborne, and untrained contractors can inadvertently increase risks by cutting, tearing, sawing, scraping, or sanding asbestos materials. Elevated asbestos levels can occur in hospitals where old materials are damaged or disturbed. It is best to leave undamaged asbestos material alone if it is not likely to be disturbed. Inhaling asbestos fibers is known to cause mesothelioma and other diseases. Be sure to use an experienced asbestos removal contractor when you need to get rid of old materials that might contain asbestos. |