Healthcare Strategic Management articles from August 2004

Healthcare Strategic Management archives from August 2004

Market memo: five essential elements of an effective succession plan.
August 1, 2004... Succession planning is getting new attention in hospitals, integrated delivery networks (IDNs) and regional hospital chains. Chief executive officers and other top executives are looking for ways to create managerial career ladders for...

Elections will bring a few cosmetic changes.
August 1, 2004... Election years and changes in the national economic environment require health care strategists to reconsider the assumptions that they use in planning and budgeting. Because the outcome of this year's elections could affect the economic...

Successful imaging strategy means balancing physician demand and ever-increasing costs.(Strategic Notes)
August 1, 2004... Imaging technology development now rivals that of computers, making some expensive PET, CT and MRI scanners outdated soon after they are installed. For example, the 16-slice CT scanner was introduced in 2002, yet only a year later the FDA...

Hospitals find investment in internet program pays off in reduction in Medicare claim denials.(Strategic Notes)(Lakeside Memorial Hospital)
August 1, 2004... A growing number of hospitals are turning to the internet to help navigate the dizzying array of regulations related to Medicare Outpatient Prospective Payments. HSS, Hamden, Conn., said since the beginning of the year sales of its APC...

Boston Medical Center improves ER efficiency using retail 'keep customers moving' theory.(Strategic Notes)(emergency room)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Boston Medical Center, 547 beds, is putting management theory to use in improving efficiency in its emergency room. With three times as much ambulance traffic and more uninsured patients than other Boston hospitals, the medical center's ER...

Mass. hospital makes its mark in cardiology even without benefit of open-heart program.(Strategic Notes)
August 1, 2004... What does a hospital do when its already-respected cardiology department is denied permission to add an open heart program? For one Massachusetts hospital, the answer was either give up or find another way to remain competitive. In 2001,...

20% of seniors accept drug benefit program that becomes effective in 2006, new survey reveals.(Statistical Notes)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Twenty percent of Medicare beneficiaries plan to enroll in the new Medicare drug benefit program when it takes effect in 2006, a new survey shows. Many more are likely to enroll in the program before it goes into effect. Public relations...

Hospitals publicize their records on treatment quality under initiative.(Statistical Notes)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... About 90% of 3,900 eligible hospitals now are participating in The Quality Initiative, a public-private effort to create a public source of information on hospital quality. Since February, the number of participating hospitals jumped 25% to...

Minimally invasive breast surgery comes of age with 2 millionth Mammotome biopsy procedure.(Statistical Notes)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... What a few years ago was a novel breast biopsy procedure is approaching mainstream status. As of late July, 2 million U.S. women had had a minimally invasive breast biopsy with the Mammotome system manufactured by the Ethicon Endo-Surgery...

Managed care industry continues to struggle with rising costs, new management approaches.(Statistical Notes)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Rising costs continue to be the dominant issue facing managed health care in 2004, according to a new study by Capgemini (formerly Cap Gemini Ernst & Young), New York. Purely economic issues include affordability, the uninsured and medical...

VA plans to share electronic medical record system with private-sector hospitals, doctors.(Statistical Notes)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... The Dept. of Veterans Affairs plans to offer its system for maintaining electronic medical records to private hospitals and physicians. In July, the VA said it will begin distributing its VistA software to non-government health care...

Long-term capital gap remains below horizon of most hospital systems, Tiber report shows.(Statistical Notes)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Only 1% of U.S. hospitals are looking realistically at the need to plan for long-term capital needs, according to a report by the Tiber Group, Chicago. In the second of a series of reports called "Capital Ideas," Tiber researchers...

Kaiser handbooks provide cultural information, guidelines for caring for minority populations.(Statistical Notes)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... As patients or as employees, people with disabilities present special challenges to hospitals. Methods for better understanding and meeting their needs are covered in the latest in a series of handbooks published by Kaiser Permanente, Oakland,...

JCAHO issues safety goals, directs hospitals to take action to reduce life-threatening events.(Database Notes)
August 1, 2004... The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) on July 20 issued a series of National Patient Safety Goals. The goals were compiled from recommendations made in the commission's safety newsletter, Sentinel...

Hospitals need to develop strategies to attract neurosurgeons in light of growing demand.(Database Notes)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Demand for neurosurgeons is increasing, due to science advances and an aging population, yet the supply is shrinking as medical students choose specialties with more regular hours and fewer liability risks. Hospitals need to take action to make...

Colorado hospital first in state to go electronic; goal is to use technology to promote safety.(Database Notes)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... When Exempla Good Samaritan Medical Center opens Dec. 1 in Lafayette, Colo., it will be the first all-electronic hospital in Colorado, and one of very few in the country. If chief medical officer Steve Lowenthal, M.D., has his way, it will also...

Technology provider McKesson reports benefits to hospitals of electronic orders, records.(Database Notes)
August 1, 2004... Memorial Health System, Savannah, Ga., 500 beds, reduced malpractice claims by $10 million and achieved a 75% reduction in life-threatening events during the past three years, after converting to electronic medical records. The system was...

Third drug-eluting stent version on the horizon, with European trials set to begin by year's end.(Database Notes)(Axxess Plus bifurcated coronary stent)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Clinical trials have begun for a new drug-eluting coronary stent, but addition of a third competitor in the U.S. is some time away. Devax, Irvine, Calif., in July began a clinical study of its Axxess Plus bifurcated coronary stent in...

Canadian hospital uses internet to let cancer patients monitor their own treatment effects.(Database Notes)(Grand River Hospital)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2004... Grand River Hospital, Waterloo, Ontario, developed 21 evidence-based treatment protocols for breast and prostate cancer, and explained them on a web page for patients at its new regional cancer center. The page is part of the HorizonWP patient...

Hospitals find they need not form IDN to benefit from combined purchasing power In novel pact.(Worth Reading)(Integrated Delivery Network)(Michigan hospitals)
August 1, 2004... A group of Michigan hospitals found a way to save 10% annually on medical-surgical supplies by combining their purchasing power, without forming either a group purchasing organization or an integrated delivery network. In what could be the...

Robotic prostate surgery system works wonders for both patients and hospital publicity effort.(Worth Reading)
August 1, 2004... When you need surgery, would you rather have it performed by a high technology machine or by an accomplished physician? As the first in Connecticut to use the daVinci Robotic Surgical System to perform radical prostatectomies, Hartford...

Good old reliable (?) trend forecasting should be re-evaluated.(Forecasting)(health care utilization)
August 1, 2004... Predicting future health care utilization is a challenge r almost everyone involved in health care. Health plans must anticipate utilization and expenditures in making underwriting decisions and setting premiums. Hospitals must predict...

Fresno's Community Medical Centers builds new burn unit.(Burn Units)(University Medical Center)
August 1, 2004... Designing and putting together a burn unit requires taking an intensive care unit design and customizing it to meet the special medial and support needs of the staff, patients and their families. A 10-bed burn unit is part the 58-bed-bed...

2 hospitals, 3 firms and state get community's trauma center built.(Design And Construction)(University Medical Center)
August 1, 2004... Getting a medical staff to agree with other stakeholders on a master plan and on what's needed in new medical campus is difficult enough. Working with the medical staffs of a university medical center and a community medical center that are in...