Cardinal Health is a top provider (02/23/08)

Cardinal Health System has been named one of the most highly integrated healthcare networks in the country.

The company, which owns and operates Ball Memorial Hospital, Muncie, was ranked 87th by Pennsylvania-ranked healthcare information company Verispan.

Community Health Network, also of Indiana, ranked 15th.

The hospitals were ranked on the efficiency of their patient care and investment in care-enhancing technology.

Those hospitals that made the list of 100 also had good occupancy rates and profit margins.

ProMedica Health System of Toledo, Ohio, took the top spot this year.

Dubbed old-fashioned

A local banking company has been cited in a national news story about "old-fashioned" successful banks.

First Merchants, a Muncie-based corporation that owns First Merchants Bank, was named in a recent story in USA Today about banks that avoided the sub prime mortgage loan crisis.

There is a First Merchants Bank in Portland.

Sitting pretty

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. expect to have a more profitable year, due to catering to conservative shoppers.

The world's largest retailer, which suffered sales slumps in 2005 and 2006, told the Associated Press recently that holiday discounts and improvements to about 4,000 stores have boosted sales.

Company officials have forecast earnings for the current fiscal year to grow between 4.4 and 8.5 percent.[[In-content Ad]]