Healthcare Strategic Management articles from June 2001

Healthcare Strategic Management archives from June 2001

Market Memo: Physicians must help make key decisions.(Physician-hospital relationships survey by American Medical Group Association)
June 1, 2001... Hospitals need physicians, physicians need hospitals, and both need patients. Sounds simple, and it seems there should be a way for hospitals and physicians to work closely together for the benefit of all parties. Yet, both seem to be...

Rural health markets need restructuring.(Congress and state legislatures subsidize rural health care providers)(Government Activity)
June 1, 2001... The soaring cost of health insurance is driving many rural individuals and small businesses out of the insurance market. They are self-insuring themselves, especially in rural areas. They are joining the uninsured. Rural residents, physicians...

VHA, Deloitte & Touche offer strategies for hospitals and health care systems.(Health Care 2001)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... VHA Inc., Irving, Texas, and the accounting and consulting firm, Deloitte & Touche, Detroit, say there are six categories of issues that hospitals must face. In Health Care 2001, a strategic assessment of the health care environment in the...

Swedish Medical Center opens $33 million medical imaging center.(Swedish Medical Imaging Services )(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Swedish Medical Center, Seattle, opened a $33 million medical imaging center. Swedish Medical Imaging Services is the largest and most comprehensive facility of its kind in the Pacific Northwest. The new unit incorporates all of the most...

Memorial Hermann initiates $420 million hospital expansion program to meet demand.(Memorial Hermann Healthcare System)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Memorial Hermann Healthcare System, Houston, Texas, plans to expand all nine of its greater Houston-area acute care hospitals over the next five years. The $420 million capital expansion program will be used to finance construction and...

Analysts' alert: There may not be as many heart attack patients as you think.(University of Colorado Health Sciences Center)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2001... An eight-state study of hospital discharge data shows that the number of acute heart attacks in the United States may be vastly overestimated. The study in the May issue of Medical Care found that 10% to 15% of heart attack patients may be...

Novation offers value assessment tool for health care e-commerce.(Health care supply chain e-commerce value calculators)(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Novation and Neoforma.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: NEOF) presented information about economic "value calculators" that will help all parties in the health care supply chain assess "return on investment" (ROI) for e-commerce. The value calculators are...

Hospital operating margins rose 0.41% in 2000 but were 36.6% below 1997.(Operating profit margins at U.S. hospitals )(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2001... Operating profit margins at U.S. hospitals flattened at an annualized average of 3.69% in 2000, indicating only a slim degree of financial health, according to Solucient, Evanston, Ill. Hospital operating margins increased 0.41% over 1999 and...

VHA members receive $1.15 billion in cash and other value in 2000, up 22% from 1999.(Cash distribution to VHA members for 2000)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2001... VHA members received a record $1.15 billion in total cash and other value through their participation in the VHA health care alliance in 2000, a 22% increase over 1999. Structured as a cooperative, VHA distributes income annually to member...

Employees will pay more of their medical costs; retirees lose their medical benefits.(William Mercer's annual Mercer/Foster Higgins national survey of employer-sponsored health plans )(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2001... Hospitals and medical groups can look for patients to be more concerned about costs and their bills. This is because soaring health insurance premiums are forcing small employers to drop health insurance for their employees and large employers...

EBRI: Americans are more concerned about rising health care costs.(2000 Health Confidence Survey )(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2001... Americans are becoming more critical about many aspects of the health care system, according to new research by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). Rising health care costs and uncertainty about the health care system's...

Demand for cardiovascular services will grow as fast as it did in the 1990s.(Cardiovascular Services 2010)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... The hospital industry "can expect a decade of cardiovascular growth that is at least comparable to that experienced in the 1990s,' according to a special report by Tiber Group, a Chicago consulting firm. In Cardiovascular Services 2010: Will...

InterStudy reports HMOs move to per diem rates for hospitals from capitation deals.(health maintenance organizations)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2001... Fewer health maintenance organizations are using capitation to pay hospitals and physicians, according to HMO Industry Report 11.1, a publication of InterStudy Publications, St. Paul, Minn. InterStudy continues to be the most cited source of...

VHA and Veritas Medicine provide Web-based information on clinical trials.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... VHA Inc. and Veritas Medicine will offer expanded access to Internet-based clinical trial information and interactive enrollment assistance in clinical trials. The agreement covers more than 700 community hospitals and their constituents across...

AHAData.com upgrade makes it easier to access health care data online.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Upgrades to AHAData.com make it easier and faster to obtain reliable health care research and marketing data online. Pre-structured, affordable new profile reports focus on hospital utilization, staffing, finances, peer group analysis, and...

NewsRx launches Stem Cell Week and database products.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... NewsRx, a provider of life science databases and daily and weekly health news, launched Stem Cell Week, a new database product. It is available as a print or electronic weekly report published beginning in May. The company already publishes...

Patients' failure to adhere to prescriptions accounts for 10% of hospital admissions.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2001... Patient Compliance reports on the factors affecting patient medication compliance for 12 different diseases. Studies show that patients take approximately 75% of their medication doses as prescribed. The average rate of compliance for patients...

Ortho Factbook offers comprehensive diagnosis and procedure data.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... The Institute for Orthopaedic Enlightenment released the Ortho FactBook[TM]: U.S. Second Edition. The book provides a comprehensive compilation of diagnosis and procedure data focused on orthopaedics. It also contains information delineated by...

Materials managers are eager to use e-commerce, but suppliers are obstacles.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Suppliers are frustrating the efforts of hospital and integrated health care delivery network (IDN) materials managers to use the Internet to reduce supply chain costs, reports Paula DeJohn in the June 2001 issue of Hospital Materials...

Solve shortage of pharmacists by shifting administrative duties to others.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Pharmacy managers are looking for ways to adapt a shortage of clinical pharmacists, and William A. Gouveia, director of pharmacy, New England Medical Center, Boston, offers three suggestions in his article, "Solutions to pharmacy's staffing...

New York Times Magazine reports on `The Cure Hunters' around the world.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Health care practices around the world reflect local cultures and customs as well as economics and politics. The Sunday New York Times Magazine's May 6, 2001 issue offers a mix of serious and entertaining articles. Some articles, such as, "A...

Reduce hospitals' quandary with detailed attention to operations and logistics.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... "The average U.S. hospital runs its operations in the red, suffers from overcrowding in critical areas, and can't expand without racheting up financial risk," according to an article by Paul D. Mango and Louis A. Shapir"Hospitals get serious...

Consumers use Internet when sick, and they favor disease-specific Web sites.
June 1, 2001... Hospitals seeking to use their Web sites to build and maintain relationships with patients and their families will get the best results by providing in-depth, illness-specific content instead of news and wellness information. The Web makes...

Drug cost increases are generated by the 50 top selling pharmaceuticals.(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2001... Hospitals, integrated health care delivery networks (IDNs), managed care organizations, employers and the government are struggling with the soaring cost of prescription pharmaceuticals, and they will find that the 50 top selling prescription...

Weaker HMOs will seek concessions from hospitals for 2002 as medical cost rise.
June 1, 2001... The worsening financial conditions of even some of the strongest health maintenance organizations will force hospitals and integrated health care delivery networks to be even more vigilant in negotiating managed care contracts and managing...

Aetna, Cigna, report sharply higher medical costs for first quarter; say outlook is grim.(for health maintenance organization)(Statistical Data Included)
June 1, 2001... Health maintenance organizations' financial reports, will receive close scrutiny from hospitals and physicians as the insurers and providers begin negotiating contracts for 2002 and beyond. Not all hospitals will negotiate contracts this year...

HMOs are reduced to being prepaid indemnity health insurers.(health maintenance organizations)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Health maintenance organizations (HMOs) are being reduced to prepaid indemnity insurers with no power to control costs. This represents a major change for HMOs, and it adds to the turmoil within HMOs that makes them difficult and...