Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/829284
61 HEALTHCARE NEWS Trump Appoints Nurse to Serve as Acting Surgeon General By Emily Rappleye R ear Adm. Sylvia Trent-Adams, PhD, RN, was installed as act- ing surgeon general on April 21 aer the Trump administration asked Vivek Murthy, MD, to resign, accord- ing to e New York Times. Dr. Trent-Adams is one of the first nurses to be appointed surgeon gener- al and is the first non-physician to be appointed. During the Bush adminis- tration, the surgeon general — Richard Carmona, MD — was both a physician and a nurse, according to the report. Dr. Murthy was asked to resign aer as- sisting with the transition between the Obama and Trump administrations, an HHS spokeswoman told e New York Times in an emailed statement. However, Alice Chen, MD, Dr. Mur- thy's wife, told the newspaper he was asked to resign, refused and was fired. On Facebook, Dr. Murthy said, "Many have asked why I chose not to resign as Surgeon General when I was asked to do so. My reason was simple: because I would never willfully abandon my com- mitment to my Commissioned Corps officers, to the American people, and to all who have stood with me to build a healthier and more compassionate America." Dr. Trent-Adams "is the right person to step into this role," he added. Dr. Trent-Adams was serving as Dr. Mur- thy's deputy prior to her appointment as acting surgeon general. "She has dedicated the past 30 years to our na- tion serving in the Army and in the U.S. Public Health Service. Her deep wealth of experience is matched only by the immense size of her heart," Dr. Murthy wrote on Facebook. Prior to her role as deputy surgeon gen- eral, Dr. Trent-Adams served as CNO of the U.S. Public Health Service Com- missioned Corps, according to her pro- file on the HHS website. Before that, she was deputy associate administrator for the HIV/AIDS bureau of the Health Resources and Services Administration. She served as a nurse officer in the U.S. Army and a research nurse at the Uni- versity of Maryland in Baltimore, where she earned her PhD. n Truven Names 15 Top Health Systems for 2017 By Ayla Ellison T ruven Health Analytics, a healthcare data and analytics solutions provider, has released its ninth annual list of the nation's 15 top health systems. To identify the top 15 health systems in the nation, Truven analyzed data from 337 health systems based on the following five perfor- mance domains: inpatient outcomes, process of care, extended outcomes, efficiency and patient experience. When compared to their peers, this year's top 15 health systems achieved higher survival rates, released patients from the hospital soon- er, had fewer readmissions, shorter emergency department wait times and higher patient sat- isfaction scores, according to Truven Health. Here are the Truven Health 15 Top Health Sys- tems, organized by system size. Large health systems (total operating ex- pense of more than $1.75 billion) • Mayo Foundation (Rochester, Minn.) • Mercy (Chesterfield, Mo.) • Scripps Health (San Diego) • Spectrum Health (Grand Rapids, Mich.) • St. Luke's Health System (Boise, Idaho) Medium health systems (total operating expense of between $750 million and $1.75 billion) • HealthPartners (Bloomington, Minn.) • Kettering Health Network (Dayton, Ohio) • Mercy Health Southwest Ohio Region (Cincinnati) • Mission Health (Asheville, N.C.) • Parkview Health (Fort Wayne, Ind.) Small health systems (total operating ex- pense of less than $750 million) • Asante (Medford, Ore.) • Lakeland Health (St. Joseph, Mich.) • Lovelace Health System (Albuquerque, N.M.) • Maury Regional Health (Columbia, Tenn.) • Roper St. Francis Healthcare (Charleston, S.C.) n 5 Key Statistics on US Companies' Healthcare Costs By Mary Rechtoris A Castlight Health infographic highlights the escalating health- care costs companies accrue annually. Here are five key statistics: 1. Employer health plans cover 60 percent of the population. 2. Each year, companies pay 8 percent more for healthcare. 3. Healthcare benefits are the second costliest line item for U.S. companies. 4. Transparency may help alleviate healthcare's rising costs as trans- parency translates to up to 13 percent in real savings, based on healthcare's expected spend. 5. Without transparency, U.S. healthcare companies waste $750 billion in healthcare dollars annually. n