Kootenai Medical changes its name
Kootenai Medical Center in Coeur d’Alene has changed its name to Kootenai Health.
For the past six years, Kootenai Health has been the name of the umbrella organization that operates Kootenai Medical Center and affiliated health services. Now, the hospital also will be known as Kootenai Health.
Kootenai also announced Tuesday a new structure for its 77 physicians and their practices meant to enhance working relationships between the doctors. Those “employed physician practices” now will operate under the umbrella name Kootenai Clinic.
The new brands are intended to emphasize the organization’s regional vision and clinical structure, Kootenai Health said in a news release.
The organization also dumped its familiar blue “K” logo, which incorporated a medical cross, for a new blue and green “spark” logo designed to represent “Kootenai’s vision of reaching out to others and bringing everyone together for the benefit of patients,” the release said.
WASHINGTON – U.S. employers advertised slightly more jobs in May and hired more workers, further signs of steady improvement in the job market.
The Labor Department said Tuesday that job openings rose 28,000 to 3.83 million in May from April. That’s close to February’s 3.9 million, which was the highest in five years.
A measure of overall hiring increased 46,000 to 4.4 million. That’s still lower than a year ago.
The job market remains competitive, despite stronger hiring this year. There are nearly 3.1 unemployed, on average, for each open job. That’s down from a peak four years ago of nearly 7 to 1. In a healthy economy, the ratio is typically 2 to 1.
The Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey comes after the government said last week that employers added 195,000 net jobs in June. Last week’s report showed all jobs added, minus the number of people who were laid off, quit or retired. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 7.6 percent.
NEW YORK – Sprint has completed its acquisition of wireless network operator Clearwire Corp.
Sprint Nextel Corp. paid $5 per share for the 51 percent of Clearwire it didn’t already own. Bellevuebased Clearwire runs a mobile broadband network that Sprint uses to provide “4G” service on many of its phones.
Meanwhile, Overland Park, Kan.-based Sprint has agreed to sell 78 percent of itself to Japan’s Softbank for $21.6 billion. On Monday, the companies announced that a majority of Sprint shareholders elected to receive cash for the stock they own, while 3 percent of shareholders chose to receive shares of Sprint Corp., the new company.
The deal between Sprint and Softbank is expected to close today.