Legal Affairs: Learn from another person’s mistake and do not overlook HIPAA, see page 4
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The Leading Source for Healthcare Business News
Special Feature: Addiction
INSIDE
▼
TESARO and MD Anderson
announce immunooncology collaboration and
exclusive license
see page 7
INDEX
▼
Financial Perspectives.......2
Legal Affairs......................4
Technology....................5
Integrative Medicine........6
Hospital Headlines...........7
THA...............................8
Moving On Up................9
April 2016 • Volume 12, Issue 12 • $3.50
Addiction: A renewed urgency for seeking
and providing treatment
BY W. CLAY BROWN, M.D., ABAM,
Medical Director, Memorial
Hermann Prevention & Recovery
Center
Addiction is a brain disease that manifests
itself physically, behaviorally, and socially,
touching all age groups, education levels,
professions, and income levels. Addiction
does not discriminate, and it is not
uncommon. Approximately 1 in 7 or 40
million Americans age 12 and older have
addictions to nicotine, alcohol, or other
drugs – more than heart disease, diabetes,
or cancer.
Over 50% of all visits to hospital emergency
departments can be linked directly to
alcohol or drug use. Alcohol kills more
teenagers than all other drugs combined
while overdose deaths in all age groups from
prescription pain relievers have quadrupled
since 1999. In 2014, 27.5 million people
needed treatment for addiction to alcohol or
non-nicotine drugs, but only 11.6% received
any form of treatment.
Anyone can develop dependency from
prolonged use of addictive medications,
especially opioid pain relievers, sleep aids,
stimulants and anxiety-reducing drugs, but
for many the prolonged use of these powerful
substances has unintended consequences
and can lead to misuse and overuse. It is as
if someone “flipped a switch” in the brain.
Please see ADDICTION page 10
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Breaking Ground: Baylor St. Luke’s breaks ground on Tower 2 at new
integrated medical campus
see page 6
CHI St. Luke’s Health–Baylor St. Luke’s
Medical Center (Baylor St. Luke’s) recently
celebrated the groundbreaking of Tower 2, a
420-patient bed tower, on Baylor St. Luke’s
McNair Campus.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
The 27.5-acre, $1.1 billion McNair Campus
will be home of the collaboration between
Pain management groups:
remedy by the dozens
Tower 2 Rendering
Baylor College of Medicine and Catholic
Health Initiatives and will also be the
future site of the Texas Heart® Institute
(THI). As announced in December, the
campus will feature a $916.8 million, 650-
bed hospital built across two bed towers, a
medical office building and ambulatory care
complex, and new facilities for basic science
Please see BREAKING GROUND page 14
PRSRT STD
US POSTAGE
PAID
HOUSTON TX
PERMIT NO 13187