I’m gonna share a little secret with you.
OK, it’s really not a secret. But it is something that not a lot of people know.Bank of the West, which came to Wichita in 2005 after its acquisition of Commercial Federal, is owned by a French bank.
That’s right, a French bank.
And that French bank, BNP Paribas, today acquired the equity prime brokerage business of Bank of America.
I’ve seen a few writeups today announcing the deal, and not one of them points out the relationship between BNP and Bank of the West.
Now you know.
We can review Medicare hospital comparison reports that rate how well hospitals follow evidence-based guidelines for treating patients, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently added reports based on patient surveys.
But soon, the Wall Street Journal recently reported, we’ll be able to compare hospitals by the intensity of care patients receive — is it aggressive or conservative?
The nonprofit Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports magazine, is launching the new hospital-ratings service, which will rate 3,000 hospitals around the U.S.:
Consumers will be able to see a graph showing how intensely each hospital tends to treat patients, on a scale from zero for the most conservative to 100 for the most aggressive. Intensity of care is based on time spent in the hospital and the number of doctor visits. The index reflects the hospital’s handling of nine serious conditions, including cancer and heart failure, when it treats patients in the last two years of life.
What will patients do with the information? While we all applaud more transparency in the health care system, the story points out that Dartmouth research has shown that more intense care doesn’t necessarily correlate with better results.
When it comes to health care solutions, we need to swim forward, not paddle furiously in one place.
One of the joys to summer is having a big ol’ BLT sandwich for dinner on a hot, hot day. But I’m on a diet changing my eating habits, and bacon is no longer on the menu. Now we have to be careful about tomatoes because of salmonella. What’s next? A lettuce shortage?
Not to fear, though. Not even personal misery will keep us here at Coffee Break headquarters from bringing you your daily links.
- Speaking of misery, the death benefits some executives get if they die while in office should make their families a little more comfy, according to the Wall Street Journal.
- Looks like Central Florida really likes the United States Bowling Congress. The Orlando Sentinel reports that Disney’s Wild World of Sports will have a 100-lane, stadium-style bowling center. The USBC will put 13 events there from 2011 to 2029.
- Fewer planes in the air won’t necessarily mean fewer delays, the New York Times reports.
That’s it for today. Send me your links at dloving@wichitaeagle.com.