Wiping out infections from hospitals may not be the financial slam-dunk it’s cracked up to be, which might explain a lot of the inertia surrounding infection control.
The nation’s anemic supply of nurses is a familiar headache for recruiters or executives who grapple with hospitals’ daily operations and budget. Now it’s an issue for hospitals’ general counsels as well.
In a move that angered some, the CMS revealed that critical-access hospitals—the often-rural facilities with 25 or fewer inpatient beds—would be excluded from a national quality reporting initiative that ties participation to Medicare reimbursement.
Wiping out infections from hospitals may not be the financial slam-dunk it’s cracked up to be, which might explain a lot of the inertia surrounding infection control.
Sicker patients and rising costs are the drivers behind growing hospital revenue and charges, said healthcare industry executives, responding to two reports issued last week indicating that both are rising 7% per year.
The closure of two Select Medical Corp. facilities last week are the latest—but likely not the last—casualties in the long-term acute-care hospital industry’s battle to remain solvent.
As the final weeks wind down on Dennis O’Leary’s tenure as head of the Joint Commission, which he leaves on Dec. 31, the man who has led the organization for 21 years said he is doing anything but resting.
It appears in his first year as top executive of the American Hospital Association, Richard Umbdenstock has delivered on his pledge to change little at the Chicago-based trade group.
Healthcare supply chain experts say it remains to be seen whether a new memorandum of agreement between China and the U.S. will improve the quality and safety of drugs and medical devices traded between the two countries.
Halfway through its 5 Million Lives Campaign, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement cannot estimate the degree to which it has been able to reduce incidents of harm in hospitals nationwide.
MedAssets’ stock-market debut last week was a lucrative one for investors in the Alpharetta, Ga.-based company, whose share price rose 28% on the first day of trading Dec. 13.
Prominent physician-executive William Roper joined the board of directors of Medco Health Solutions, a Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based pharmacy benefit manager last week.
A controversial appointment to a Boston hospital’s board of trustees late last month is making waves in the industry, and some say it blurs the bright line between payers and providers.
Giving physicians incentives to adopt practices that achieve hospital cost and quality goals—known as gain-sharing—has been viewed with skepticism and even fierce opposition from regulators, some physicians and medical-device manufacturers.
The nation’s anemic supply of nurses is a familiar headache for recruiters or executives who grapple with hospitals’ daily operations and budget. Now it’s an issue for hospitals’ general counsels as well.
Most county governments have farmed out day-to-day operations of public health systems. But Cook County, Ill., which runs the third-largest such system in the country, is just now attempting the feat of using its political process to shed the taint...
DAYTON, Ohio—CareSource, a not-for-profit Medicaid managed-care company, completed the purchase of Community Choice Michigan. CareSource did not disclose the financial terms of the deal, announced in October, which adds about 49,000 Medicaid...
BATON ROUGE, La.—Key healthcare stakeholders in Louisiana proposed a healthcare reform plan that would offer healthcare coverage and immediate access to care for about 80,000 low-income uninsured adults in the New Orleans region. Designed by...
MIDDLETOWN, N.Y.—Orange Regional Medical Center sold and leased back its hospital campuses through the Community Foundation of Orange and Sullivan counties. The arrangement allows Orange Regional to continue operations at the campuses in...
The partisan showdown in Washington last week threatened funding for a wide array of domestic programs, led by healthcare. Even if it is resolved in time to avoid a shutdown of the federal government, it is a bad portent for the healthcare reform...
It’s no secret that “physician preference items”—noncommodity supplies such as implants, stents and orthopedic devices—and the related issue of medical-device makers’ confidential payments to physicians are significant drivers of healthcare costs.
Regarding your article about William McGuire’s settlement with UnitedHealth Group and the Securities and Exchange Commission (“McGuire drama not over,” Dec. 10, p. 4): How embarrassing for our industry when one of our own is found to be so greedy...
Regarding your article about William McGuire’s settlement with UnitedHealth Group and the Securities and Exchange Commission (“McGuire drama not over,” Dec. 10, p. 4): How embarrassing for our industry when one of our own is found to be so greedy...
Two of my favorite words in management are “communication” and “brevity.” Too many managers who should know better spend inordinate amounts of time talking too much and writing memos that tend to confuse rather than clarify.
The Medical Group Management Association, Englewood, Colo., named Anders Gilberg to the newly created position of vice president for public and private economic affairs. Most recently, he worked as the assistant director of federal affairs...
Steven Safyer was named president and CEO of Montefiore Medical Center, New York, succeeding Spencer Foreman, a healthcare industry statesman who is retiring on Jan. 7, 2008, after nearly 22 years as its president. Like Foreman,...
Physicians looking to regional health information organizations as a solution to their electronic records needs may be out of luck. New research data suggest RHIOs are struggling to catch on.
