Geisinger to join national study

Geisinger Health System has joined five other health care systems throughout the nation in an effort to improve health care and lower costs.The six health care systems will join the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice to share data on outcomes, quality and costs across a range of common and costly conditions and treatments.The group will determine the best practices for delivering care for these conditions and will pass along recommendations to providers and health systems across the United States, said Dr. Thomas Graf, chairman of community practice service for Geisinger Health System.

"It's exciting to have the opportunity to work with such high quality organizations and focusing on such an important project as reducing the cost of
care while improving quality," Dr. Graf said.
The other health care systems joining the effort include the Cleveland Clinic, Dartmouth-Hitchcock, Denver Health, Mayo Clinic and Intermountain
Healthcare, which serves medical needs in Utah and southeastern Idaho.
Dr. Glenn Steele, president and chief executive officer of Geisinger Health System, said in his view, the most critical piece of the initiative is the
transfer of knowledge to other health systems.
"We need to aggressively implement a rapid learning network to disseminate our work and assist other systems in implementing these best
practices, especially the highest cost systems," Dr. Steele said.
Initially, the effort will focus on eight conditions and treatments for which costs have been increasing rapidly in recent years. These include knee
replacement, diabetes, heart failure, asthma, weight loss surgery, labor and delivery, spine surgery and depression, which together amount to
hundreds of billions of dollars in direct medical costs each year.
The six health care systems, with a combined patient population of more than 10 million people, will share data on outcomes and clinical protocols
for the conditions and treatments to arrive at optimal care models which can be implemented by other health care systems throughout the country.
The Dartmouth Institute will coordinate data sharing and analysis and report results back to the collaborative members to inform development of best practices.
First, the group will analyze knee replacement, a procedure performed more than 300,000 times a year in the United States with a cost that ranges
from $16,000 to $24,000 per surgery. Work to define best practices in diabetes and heart failure care will begin early in 2011.
"If we know that the treatment path for diabetes at one institution results in better clinical outcomes, higher patient satisfaction and lower overall
costs, then there is knowledge to be shared and replicated in other institutions," Dr. Robert Neese, chief executive officer of Mayo Clinic Health
System, said in a statement. "We need to learn from each other and put systems in place that ensure that every patient gets the very best, most
appropriate care every time."
Contact the writer: dallabaugh@citizensvoice.com WASHINGTON - The Justice Department on Wednesday sued BP and eight other companies in
the Gulf oil spill disaster in an effort to recover billions of dollars from the largest offshore spill in U.S. history.
The Obama administration's lawsuit asks that the companies be held liable without limitation under the Oil Pollution Act for all removal costs and
damages caused by the oil spill, including damages to natural resources. The lawsuit also seeks civil penalties under the Clean Water Act.
"We intend to prove these violations caused or contributed to the massive oil spill," Attorney General Eric Holder said at a news conference Wednesday.
The federal lawsuit says inadequate cementing of the well contributed to the disaster. Similar charges were made by BP in its internal
investigation, and by the independent presidential oil spill commission. But Halliburton Co., the contractor in charge of mixing and pumping the cement, is not named in the suit.
Mr. Holder said it is conceivable that additional defendants could be added to the lawsuit. "This is an ongoing process," he said.
The amount of damages and the extent of injuries sustained by the United States as a result of the Deepwater Horizon Spill are not yet fully known, the lawsuit states
An explosion that killed 11 workers at BP's Macondo well last April led to oil spewing from the company's undersea well - more than 200 million
gallons in all by the government's estimate. BP disputes the figure.
The department filed the suit in federal court in New Orleans.
The other defendants in the case are Anadarko Exploration & Production LP and Anadarko Petroleum Corp.; MOEX Offshore 2007 LLC; Triton
Asset Leasing GMBH; Transocean Holdings LLC and Transocean Offshore Deepwater Drilling Inc. and Transocean Deepwater Inc.; and
Transocean's insurer, QBE Underwriting Ltd./Lloyd's Syndicate 1036.
Anadarko and MOEX are minority owners of the well that blew out. Transocean owned the rig that BP was leasing.Transocean disputed the allegations, insisting it should not be held liable for the actions of others. "No drilling contractor has ever been held liable
for discharges from a well under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990," the company said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press. "The responsibility for hydrocarbons discharged from a well lies solely with its owner and operator."
QBE/Lloyd's can be held liable only up to the amount of insurance policy coverage under the Oil Pollution Act and is not being sued under the Clean Water Act.
The lawsuit alleges that safety and operating regulations were violated in the period leading up to April 20.
It says that the defendants failed to keep the Macondo well under control during that period and failed to use the best available and safest drilling
technology to monitor the well's conditions. They also failed to maintain continuous surveillance and failed to maintain equipment and material that
were available and necessary to ensure the safety and protection of personnel, equipment, natural resources and the environment, the suit charges.
Democratic Rep. Edward J. Markey, a Democrat and a member of the House energy panel that is investigating the spill, acknowledged the
government will have a tough fight on its hands since BP has already taken an aggressive stance regarding its liability.
"It may have taken these companies months to cap their well, but they will spend years trying to cap their financial obligations to the people of the
Gulf," Markey said. "That is why it is vital for the Obama administration to swiftly advance this legal action."
Before Wednesday, potential class-action lawsuits had been filed in the Gulf oil spill by fishing and seafood interests, the tourism industry,
restaurants and clubs, property owners losing vacation renters - even vacationers who claim the spill forced them to cancel and lose a deposit. So
far, more than 300 suits have been spawned by the spill and consolidated in federal court in New Orleans.
Wednesday's move by the Justice Department follows the Obama administration's decision not to open new areas of the eastern Gulf and Atlantic
seaboard to drilling. That marked a reversal from an earlier decision to hunt for oil and gas, an announcement the president himself made last
spring three weeks before the spill.
The staff of a presidentially appointed commission looking into the spill has said that the disaster resulted from questionable decisions and
management failures by three companies: BP, the well owner and operator; Transocean, the owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig; and Halliburton.
the panel found 11 decisions made by these companies increased risk. Most saved time, and all but one had a safer alternative.Separately, an administrator is doling out money to Gulf oil spill victims from a $20 billion fund of BP money.
The Justice Department is not the first government entity to sue BP. Alabama Attorney General Troy King filed federal lawsuits in August on behalf of the state against BP, rig owner Transocean, cement contractor Halliburton Energy Services Inc. and other companies that worked on the ill-fated drilling project.
U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier is presiding over most of the consolidated federal suits. In September, Louisiana Attorney General James "Buddy"
Caldwell's office asked Barbier to create a "government case track" to handle government-related suits separately from other claims. The judge hasn't ruled on that request yet.