Healthcare Strategic Management articles from April 2007

Healthcare Strategic Management archives from April 2007

Shape strategy with docs' location in mind.(Physician satisfaction)
April 1, 2007... Every good Realtor knows the three most important features of a house for sale: location, location, location. That adage might also apply to physician sales, said David Rowlee, vice president of research and development at Charlotte,...

Worried about retail clinics, some providers are fighting back.(Market memo)
April 1, 2007... A growing number of traditional healthcare systems are entering the convenient care arena--both to ward off retail healthcare's encroachment into the marketplace and to strengthen ties with the communities they serve. Many say the move has...

Image makeover.(Worth reading)
April 1, 2007... Gone are the days when hospital marketers were simply creative wordsmiths whose primary function was to purchase ads in the local newspaper. Today, progressive healthcare organizations are using sophisticated techniques to shape their brands...

Use designation to boost recruitment.(Worth reading)
April 1, 2007... The effects of an industrywide physician shortage are never evenly distributed. A large hospital or clinic in an affluent suburban neighborhood, for example, may have to spend a few more dollars recruiting and retaining physicians, but rarely...

Control spending and still keep docs happy.(Worth reading)
April 1, 2007... Your surgeons want the latest and greatest medical devices, and you would like them to them have every new gadget and gizmo--if only your organization could afford it. The reality is that even if physician relations are a priority at your...

Managing return on employee in healthcare.(Worth reading)
April 1, 2007... One of the key elements in customer relationship management is a concept called return on customer, a measure of the financial value of each customer the organization serves. An equally important element in employee relationship management is...

HHS helps hospitals improve communication strategies.(Strategic notes)
April 1, 2007... The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a new program that will help hospitals meet the communication needs of individuals who do not speak English as their primary language or are deaf or hard of hearing. The...

Campaign aims to reduce ER use in Massachusetts.(Strategic notes)
April 1, 2007... Approximately $4 million will be given to help ease the crunch at crowded emergency rooms (ER) in Massachusetts' community health centers, state officials said. Thirty-two health centers--21 of them in Boston--will use the funds to extend their...

New organization, logo for Saint Francis.(Strategic notes)
April 1, 2007... Two Memphis, TN, hospitals and a handful of outpatient facilities announced that they would come together to form Saint Francis Healthcare, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal. With the new organization comes a revamped logo and a...

In-room services connect with patients.(Strategic notes)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Several Chicago-area hospitals are taking customer service to a level beyond mere in-room television and telephone service. Corner Children's Hospital, affiliated with the University of Chicago, provides a 42-inch liquid crystal display...

Who was behind 'Hello Life'?(Strategic notes)(advertising campaign of Brookwood Medical Center)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Mysterious stickers, T-shirts, flyers, and window decals with the message "Hello Life" appeared around Birmingham, AL, for three weeks before Brookwood Medical Center stepped forward as the force behind the guerilla campaign and unveiled its...

Arkansas hospital uses patient simulation program.(Strategic notes)
April 1, 2007... Medical students and new physicians at Arkansas Children's Hospital are using a new technology that allows them to repeatedly perform routine procedures before they even come in contact with a real patient. In February, the hospital opened...

Site offers physicians support.(Strategic notes)
April 1, 2007... Patients aren't the only ones turning to the Internet for support. A new Web site, www.sermo.com, is a social networking site exclusively for physicians. Sermo allows doctors to get advice and insight from their peers, discuss unusual...

Hospitals go formula-free to be baby-friendly.(Strategic notes)
April 1, 2007... Three North Carolina hospitals may be putting an end to the practices of giving "freebie bags" to new mothers as they take their newborns home, according to The News-Observer of Raleigh, NC. Two University of North Carolina hospitals in...

VeriChip helps diabetics.(Strategic notes)
April 1, 2007... VeriChip Corporation's Patient Identification System is gaining popularity, as the company announced that it added 18 more patients to its list of users during the Atlanta Diabetes Expo held in March. The technology, which implants a radio...

Midwest hospitals lead in performance.(Strategic notes)
April 1, 2007... An annual survey that determines the nation's top 100 hospitals shows that Midwest hospitals are strong performers when it comes to clinical outcomes, patient safety, financial performance, efficiency, and growth in patient volume. The...

Sleep disorders a growing market.(Strategic notes)
April 1, 2007... The number of Americans with sleep disorders is growing, and according to a report from Millennium Research Group, the respiratory and sleep-management market is expected to take off in 2007. Millennium says that more than 40 million people...

Wealthy also worry about healthcare costs.(Strategic notes)
April 1, 2007... A survey taken late last year by the PNC Financial Services Group shows that the middle class and the poor aren't the only ones who worry about the cost of healthcare. According to www.MSNBC.com, a survey of more than 1,100 people with...

Most children in U.S. hospitals receive off-label medicine.(Strategic notes)
April 1, 2007... Four out of five hospitalized children receive "off-label" medications, or those approved only for adult use, according to the largest-ever pediatric study, done by a group of researchers led by Samir S. Shah, MD, a pediatrician specializing in...

Study: Turnover high among new physicians.(Strategic notes)
April 1, 2007... It is not uncommon for newly hired doctors to stay at a job for only a short period of time, according to survey conducted by the American Medical Group Association and the St. Louis-based physician recruiting firm Cejka Search. Almost 50%...

Americans support guaranteed healthcare.(Strategic notes)
April 1, 2007... Most Americans support the idea that the federal government should guarantee health insurance to every American, especially children. They are even willing to pay higher taxes to do so, according to a poll conducted by The New York Times and...

IT use in hospitals on the rise.(Strategic notes)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... A survey of 1,500 hospitals found that nearly half reported moderate or high use of health information technology in 2006, compared to 37% in 2005, according to an American Hospital Association (AHA) release. Hospitals also reported...

Medical school enrollment said to increase.(Strategic notes)
April 1, 2007... First-year enrollment in U.S. medical schools is projected to increase 17% by 2012, according to survey results released by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Medical schools will grow by creating new clinical...

Guidelines help providers care for patients, families.(Research notes)
April 1, 2007... The Society of Critical Care Medicine has released guidelines for clinical practitioners on supporting families whose loved ones are patients in intensive care units (ICU). The guidelines were published in the February Critical Care Medicine....

Consumers consider EHR when choosing physicians.(Research notes)
April 1, 2007... More than two-thirds of consumers said the availability of electronic health records (EHR) is at least slightly important when selecting a physician, according to survey results from the New York City-based consulting firm Accenture. Half...

CDC provides state-specific data on heart disease.(Research notes)
April 1, 2007... Heart disease is most common in Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, and Texas, and least common in the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to state and territorial estimates of people living with heart disease. The findings are part of...

CMS to provide information about physician performance.(Research notes)
April 1, 2007... The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced an initiative to use data from Medicare and other insurers to measure the performance of healthcare providers for its beneficiaries. The project is designed to provide performance...

Report: income gaps between physicians threaten healthcare.(Research notes)
April 1, 2007... The declining number of U.S. medical students choosing careers in primary care is caused by a sizeable and widening income gap between primary care physicians and specialists, according to researchers at the University of California, San...

Local collaboratives to report on quality, cost.(Research notes)
April 1, 2007... The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has unveiled a plan for chartering local collaborative organizations that are working to improve quality and value in healthcare by assessing provider performance and reporting these...

Info sources aren't important for Web users.(Research notes)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... A study released by Envision Solutions, LLC, shows that many Americans trust the information they find online, regardless of what type of Web site the information comes from. When one searches for health information, Web browsers will...

Choose the right reporting structure for physician reps.(Physician relations)
April 1, 2007... When a hospital adds new physician-relations jobs or service areas, confusion, concern, and even turf battles can arise, as leaders in different departments vie to have the new staff members or department report to them. That's why it is...