TriStar Health Systems announced recently that it has tapped Jon Connor to serve as its new administrator of oncology services.

In his new role, Connor will be responsible for the overall strategic direction of oncology services for TriStar Health, working to ensure all TriStar Sarah Cannon Cancer Centers share the same vision of providing high quality, integrated cancer care.  He will also continue to serve the Sarah Cannon Cancer Services team to help develop programmatic initiatives that are focused on physician-led, patient-centric care throughout core markets in HCA.

For the third straight year, HCA has been named to Ethisphere's annual list of the most ethical companies in the world.

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Mar 16, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Hospital Corporation of America, which has 163 hospitals and 111 ambulatory surgery centers in 20 states and London, England, has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute as one of the 2012 World's Most Ethical Companies.

This is the sixth year Ethisphere, a think-tank dedicated to the creation, advancement and sharing of best practices in business ethics, corporate social responsibility, anti-corruption and sustainability, has published the World's Most Ethical Companies rankings, which appear in Ethisphere Magazine's Q1 issue. It is the third year in a row HCA has received the honor.

HCA announced today that it has named Peter Marmerstein as its new West Florida Division president, succeeding Dan Miller.

“Peter is a veteran hospital administrator with more than 30 years experience in multiple settings,” said Chuck Hall, President of HCA’s National Group. “He has a proven track record and has done a great job leading the integration of the two CJW campuses while continuing to foster growth and expand their services. We are pleased to welcome him to the West Florida Division”

In his new position, Marmerstein will oversee "16 hospitals and 16 surgery centers on the west coast of Florida and near Orlando."

This morning HCA filed a preliminary prospectus with the SEC outlining a proposed $750 million debt sale.

We intend to use the net proceeds from the notes offered hereby for general corporate purposes, which may include the repayment, redemption or repurchase of our existing indebtedness and/or the financing of the February special dividend.

The company has upsized other recent offerings, but it is too early to tell whether that will happen in this case.

Officials at National Nurses United have a spring in their spring following the ratification last week in Las Vegas of a new contract for about 450 nurses at HCA's Mountain View Hospital. The three-and-a-half-year deal, they say, could serve as a model for negotiations with HCA in a number of other states, including in important Florida and Texas markets.

One key element was the hospital’s agreement to create a staffing committee that would begin examining the hospital’s staffing grids and make changes, starting with the hiring of additional RNs in the medical-surgical units to assist with staffing and patient care needs during patient admissions and discharges, as well as to assure nurses are able to take meal and rest breaks. Additionally, the hospital agreed there would be no mandatory overtime.