Healthcare Strategic Management articles from November 2003

Healthcare Strategic Management archives from November 2003

Market memo: heart failure clinics improve patient care, bottom line.
November 1, 2003... Today, nearly five million Americans suffer from heart failure and between 400,000 and 500,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Over the next five years, as baby boomers continue to age, estimates indicate that an additional 15 to 20 million...

John Casey's Medcath may be tough to beat.
November 1, 2003... Chains of specialty hospitals, like the heart hospital company, Medcath Corp., Charlotte, NC, are trying to figure out how to make money and grow their businesses at the same time that general acute care hospitals are trying to put them out of...

Hospitals offering concierge service to staff to keep workers happy, productive--and loyal.(Strategic Notes)
November 1, 2003... It's no surprise that many hospitals today are struggling to retain a qualified work force. Given that those hospitals also are actively working to restrain escalating labor costs, many providers are creating other perks to inspire staff...

Correction.(Strategic Notes)(Correction Notice)
November 1, 2003... Figure 2 in the story "Orthopedic advances require revised provider strategies" in the October 2003 edition of Health Care Strategic Management was inadvertently attributed to the wrong source. The chart, "Development implications" on page 17,...

HCA modifies strategic plan; will focus on outpatient services, cut capital spending 10%.(Strategic Notes)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... HCA, Nashville, Tenn., is hoping to lower its debt and serve more outpatients during the rest of the year. The nation's largest hospital company reported that in the third quarter net income totaled $306 million, compared to $200 million...

Triad forms joint venture with Oregon provider to build, manage new hospital.(Strategic Notes)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Triad Hospitals of Plano, Texas, has finalized an agreement with McKenzie-Willamette Hospital in Springfield, Ore., to form a venture to operate the existing a 114-bed not-for-profit hospital and build a replacement hospital. The new...

Essent Healthcare buys hospital In Pads, Texas.(Strategic Notes)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Essent Healthcare of Nashville, Tenn., has purchased two-hospital Christus St. Joseph's Health System in Paris, Texas, for an undisclosed sum. St. Joseph's has hospital facilities with a total of 364 beds as well as four rural health...

HealthSouth splitting diagnostic, rehab units.(Strategic Notes)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... HealthSouth Corp. announced plans to divide its ambulatory services division into two divisions--outpatient rehabilitation and diagnostics. By separating its diagnostics business into its own division, HealthSouth said it will be better...

Health Management Associates reports higher admissions and growth in outpatient services.(Strategic Notes)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Health Management Associates, Naples, Fla., said its net earnings for the quarter ending Sept. 30 rose 16.1% to $69.8 million, compared with a year ago. HMA reported a 2.1% increase in same hospital admissions, a 0.8% increase in surgeries...

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia dedicates new 10-story tower; offerings to expand.(Strategic Notes)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Children's Hospital of Philadelphia recently dedicated a new, 10-story tower that marks the completion of phase two in the hospital's $650 million multi-phase facilities expansion program. The hospital said the addition will nearly double...

Report: childbirth, heart failure top reasons for hospitalization; lung disease cases Increasing.(Statistical Notes)
November 1, 2003... Chronic lung disease cases in U.S. hospitals experienced a significant increase between 1996 and 2001, while childbirth-related cases and heart failure remained the top reasons for patient hospitalization, according to a recent Solucient...

Fitch: trend of bond downgrades continues apace.(Statistical Notes)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Acute care hospital downgrades outpaced upgrades by six-to-one in the first nine months of the year, compared to a ratio of four-to-one for the same period 2002, according to a recent report from Fitch Ratings. There were 24 downgrades...

Study: hospitals could save $1 billion by reducing unnecessary use of antibiotics.(Statistical Notes)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... U.S. hospitals could save more than $1 billion annually by reducing unnecessary use of antibiotics, while also reducing complications for patients, according to recent study sponsored by VHA. The research measured hospital usage of three...

Poll: Americans rank good reputation, doctor's recommendation as top indicators of quality care.(Statistical Notes)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... American adults rank a good reputation and a trusted doctor's recommendation as two of the three most important indicators of the quality of medical care they can expect from a hospital, according to a recent Harris Interactive Health Care...

Census Bureau figures show number of Americans without health insurance reaches 43.6 million.(Statistical Notes)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... The number of Americans without insurance during all of 2002 rose by 2.4 million, to 43.6 million, representing 15.2% of the population, according to recent figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. It was the second year in a row that the...

Solucient launches provider assessment tool.(Database Notes)
November 1, 2003... Solucient has released a new hospital performance assessment tool, The Solucient Polaris Suite. According to the Evanston, Ill.-based firm, the new assessment tool is powered by one of health care's largest comparative clinical treatment...

Stockamp & Associates unveils program to let providers better manage patient volumes.(Statistical Notes)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... Stockamp & Associates has released Patient Progression, a new tool to manage patient volumes in acute care settings. Patient Progression is a combination of proprietary software with on-site consulting. The program's methodology focuses on...

CCH offers online HIPAA security guide.(Database Notes)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... CCH Inc. of Riverwoods, Ill., has released the HIPAA Security Guide, comprehensive HIPAA security information available in both online media and loose-leaf formats, to help subscribers comply with security rules. According to CCH, the...

Solucient launches Market Impact Modeler, online market forecasting tool.(Database Notes)
November 1, 2003... Solucient has launched its Market Impact Modeler, an online market forecasting application. Solucient said its Market Impact Modeler helps hospitals make intelligent, cost-effective planning and marketing decisions based on the impact that...

Mayo Clinic offers online heart disease risk calculator to alert public to risks.(Database Notes)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... The Mayo Clinic has launched a new Heart Disease Risk Calculator to allow adults without known heart disease or diabetes to estimate their risk of having a heart attack or dying of heart disease within the next 10 years. The risk...

Cancer center's three-year annual report record prompts new Founder's Award in recognition.(Worth Reading)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... For the third consecutive year, the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, captured First Place among cancer centers nationwide in the annual report contest sponsored by Profiles in Healthcare Marketing. To recognize this...

Security, cost concerns lead hospitals to return to running their own central supply warehouses.(Worth Reading)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... It seems a long time since the stockless craze of the late 1990s led hospitals to close warehouses and even on-site storerooms in favor of distributor-managed logistics. For several years, the pendulum has been swinging the other way, toward...

Indianapolis market features rampant competition among providers; new specialty hospitals going up.(Worth Reading)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... A new study describes six specialty hospitals being built in Indianapolis, where employers and Anthem, the major insurer, have relatively little clout, and where premiums are soaring. The implication in this study is that the Indianapolis...

Study shows one in three Americans born in 2000 will develop diabetes during their lifetime.(Worth Reading)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2003... An estimated one in three Americans born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes at some point in their lives, according to an article in the Oct. 8 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The article found that the...

Solucient: $10 billion could be saved if all providers as good as Top 100.(Quality Of Care)
November 1, 2003... If all acute care hospitals performed at the same level as the nation's top hospitals, 84,000 more Medicare patients could survive and an additional 54,000 patient stays could be complication-free each year--at an estimated annual savings of...

Bay Area Medical Center wins back community's trust, business.(Turnaround Strategy)
November 1, 2003... By all accounts, Bay Area Medical Center in Marinette, Wis., had turned a corner by the time David Olson was hired as the hospital's chief operating officer in November 1998. After struggling for several years, the hospital was regaining...

USPI partners its way to success with leading not-for-profits.(Surgery Center Chain)
November 1, 2003... Given how lucrative the ambulatory surgery center market is, it's not surprising that United Surgical Partners International entered the business in 1998. What is notable is that, while many for-profit startups have done quite well for...

Leapfrog: more hospitals sharing data.(Provider Profile)
November 1, 2003... More providers than ever are sharing patient safety information with consumers, but only a fraction of them are meeting specified standards of care, according to a recent report from The Leapfrog Group. The Washington, D.C.-based group...

Report: diabetes epidemic shows no signs of slowing down.(Service Lines)
November 1, 2003... The diabetes epidemic is getting worse, with a new report from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services showing that incidence of diabetes increased by 27% between 1997 and 2002. "While this report shows we're continuing to make...