Lakeland Health Plans $160 Million Expansion

ST. JOSEPH, Mich—During the first week of August, Lakeland Health’s board of directors approved funding for Lakeland Medical Center’s $160 million expansion in St. Joseph. The project is expected to be complete by 2020, with a groundbreaking-ceremony taking place in October 2017.

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Patient-Centered Hospital Environment Extends to Audio

As the U.S. health care system upgrades or replaces outdated hospitals from the 1960s and 1970s, evidence-based research shows that taking measures to decrease patient stress and instill a sense of control can reduce anxiety and the use of pain-controlled opioid medications, while improving cooperation and clinical outcomes.

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Arkansas Begins Controversial Health Care Program

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe is about to conduct an experiment intended to lower his state’s health care costs and make insurance more affordable for its residents. Arkansas ranks relatively low among its fellow states in terms of its citizens’ overall health and income, while simultaneously being on the higher side when it comes to rising health care costs, which have doubled in the last ten years. This creates a difficult situation for the state, its low-income residents and the hospitals they cannot afford to pay.

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Health Care Accessibility: ‘A Matter of Civil Rights’

On March 28, 2012, the Department of Justice filed a settlement under the Americans with Disabilities Act with Trinity Health Systems to ensure that the Trinity Regional Medical Center provides effective communication to individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing — including a settlement of $198,000 to the aggrieved individuals and a $20,000 civil penalty.

The complaint, filed in 2009, alleged that alleging that the Medical Center had inadequate mechanisms in place to ensure good communication between hospital personnel and deaf patients.

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