St. John, Genesys, St. Mary's and Borgess are part of St. Louis-based
Ascension Health, the nation's largest Catholic system, with 113
hospitals in 23 states and the District of Columbia.This year, Ascension
Health began its regular annual review with its regional hospital
divisions. That review included looking at payer mix, patient volume and
employee productivity.Sources within Ascension told Crain's that up to
5,000 employees nationally could be laid off this year at hospitals,
based on financial and operational targets set at the national
office.But Jon Glaudemans, Ascension's chief advocacy and.munications
officer, said the number was "many less" than that and that the health
system only acted as a consultant to provide guidance and direction to
local hospital groups on adjustments they could make.
Glaudemans
said layoffs and associated expense reductions were necessary because of
reimbursement cuts from Medicare and Medicaid. He said Ascension also
needs sufficient operating capital to make additional investments for
health care reform.But only 183 employees were laid off at Ascension
divisions of Grand Blanc-based Genesys Health System and Saginaw-based
St. Mary's of Michigan, officials said. Officials at Kalamazoo-based
Borgess Health said no layoffs were made.A new touchscreen display,
which is capable of identifying fingerprints, is closer to reality.Not
only will the display redefine online security but could revolutionise
the way in which humans and.puters interact in the public sphere.
Current touchscreens emit light but are not able to sense it,Irrigation without the aggravation
which makes it impossible to identify fingerprints unless a supplemental sensor is added.
Researchers
Christian Holz of the Hasso Plattner Institute in Germany told New
Scientist that these touchscreens cannot scan fingerprints and
fingerprint sensors are not able to show images.Holz and fellow
researcher Patrick Baudisch's prototype uses a glass screen, made up of
millions of 3-millimetre-long optical fibres that have been bunched
together vertically.From an image projector that is mounted below the
glass, each fibre is able to pipe out visible light rays.