Tenet Making Improvements at Some Hospitals
Tenet Healthcare on Tuesday announced it will spend $8.6 million to make improvements at JFK Memorial Hospital in Indio, including a 13-bed neonatal intensive care unit, a cardiac laboratory, monitoring equipment and scheduling systems, the AP/Riverside Press-Enterprise reports.
Tenet sold more than half of its 40 California hospitals starting in 2002 to concentrate on services at hospitals including Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs and JFK.
However, the AP/Press-Enterprise reports that Tenet will "cut its losses" at some hospitals, such as in San Diego, where Tenet settled charges of making illegal kickbacks to doctors. Tenet expects to receive $250 million to $275 million from the sales
The hospital system announced earlier this month that it will sell at least 11 of its least profitable hospitals, including one in San Diego, and will continue focusing on its "flagship" hospitals, including those in Palm Springs and Indio.
Tenet has lost nearly $5 billion over the past three years and recently agreed to pay $900 million to settle a federal investigation into its Medicare billing practices (Koenig, AP/Riverside Press-Enterprise, 7/11).