Hopkins Hospital

Johns Hopkins Hospital has sued Peabody Coal Co. for $20 million in punitive damages, claiming the St. Louis firm intentionally cheated it out of $650,000 in mining royalties over a decade.Jane Coil of Madisonville, Ky., earned royalties from leasing her land to Peabody Coal Co. to mine. When she died in 1977, her estate dedicated some of those annual payments to Johns Hopkins Hospital for cancer research. Coil's daughter, Kate, died of cancer at the hospital in 1974.Hopkins sued the coal company for $650,000 in back payments, saying Peabody had bilked the hospital of the money by improperly subtracting from its income the taxes paid by the company -- and levied on consumers -- on the sale of coal.

Department heads at Johns Hopkins Hospital have been told to prepare reduced budgets for their departments, as the hospital looks to cut spending by about 8 percent in the fiscal year that begins July 1.The usual budget-planning cycle has been given more urgency this year, Ronald R. Peterson, president of the hospital, said yesterday. "What's different this time is we're expecting more downward pressure on the revenue stream," as Maryland forces its Medicaid patients to shift into managed care, and the Medicare program looks more to managed care as well.

Anne H. Grady, who worked in patient relations at Johns Hopkins Hospital until retiring at the age of 93, died of congestive heart failure Tuesday at the Blakehurst retirement community in Towson. She was 95. Born Anne Hartnett, she grew up on Cathedral Street in Mount Vernon. As a girl, she ate ice cream at the Jacobs mansion and, on snowy days, coasted down Mulberry Street on a sled. Her mother, Grace Hartnett, was active in the suffragist movement and served as a city magistrate. "My grandmother was somewhat of a model for her, that you didn't have to be the lady in the housedress making cookies," said a daughter, Patricia Martin of Bel Air. Mrs. Grady graduated from Mount St. Agnes High School in 1929 and soon after met her husband, Harry J. Grady, who was a guest at her parents' boarding house.

For the 11th consecutive year, Johns Hopkins Hospital has topped the list of America's best medical centers in the annual ranking by U.S. News and World Report. Hopkins led the magazine's "honor roll" by ranking first in four specialties - gynecology, urology, ophthalmology, and ear, nose and throat - and by receiving high ratings in 12 other areas. "Our achievement this year is yet another grand opportunity to thank all employees for all that they do for Johns Hopkins Medicine and our patients," said Dr. Edward D. Miller, the chief operating officer and medical school dean.

Eleanor Z. Winkenwerder, a retired social worker who helped research syphilis at Johns Hopkins Hospital during the 1930s and later became an artist, died in her sleep Wednesday at Roland Park Place. She was 99. Eleanor Zouck, the daughter of a Baltimore lumber executive, was born at home on Belmont Avenue in Glyndon. "She would often joke that her one claim to fame was that she was brought into this world by Dr. T. Rowe Price, father of the founder of T. Rowe Price," said her son, Peter Winkenwerder of Glyndon.

THERE'S NOTHING scientific about the annual survey by U.S. News and World Report magazine on the top hospitals in America. It is largely based on reputation within the medical community. But when physicians rank the same hospital No. 1 for seven consecutive years, there's no doubt about the professionals' assessment of that institution's prowess.Johns Hopkins Hospital richly deserves that No. 1 ranking. It is, indeed, among the preeminent U.S. medical institutions. The magazine survey merely confirms that fact: Top-ranked by medical specialists surveyed in gynecology, urology and ophthalmology; second-ranked in AIDS care, gastroenterology, otolaryngology and rheumatology; third-ranked in cancer, neurology and pediatrics, and ranked in the top five in 15 of 17 specialties.

After several hours of technical debate, the Health Services Cost Review Commission unanimously approved a 6.07 percent rate increase for Johns Hopkins Hospital yesterday. That will add about $42 million a year to patients' bills at Hopkins. Under the commission's rate-setting formula, any extra increase granted to one hospital comes out of the statewide inflation adjustment applicable to all hospitals in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. Saying they were worried about the affect of the rate increase on the state's 51 other hospitals, the commission agreed to appoint a work group to review the inflation formula.

Today, "volunteerism" seems to be a trendy catch word, something politically correct, participation to be encouraged and desired for all citizens. But long before all the recent attention, volunteers have been donating time and energy to worthwhile endeavors because they believe their contributions to be important to their communities.One such volunteer group is the Women's Board of The Johns Hopkins Hospital, founded in 1927. The board's 70th birthday was celebrated last Monday.The board's mission is as viable today as it was when it was written: "The purpose of the Board shall be to acquaint the public with the work of the hospital and its needs; to promote understanding and support to the hospital; and to maintain fund raising projects for the work of the hospital."

NEW YORK - They're called "M&M conferences" - Morbidity and Mortality. And during a Wednesday news conference, officials from Johns Hopkins Hospital acknowledged that they were taking a chance by allowing ABC cameras to record these moments of doctoral self-analysis. During "Hopkins 24/7," a six-part series that debuts Aug. 30, viewers will see and hear real doctors admit that they may have made mistakes that might have contributed to their patients' deaths. Couldn't all that candor result in a feeding frenzy by malpractice attorneys?

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry is scheduled to have his cancerous prostate removed today at Johns Hopkins Hospital. If his operation and recovery go normally, the disease is expected to have no significant impact on Kerry's ability to campaign, his aides and doctors said yesterday. Kerry, a 59-year-old senator from Massachusetts, is considered one of the leading contenders for the 2004 nomination. He first gained national attention more than three decades ago as an organizer of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and has been a member of the Senate since 1985.