By Deborah Friberg November 16, 2009 Infections hurt patients and represent one of the primary opportunities in healthcare to improve outcomes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year 1.7 million patients get sick from an infection they contract while in the hospital, and 100,000 of them die. ... FULL STORY
By John Osse October 19, 2009 After 31 years in rural healthcare administration, the thought of retirement was appealing. I was ready when it happened on July 1, 2005. ... FULL STORY
By Gene Winters October 05, 2009 Rarely has a hospital received a “death sentence” from the CMS—the revocation of its Medicare and Medicaid certifications—and survived without a significant change in ownership or organizational structure. One such rarity, however, is the story of Haywood Regional Medical Center in Clyde, N.C. As there was scant history dealing with decertification, the steps necessary to create lasting change had to be developed on the fly. ... FULL STORY
By V. William Hunt September 21, 2009 Amid the national healthcare reform debate, it's also important to keep the need to improve the quality of care and patient safety at healthcare organizations in the forefront. Physicians, nurses and clinical staff at hospitals understand this emphasis, but top-level leadership—including the board of directors—is a key to achieving these goals. ... FULL STORY
By Brian Connolly August 03, 2009 Nowhere have the effects of record unemployment, corporate downsizing and other cutbacks been felt more than in Michigan, home of the Big Three automakers. Healthcare providers here face unprecedented challenges, including staggering increases in uncompensated and charity care coupled with decreases in federal and state spending. Oakwood Healthcare—like Ford Motor Co., headquartered in Dearborn, Mich.—is working to meet those challenges head-on. ... FULL STORY
By Tom Langston July 20, 2009 When SSM Health Care decided to move ahead with the electronic health record back in 2005, we had a number of critical decisions to make, not the least of which was who would be the primary supplier for the EHR. A year or so later with the partner selected, we also had to begin making decisions about how we were going to build this EHR. ... FULL STORY
By Ernie Vesta July 06, 2009 Many Americans believe that medicine is fraught with escalating costs, a variety of quality issues, roadblocks to access, disruptions in coverage and undesired patient outcomes. ... FULL STORY
By Martin Hauser June 15, 2009 As the president of a healthcare plan in Ohio, I am used to answering for the shortcomings of our industry. When neighbors vent to me at the grocery store that medical bills are driving them to the poorhouse, it never seems to matter that our plan, SummaCare, has been named one of the nation’s top health plans, or that our 120,000 members consistently give us high marks for service. I’m painted with the same brush as the worst actors in our industry. I understand. It comes with the territory. ... FULL STORY
By Martin Hauser June 15, 2009 As the president of a healthcare plan in Ohio, I am used to answering for the shortcomings of our industry. When neighbors vent to me at the grocery store that medical bills are driving them to the poorhouse, it never seems to matter that our plan, SummaCare, has been named one of the nation’s top health plans, or that our 120,000 members consistently give us high marks for service. I’m painted with the same brush as the worst actors in our industry. I understand. It comes with the territory. ... FULL STORY
By JIm Bickel June 01, 2009 On June 7, 2008, Columbus (Ind.) Regional Hospital confronted the unimaginable. Heavy rains caused a nearby creek to overflow and flood the basement and first floor of our hospital, forcing us to evacuate 157 patients. Our laboratory, pharmacy, information technology center, radiology equipment, medical records and food service facility were destroyed. We sustained $200 million in damages and were closed for nearly five months. ... FULL STORY
By Kathleen Yaremchuk and J. Douglas Clark May 18, 2009 In January 2007, Henry Ford Health System in Detroit adopted a conflict-of-interest policy to eliminate potential conflicts between vendors and employees. ... FULL STORY
By Allan Field May 04, 2009 The Federal Trade Commission on April 13 issued a favorable clinical integration advisory opinion letter—the third ever issued—to TriState Health Partners (April 20, p. 14). TriState is a physician hospital organization in Hagerstown, Md., composed of 217 community physicians and the Washington County Hospital Association. Supported by its technology vendor InforMed, Annapolis, Md., TriState developed a claims-driven, Web-based electronic health record for the physician desktop. ... FULL STORY
By Mona Sonnenshein and Carol Sherman April 20, 2009 In October 2006, the chief operating officer for the University of California at San Diego Medical Center wanted to evaluate the medical center’s outsourced food and nutrition services for both quality and financial improvements. A consultant, who had worked successfully with this senior administrator before, was hired to evaluate the facility’s current operation, including the ability of the department to meet current and future needs of the medical center and assess the possibilities for cost containment and service modification through changes in the department. ... FULL STORY
By William Atkinson March 30, 2009 Emergency departments have traditionally been viewed as the backdoor of the hospital. With sparse primary care and migration to ambulatory services, EDs across the country have become healthcare’s front door. Knowing it is not feasible to put a hospital in every community, WakeMed sought options to enhance access to care and to start putting out welcome mats across our growing county. The free-standing ED was one solution. ... FULL STORY
By Sang-ick Chang March 16, 2009 Not all great medical innovations involve years of research or millions of dollars. Some, such as the one developed at San Mateo (Calif.) Medical Center, are as simple and inexpensive as a sturdy vinyl lunch bag. This item may hardly seem to qualify as an innovation, especially compared with the latest MRI machine or organ transplant technique. But when this bag is used by patients to carry the myriad medications they’ve been prescribed, it can save a life. ... FULL STORY
By Catherine Jacobson March 02, 2009 The municipal-bond market, the traditional source for not-for-profit hospital capital, has experienced historic and fundamental changes over the past 12 months. These changes have required providers to revise their approaches to the market in order to raise debt. ... FULL STORY
By Joseph Swedish February 02, 2009 As Congress and the new administration prepare to include health information technology and other reform elements in economic recovery legislation, it is more important than ever that leaders and clinicians increase their role in the dialogue. It is the “real world tested” experiences of health IT pioneers—not the conceptual models of a limited few—that can best help policymakers formulate a meaningful infrastructure solution. ... FULL STORY
By John Toussaint January 05, 2009 When I talk with area business people, the conversation inevitably turns to the cost of healthcare. It’s clear that employers are desperate to find ways to reduce the cost of buying healthcare for their employees. ... FULL STORY
By Jeffrey Driver December 15, 2008 One of the chief financial goals of the healthcare industry is to reduce insurance and claims-related costs. The industry is paying much more in malpractice premiums today than five years ago and, although the number of annual claims has decreased, the average dollar amount of each claim has increased—from 2006 to 2007, per-claim payouts rose between 7% and 9.5%.At Stanford University Medical Center, we are embracing technology as a method to negotiate premium credits, premium reductions and multiyear rate guarantees that have amounted to reductions of 15% to 40%. ... FULL STORY
