Healthcare Strategic Management articles from October 2007

Healthcare Strategic Management archives from October 2007

Focus groups can help drive patient satisfaction.
October 1, 2007... For one Owensboro, KY, hospital, the ability to heal patients doesn't just come from qualified staff members or advanced procedures. Instead, the ability to heal comes from the patients themselves. Patient focus groups have been a great...

Updated planning needed to address physician shortages.
October 1, 2007... Contemporary estimates regarding the U.S. physician work force during the next 10 years are not encouraging for hospital strategists and planners. The physician work force debate, which has largely focused on whether a shortage will occur,...

Use of medication for pain has almost doubled since 1997.(Statistical notes)
October 1, 2007... Americans today are using major painkillers 90% more than they did in 1997, according to an analysis of statistics from the Drug Enforcement Administration appearing in The Boston Globe. This increase resulted in the sale of more than...

Patients ignore referral recommendations.(Statistical notes)(Report)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Nearly 20% of patients don't follow their physician's advice and referral to specialists, says The Washington Post. Some healthcare experts argue that this would not be the case if primary care physicians spent more time talking with their...

Doctors using e-mail means fewer patient calls and visits.(Statistical notes)
October 1, 2007... A recent study by Kaiser Permanente suggested that doctors who use e-mail communication with patients will see a reduction in practice revenue. But doctors who have long used e-mail in their day-to-day patient interactions say that although the...

Obesity rates in the United States continue to increase.(Statistical notes)
October 1, 2007... Obesity rates in 31 states have gone up since last year, and no state showed a decline, says a report from the Trust for America's Health research group in Washington, DC. Mississippi is currently the top state, with 30% of its adult...

Adults with high cholesterol don't take steps to improve condition.(Statistical notes)
October 1, 2007... A recent survey of U.S. adults with high cholesterol shows that in spite of concerns about the serious health risks associated with their condition, there is a significant disconnect between understanding what should be done to monitor and...

Census Bureau: number of uninsured keeps growing.(Statistical notes)
October 1, 2007... A recent report from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that the number of people not covered by health insurance rose by .05% in 2006, says Medical News Today. The information comes from Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the...

More U.S. companies are opening on-site clinics.(Statistical notes)
October 1, 2007... Looking to reduce healthcare costs, an increasing number of American companies are opening on-site health clinics, says the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report. Twenty-three percent of American companies that employ more than 1,000 individuals...

Bariatric surgery patients will live longer.(Research notes)
October 1, 2007... Seven to 10 years after their bariatric surgery, obese patients are less likely to have died from heart disease, diabetes, or cancer than patients with similar weight problems who did not have the surgery, say two studies released in the August...

Increasing preventive care would save lives, report says.(Research notes)
October 1, 2007... Increased use of five specific preventive services would save more than 100,000 lives every year, says a report released in August by the Partnership for Prevention, a membership organization of businesses, nonprofit organizations, and...

Abbreviations cause errors, says study by The Joint Commission.(Research notes)
October 1, 2007... A recent Joint Commission (formerly JCAHO) study finds that although using abbreviations in prescription orders may be quick, the method may contribute to medical errors. The results of "The Impact of Abbreviations on Patient Safety" were...

Many pharmacies not meeting needs of non-English speakers.(Research notes)
October 1, 2007... Half of America's pharmacies are unable to adequately communicate with patients who do not speak English, says a study published in the August edition of Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Researchers...

Half of all seniors hampered by geriatric conditions.(Research notes)
October 1, 2007... Half of adults aged 65 and older have one or more conditions that can hamper their ability to participate in daily activities, says a study from the University of Michigan (U-M) Health System in Ann Arbor. More than 11,000 responses from...

More cardiac patients receiving emergency angioplasty.(Research notes)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Many more of today's heart attack patients are receiving treatments that can lessen the effects of the attack--such as emergency angioplasty treatment or clot-busting drugs to reopen their arteries--says a study published in the New England...

Wellness centers help compliance and boost satisfaction.(Strategic notes)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Hospitals that offer patients access to wellness centers, with amenities such as a pool, a weight room, cardio machines, and an indoor track, find that patients are more likely to follow their physicians' recommendations for physical therapy...

White paper shows most calls to hospitals are mishandled.(Strategic notes)
October 1, 2007... An analysis of more than 2,000 calls to hospital switchboards shows that almost 60% of callers who attempt to get a physician referral are not immediately successful. The results of the study are contained in a white paper issued by The Beryl...

Retail clinics facing increased scrutiny from states.(Strategic notes)
October 1, 2007... There are now more than 700 retail-based health clinics operating around the country, and as the numbers grow, so does the concern among doctors and other health officials, says The New York Times. Lawmakers in New York, New Jersey, Rhode...

Hospitals pony up to sponsor high schools' facilities.(Strategic notes)(Brief article)
October 1, 2007... Public schools in Ohio's Butler and Warren counties have partnered with area hospitals to give their athletic facilities new names, says the Dayton Daily News. This summer, Atrium Medical Center and Franklin City Schools announced a...

'Grateful patient syndrome' good for hospitals, philanthropists say.(Strategic notes)
October 1, 2007... Most hospitals don't mind if their patients come down with "grateful patient syndrome." The term has been given to those who are so thankful for the medical care that they or a family member receives at the hospital that they donate money to...

Hospitals advertise feverishly to attract insured patients.(Strategic notes)
October 1, 2007... At one time, hospitals were the most conservative advertisers in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, but last year, hospitals spent over four times more in advertising than they did six years ago, says The Dallas Morning News. The more a hospital has...

Journal: Solving the ED and reimbursement puzzle not easy.(Strategic notes)
October 1, 2007... Visits to the emergency department (ED) grow at a rate of 2 million per year, and as the demand for ED services grows, so, too, does the desire by healthcare professionals to measure the department's financial performance. Because of the range...

Use the waiting room to educate.(Worth reading)
October 1, 2007... Many hospitals struggle with communicating to patients the importance of managing their own healthcare. Two Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities--in Amarillo, TX, and Marion, IL--have funded a patient education initiative within the past year that...

ER promise boosts business.(Worth reading)
October 1, 2007... When Atlantic General Hospital, a 62-bed acute care facility in Berlin, MD, pledged to treat incoming ER patients in 30 minutes or less, hospital executives knew that patients would receive quicker care, but eight months later, the hospital has...

Do we dare use the 'S' word?(Physician relations)
October 1, 2007... Within the world of physician relations, whenever we start a conversation around the topic of sales, a couple of key questions inevitably arise: >> Are we really selling? >> Why do physicians need to be sold? I will be the first...