Healthcare Strategic Management articles from September 2006

Healthcare Strategic Management archives from September 2006

The strategic impact of revised DRG payments.(Market memo)
September 1, 2006... Hospitals are on the eve of a seismic change in revenue reimbursement with the expected reconfiguration of diagnostic-related groups (DRG) as recalibrated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). The new configuration is a...

Heart failure, pneumonia success earns Memorial a quality award.(Strategic notes)(treatment of heart failure)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Superior performance in treating heart failure and pneumonia earned Memorial Health in Savannah, GA, an award from the clinical division of its group purchasing organization, Premier in Charlotte, NC. Memorial Health is an integrated...

Iasis Healthcare plans to acquire Glenwood Regional.(Strategic notes)(Iasis Healthcare Corp acquired with Glenwood Regional Medical Center )(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Iasis Healthcare in Franklin, TN, is planning to acquire Glenwood Regional Medical Center in West Monroe, LA, 242 beds. In late June, the Glenwood board of directors approved the sale, and the Hospital Service District No. I Board of...

Looking for space to expand, BJC taps state police land.(Strategic notes)(expansion of BJC HealthCare )(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... BJC HealthCare in St. Louis went to the police in its quest for expansion space. In late June, BJC placed under contract the 16-acre headquarters of the Missouri State Highway Patrol for an estimated $8 million. BJC said in a statement...

Healthcare experts weigh relative value of device acquisition.(Strategic notes)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Minnesota hospitals are wing for market share with new and expensive technology, including robotics and the most advanced diagnostic imaging equipment, such as 64-slice computed tomography (CT) scanners. In July, health policy experts at...

Hospitals of the future will feature mostly private rooms.(Strategic notes)
September 1, 2006... New hospital construction will feature mostly private patient rooms, despite the fact that all-private hospitals cost up to 30% more to build. The reasons are patient safety and privacy, and both facilities experts and healthcare...

HCA could become privately held if Frist bid is successful.(Strategic notes)
September 1, 2006... The largest for-profit healthcare system in the country is about to become privately held. In July, HCA in Nashville, TN, agreed to let founder Thomas Frist Jr. acquire it for $33 billion, including assumption of $ 11.7 billion in debt. ...

Hospitals move to reduce errors by easing OR tension.(Statistical notes)(control of medical errors)
September 1, 2006... Efforts to reduce medical errors often focus on staff training and investments in technology (e.g., bar coding for patients and medications). However, there is another cause of medical errors that a new study traces to personality problems and...

Feds call for end to handwritten prescriptions to aid accuracy.(Statistical notes)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies (IOM) is calling for an end to scribbled prescriptions by 2010, among other measures to clamp down on medication errors. The IOM is a private organization that advises the U.S. government...

Many hospitals offer alternative therapies; few profit from them.(Statistical notes)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Although a quarter of U.S. hospitals offer some form of alternative or complementary care to patients and employees, many lose money on those services, which are not part of most hospitals' strategic plans. A survey of 1,390 hospitals by...

Hospital CPI growth slows, doc CPI climbs in June.(Statistical notes)(Consumer Price Index)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... The prices that customers pay for healthcare are continuing to rise. The hospital Consumer Price Index (CPI) for June rose by 0.3% compared with May, according to the most recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. For the 12...

Electronic record push meets resistance, lack of funding.(Statistical notes)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Ever since President Bush called on healthcare organizations to convert to electronic medical records and appointed David Brailer to oversee the transition, hospitals have been looking for ways to join the technology revolution. However,...

ER doctors go on record to warn of disaster potential.(emergency room)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... A subcommittee of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee heard from an emergency doctor regarding what hospitals have been concerned about for several years: the growing shortage of emergency room (ER) capacity. On July...

Hospitals sign up for project to test special healthcare courts.(Research notes)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Six hospitals, all in eastern U.S. states, have tentatively agreed to participate in a pilot program to establish special courts to hear malpractice cases. The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions is considering a...

CMS bows to popular demand, rolls back some Medicare cuts.(Research notes)
September 1, 2006... The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) rolled back some of the sweeping changes that it had proposed to the Medicare inpatient prospective payment system, taking heed of critics from Congress and the healthcare industry, including...

Politics interfere with science at FDA, study concludes.(United States. Food and Drug Administration )
September 1, 2006... The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is contesting the results of a July poll that indicates that about 15% of its scientists say superiors ordered them to change their evaluations of products and drugs for political reasons. The...

RFID can ID lost sponges. .(Radio Frequency Identification Devices)(Brief article)
September 1, 2006... Although it seems as if careless surgeons leaving a sponge or other object inside a patient is a rare occurrence, in fact it is a serious problem. In one out of every 10,000 surgeries, clinicians leave a foreign object (usually a sponge) in the...

Taking a pulse: three institutions making strides in healthcare information technology.(Worth reading)
September 1, 2006... Three diverse institutions that were first out of the information technology (IT) gate have established an array of Web-based technologies to improve quality, patient safety, and outcomes. These cutting-edge technologies include...

Standardized survey helps hospitals gauge service, improve quality.(Worth reading)
September 1, 2006... A government pilot program has hospitals nationwide surveying patients about their hospital experiences. The information will ultimately be used to give consumers a side-by-side comparison of hospitals, but it's also an opportunity for...

Adding freshness to your stale orientation.(Worth reading)
September 1, 2006... It can be as simple as a timeline, a cup of coffee, or five minutes on the clock. "Small things can make or break your first impression," says Diana Swihart, PhD, who works as a clinical nurse specialist in nursing education at the Bay...

Five steps for getting the most out of employee benefit plans.(Worth reading)
September 1, 2006... Healthcare benefit planning season is in full swing and with open enrollment right around the corner, now is a critical time for executives in healthcare organizations to review their strategies, writes Weltz, senior vice president of analytics...

Leadership turnover: don't lose sight of market strategy when a new CEO takes the helm of your healthcare organization.(Market strategy)
September 1, 2006... The CEO turnover rate among the 4,566 hospitals tracked by the American College of Healthcare Executives is about 16%, which means that more than 700 organizations will find themselves with a new leader this year. And when an organization...