Healthcare Strategic Management articles from August 2007

Healthcare Strategic Management archives from August 2007

Give patients what they're looking for with integrative medicine.(Service lines)
August 1, 2007... Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series about integrative medicine and how hospitals are finding success by implementing alternative therapies in their service lines. This month, we talk to organizations that have found success...

Customers are more than consumers: realize the value of marketing to EMTs.(Market strategy)(emergency medical technicians)
August 1, 2007... The term "customer" is a broad one that reaches far beyond just those who seek care at your hospital. As any marketer knows, customers can also include physicians, who by their affiliation often determine where a patient will be admitted. But...

Upcoming Webcasts.(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... The Future of Healthcare Marketing: Blogs, Podcasts, and Other New Media Live Webcast Friday, September 14, 2007 1:00-2:30 p.m. (EST) Still not sure how your hospital's marketing campaign can benefit from the use of new media, such as...

Heed these measures to see your HCAHPS scores rise.(Worth reading)
August 1, 2007... Quality improvement directors who want to make sure that their hospitals get glowing reviews when patient satisfaction surveys are unveiled to the public early next year should pay close attention to patients' personal needs, according to a new...

Competition contributes to decline in physician-generated revenue.(Worth reading)
August 1, 2007... Physicians and hospitals have traditionally had symbiotic, if strained, relationships. But market forces and recent technological advances have weakened hospital-physician relations, pushing hospitals and physicians to become competitors,...

Discharge planning: best practices can result in better customer service.(Worth reading)
August 1, 2007... Pricing and quality transparency are now buzzwords with long-reaching financial implications for both providers and patients. Now, more than ever, hospital administrators believe strong customer service may be the "X" factor that will retain...

Use IT to track your efforts.(Physician relations)
August 1, 2007... In the past several months, those organizations that are developing and enhancing their physician relations programs have been very interested in learning more about the market options for easier, more sophisticated, and more customized tools...

On sly, workers rate hospital service.(Strategic notes)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... If you pay close attention to those in the waiting rooms at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston, you may notice someone watching patient-staff interactions and carefully taking notes. Two years ago, the medical center...

Planner bridges gaps between hospital and home.(Strategic notes)
August 1, 2007... Alicia Tennenbaum makes a living being in the middle. A hospital discharge planner at New York City's Beth Israel Medical Center, Tennenbaum is in most situations caught between two conflicting priorities: a patient's admission versus...

Industry pushes for e-prescribing adoption.(Strategic notes)
August 1, 2007... Sending prescriptions electronically from physicians to pharmacies could save billions in healthcare costs and encourage more patients to fill prescriptions, causing all involved to make a push for adoption, says The Wall Street Journal. ...

Patient history may be skin-deep with RFID tags.(Strategic notes)
August 1, 2007... Doctors could soon be storing personal medical records in their patients' skin, according to the AMA. Devices the size of a grain of rice, implanted with a needle, could provide doctors, especially in emergency situations, with quick access to...

Hospitals in Minnesota prepare to go public with infection rates.(Strategic notes)
August 1, 2007... In 2009, hospitals in Minnesota will publicly report hospital-acquired infections, a move that is part of a health budget bill signed by Governor Tim Pawlenty, according to iHealthBeat. Those who support the initiative argue that this effort at...

Online patient groups help researchers, gain power.(Strategic notes)
August 1, 2007... Patient groups on the Internet have become a powerful force over the last 10 years, helping researchers for clinical studies, raising money for healthcare causes, and offering a community of support and education, says The Wall Street Journal....

Costs are prompting employers to set health targets.(Strategic notes)
August 1, 2007... In an attempt to keep healthcare costs and insurance premiums down, The New York Times says employers are setting goals, such as quitting smoking or losing weight, for their employees. Some companies are even issuing voluntary surveys that earn...

Hospital kiosks streamline triage process in the ED.(Strategic notes)(emergency department)(Brief article)
August 1, 2007... Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas has implemented a computer kiosk check-in system, hoping to make the admitting process quicker for patients in its emergency department (ED). The kiosks allow patients to report their medical condition...

Macomb County: hospital hot spot.(Strategic notes)
August 1, 2007... Three of the most competitive health systems in metropolitan Detroit have launched all-out advertising campaigns hoping to win the business of consumers in Macomb County, just 25 miles north of Detroit. St. John Health System, Henry Ford...

12% of federal healthcare dollars go to diabetes treatment.(Statistical notes)
August 1, 2007... One out of every eight federal healthcare dollars--or $80 billion--is spent treating people with diabetes, says a study released in June by the National Changing Diabetes Program and conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. Data from...

Report reveals hospital workers mum on verbal abuse.(Statistical notes)
August 1, 2007... More than one-third of hospital employees in New Jersey emergency departments have been verbally assaulted, but most (72%) never report the incidents, according to a report titled "Workplace Violence and Prevention in New Jersey Hospital...

White kids admitted more.(Statistical notes)
August 1, 2007... White children are admitted to hospitals post-emergency room (ER) visits at a greater rate than their African-American or Latino peers, according to research reported in the June journal Pediatrics by emergency medicine professors at the George...

Study: $220 billion spent on ineffective advertising.(Statistical notes)
August 1, 2007... According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), advertisers spend $220 billion annually on advertising that either fails to reach its intended audience or reaches no customers whatsoever. This is approximately half of all advertising...

Study: doctors talk too much and forget about the patients.(Research notes)
August 1, 2007... Physicians may be wasting patients' time and divulging too much irrelevant information about themselves, according to a new study published in The Archives of Internal Medicine. Researchers were surprised to find when listening to 113...

Study: race plays a part in heart care patients receive.(Research notes)
August 1, 2007... A new study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that African-American patients are less likely than Caucasian patients to receive invasive and aggressive treatments such as bypasses or artery opening stents...

Electronic prescriptions reduce errors by 66%, study says.(Research notes)
August 1, 2007... The results of a study printed in the journal Health Services Research say hospitals that have switched to computerized physician order entry systems have seen a 66% drop in prescription errors. Doctors are infamous for illegible...

More women having midlife strokes than males of same age.(Research notes)
August 1, 2007... An increase in heart disease and the growing size of women's waists in America are contributing to the rising rate of strokes in middle-aged women, says a study in the June 20 edition of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of...

The more consumers must spend, the less they use prescriptions.(Research notes)
August 1, 2007... The more patients have to pay for prescription medication, the less likely it is that they will spend the money, leading to more serious illnesses over time, according to a study published in July in The Journal of the American Medical...

Government issues grades on heart care in hospitals.(Research notes)
August 1, 2007... Government agencies gave hospitals nationwide a public report card that measured their performance when treating heart attack and heart failure patients. Although all performed at national patient mortality rate averages, only 38 of the roughly...