By Michael Fassler |
February 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription One of the most important challenges in healthcare today is providing high-quality care that meets the needs of our increasingly diverse society. FULL STORY »
By Mark Laney |
February 01, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription I joined Heartland Health, St. Joseph, Mo., as president and CEO on Aug. 1, 2009. Since that time, Heartland was named a recipient of the 2009 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and the sole recipient of the Foster G. McGaw Prize for community service—two of the most prestigious honors in healthcare. This has been an incredible six months for all of us at Heartland. FULL STORY »
By Mike Snow |
December 07, 2009
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Print Magazine Subscription On March 19, 1997, I was in Washington, D.C., at an annual meeting of Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. executives when Rick Scott took the stage and told us the FBI had raided our El Paso, Texas, offices earlier that day. FULL STORY »
By Laura Long |
November 30, 2009
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Print Magazine Subscription As the nation looks to transform healthcare from delivering too much care to consistently delivering higher quality, high-value care, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of South Carolina isn't waiting for a healthcare reform law. FULL STORY »
By Deborah Friberg |
November 16, 2009
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Print Magazine Subscription Infections hurt patients and represent one of the primary opportunities in healthcare to improve outcomes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, every year 1.7 million patients get sick from an infection they contract while in the hospital, and 100,000 of them die. FULL STORY »
By John Osse |
October 19, 2009
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Print Magazine Subscription After 31 years in rural healthcare administration, the thought of retirement was appealing. I was ready when it happened on July 1, 2005. FULL STORY »
By Gene Winters |
October 05, 2009
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Print Magazine Subscription Rarely has a hospital received a “death sentence” from the CMS—the revocation of its Medicare and Medicaid certifications—and survived without a significant change in ownership or organizational structure. One such rarity, however, is the story of Haywood Regional Medical Center in Clyde, N.C. As there was scant history dealing with decertification, the steps necessary to create lasting change had to be developed on the fly. FULL STORY »
By V. William Hunt |
September 21, 2009
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Print Magazine Subscription Amid the national healthcare reform debate, it's also important to keep the need to improve the quality of care and patient safety at healthcare organizations in the forefront. Physicians, nurses and clinical staff at hospitals understand this emphasis, but top-level leadership—including the board of directors—is a key to achieving these goals. FULL STORY »
By Glenn Fosdick |
August 17, 2009
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Print Magazine Subscription Quality and excellence. We all want them, but what you can't measure, you can't improve. FULL STORY »
By Brian Connolly |
August 03, 2009
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Print Magazine Subscription Nowhere have the effects of record unemployment, corporate downsizing and other cutbacks been felt more than in Michigan, home of the Big Three automakers. Healthcare providers here face unprecedented challenges, including staggering increases in uncompensated and charity care coupled with decreases in federal and state spending. Oakwood Healthcare—like Ford Motor Co., headquartered in Dearborn, Mich.—is working to meet those challenges head-on. FULL STORY »
By Tom Langston |
July 20, 2009
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Print Magazine Subscription When SSM Health Care decided to move ahead with the electronic health record back in 2005, we had a number of critical decisions to make, not the least of which was who would be the primary supplier for the EHR. A year or so later with the partner selected, we also had to begin making decisions about how we were going to build this EHR. FULL STORY »
By Ernie Vesta |
July 06, 2009
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Print Magazine Subscription Many Americans believe that medicine is fraught with escalating costs, a variety of quality issues, roadblocks to access, disruptions in coverage and undesired patient outcomes. FULL STORY »
By Martin Hauser |
June 15, 2009
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Print Magazine Subscription As the president of a healthcare plan in Ohio, I am used to answering for the shortcomings of our industry. When neighbors vent to me at the grocery store that medical bills are driving them to the poorhouse, it never seems to matter that our plan, SummaCare, has been named one of the nation’s top health plans, or that our 120,000 members consistently give us high marks for service. I’m painted with the same brush as the worst actors in our industry. I understand. It comes with the territory. FULL STORY »
By Martin Hauser |
June 15, 2009
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Print Magazine Subscription As the president of a healthcare plan in Ohio, I am used to answering for the shortcomings of our industry. When neighbors vent to me at the grocery store that medical bills are driving them to the poorhouse, it never seems to matter that our plan, SummaCare, has been named one of the nation’s top health plans, or that our 120,000 members consistently give us high marks for service. I’m painted with the same brush as the worst actors in our industry. I understand. It comes with the territory. FULL STORY »
By JIm Bickel |
June 01, 2009
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Print Magazine Subscription On June 7, 2008, Columbus (Ind.) Regional Hospital confronted the unimaginable. Heavy rains caused a nearby creek to overflow and flood the basement and first floor of our hospital, forcing us to evacuate 157 patients. Our laboratory, pharmacy, information technology center, radiology equipment, medical records and food service facility were destroyed. We sustained $200 million in damages and were closed for nearly five months. FULL STORY »
By Kathleen Yaremchuk and J. Douglas Clark |
May 18, 2009
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Print Magazine Subscription In January 2007, Henry Ford Health System in Detroit adopted a conflict-of-interest policy to eliminate potential conflicts between vendors and employees. FULL STORY »
By Allan Field |
May 04, 2009
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Print Magazine Subscription The Federal Trade Commission on April 13 issued a favorable clinical integration advisory opinion letter—the third ever issued—to TriState Health Partners (April 20, p. 14). TriState is a physician hospital organization in Hagerstown, Md., composed of 217 community physicians and the Washington County Hospital Association. Supported by its technology vendor InforMed, Annapolis, Md., TriState developed a claims-driven, Web-based electronic health record for the physician desktop. FULL STORY »
By Mona Sonnenshein and Carol Sherman |
April 20, 2009
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Print Magazine Subscription In October 2006, the chief operating officer for the University of California at San Diego Medical Center wanted to evaluate the medical center’s outsourced food and nutrition services for both quality and financial improvements. A consultant, who had worked successfully with this senior administrator before, was hired to evaluate the facility’s current operation, including the ability of the department to meet current and future needs of the medical center and assess the possibilities for cost containment and service modification through changes in the department. FULL STORY »
By William Atkinson |
March 30, 2009
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Print Magazine Subscription Emergency departments have traditionally been viewed as the backdoor of the hospital. With sparse primary care and migration to ambulatory services, EDs across the country have become healthcare’s front door. Knowing it is not feasible to put a hospital in every community, WakeMed sought options to enhance access to care and to start putting out welcome mats across our growing county. The free-standing ED was one solution. FULL STORY »
By Sang-ick Chang |
March 16, 2009
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Print Magazine Subscription Not all great medical innovations involve years of research or millions of dollars. Some, such as the one developed at San Mateo (Calif.) Medical Center, are as simple and inexpensive as a sturdy vinyl lunch bag. This item may hardly seem to qualify as an innovation, especially compared with the latest MRI machine or organ transplant technique. But when this bag is used by patients to carry the myriad medications they’ve been prescribed, it can save a life. FULL STORY »
