As Oregon's governor, Dr. John Kitzhaber brought Democrats and Republicans together to reform his state's Medicaid program, and he brought doctors and lawyers together to advance tort reform.
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Consolidation, healthcare reform, dwindling revenue and the demographic tsunami of aging Americans are among the forces challenging healthcare organizations to develop accountable, quality-driven delivery systems. The process requires the transformation of leadership teams to encompass new skill sets and achieve a balanced inner circle at the C-suite, where physician leaders are increasingly called upon to align stakeholder interests, leverage their unique blend of clinical and business skills, and maintain a patient-centered culture.
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Part of Modern Healthcare/Modern Physician's recognition of the 50 Most Influential Physician Executives in Healthcare this year will include an awards gala set for Sept. 9 in downtown Chicago.The event will begin with music and a reception at the historic Chicago Club overlooking Grant Park, followed by dinner and an awards ceremony.
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Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber topped this year's list of the 50 Most Influential Physician Executives in Healthcare.
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To determine the ninth annual ranking of the 50 Most Influential Physician Executives in Healthcare, Modern Healthcare and sister publication Modern Physician issued a call for nominations on Nov. 12, 2012. Through Dec. 13, readers submitted nominations via ModernPhysician.com and ModernHealthcare.com.
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Performance improvement in healthcare often takes changing processes, launching new initiatives and installing cutting-edge technologies. But achieving long-lasting gains also requires changing the culture.
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For more than a decade, Scripps Health of San Diego has worked to create internal structures that improve quality—a major cultural shift for the institution.One major innovation was the creation of a physician leadership cabinet, in which elected chiefs of staff, vice chiefs of staff, chief nurses and CEOs from the four-hospital system meet to discuss issues that impact the hospitals and medical staff. The leadership also created a systemwide quality department focusing on individual performance at a local level and then sharing that information with the entire system.
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At Alegent Creighton Health in Omaha, Neb., high-quality outcomes and the patient experience are among the highest priorities.“But we don't do it to get awards,” says Richard Hachten, Alegent's president and CEO.That emphasis helped elevate Alegent Creighton into the ranks of stand-out performers among mid-sized hospital systems in Truven Health Analytics' 15 Top Health Systems for 2013. The 11-hospital system is part of Catholic Health Initiatives, Englewood, Colo.
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Mercy Health Southwest Ohio Region in Cincinnati has succeeded in raising quality by setting at least 10 specific performance goals every year for all of the system's 11 hospitals and medical centers.“We measure everything,” says Jim May, president and CEO of Mercy Health.
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When Dr. Ruth Parker talks to providers about the need to focus on health literacy, she rarely encounters anyone who doesn't agree that it's an issue with serious implications for healthcare outcomes.
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The grim uncertainty that froze the healthcare construction industry during the Great Recession appears to have lifted—only to be replaced with a new type of uncertainty.
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A common theme links this year's inductees to Modern Healthcare's Health Care Hall of Fame. They are all innovators. Yet there is diversity within that common theme. Among the three inductees, one innovated in the practice of medicine; one in the morality and ethics of healthcare delivery; and one in the management of healthcare systems.
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For Dr. Denton Cooley, the world-renowned cardiovascular surgeon who performed the first successful human heart transplant in the U.S. and founded the Texas Heart Institute, there are countless stories that extol his accomplishments, inventions and honors over a 60-year career. And then there are the lesser-known stories that capture Cooley as a benevolent man who has shown by example how to strive for excellence in the field of medicine while treating others with kindness and compassion.
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In the late 1970s, shortly after giving up her post as head of the Catholic Hospital Association, Sister Mary Maurita Sengelaub didn't seek another position at the pinnacle of healthcare administration. Instead, she threw herself into a campaign to provide healthcare for seasonal farmworkers in states such as Alabama, Florida and the Carolinas.
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Consolidating hospitals and slashing a hospital's bed count were considered unusual decades ago in the once-sleepy world of the hospital industry. But Donald Wegmiller is one of the industry leaders who helped make such moves much more commonplace, and in the process helped to invent the integrated delivery system.
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The Justice Department said it will not challenge the Greater New York Hospital Association's proposed gain-sharing program for its member hospitals.
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Hospitals won't see much change to their Medicare payments from bonuses and penalties tied to quality and patient satisfaction that will be awarded for the first time in the new year.
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The GAO reported that 91% of hospitals paid by Medicare receive some dispensation or add-on to the program's standard payment system.
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Deano Thornton, CEO of Winn Community Health Center, a federally qualified healthcare center in the small city of Winnfield, La., knew the clinic would need the most up-to-date tools for reaching out to his underserved community and coordinating with the other community health clinics across the state. That's why the center put a Web-based EHR system in place from developer SuccessEHS on day one.
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Physician retention has been just as much an issue as getting physicians to make an initial commitment to rural life.Nationally, physicians stay in their first jobs for only about three years. The challenge in rural areas has been to find doctors who are willing to stay for five or more years since initial recruitment can so difficult.
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