Group purchasing organizations were provided an indirect legal victory this month when a federal appeals court ruled against a plaintiff hospital and in favor of a catheter supplier that had sole-source and bundled-product-discount contracts with several GPOs.
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Singer-songwriter Bob Dylan has always been regarded as a bit of a prophet. But no one could have guessed in 1964 when he wrote “you better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone/for the times they are a-changin' ” that 45 years later those lyrics would become a sage warning for U.S. healthcare businesses.
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Health system executive Deborah Templeton remembers a time not so long ago when the maximum-weight capacity labeled on traditional-size patient beds, gurneys and wheelchairs topped out at about 350 pounds. These days, however, it's not unusual for such equipment to accommodate patients weighing up to 500 pounds.
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Clinicians, consumer-advocacy groups and medical-product manufacturers are expressing a divergent mix of support and criticism for the Food and Drug Administration's proposed plans for creating a more transparent regulatory process.
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Some supply-chain experts are questioning why a coalition of healthcare organizations sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration urging the agency to publish a universal device identification, or UDI, system rule that specifically supports the use of standards created by GS1—a not-for-profit organization that develops supply-chain tracking systems.
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Six large healthcare systems are backing an initiative to significantly advance the use of green business practices by hospitals.
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Three-and-a-half years ago, 254-bed Providence Hospital in Washington had a self-managed, on-site delicatessen that, while it served good sandwiches, was a money pit for the provider. “We were having problems with portion control,” says Beth Yesford, Providence's director of food and nutrition.
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Medical equipment manufacturer Stryker Corp. said last week it would spend $525 million to get into the healthcare device-reuse business.
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Environmental mandates may follow healthcare reform as the next big revolution that providers face, with some healthcare providers working to have a say in the matter.
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Darrel Lorch is a good-natured grouser, and that's how he starts when he recounts how it has been to help out with a new cooperative set up to allow small local farms to sell food to Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, Wis.—and eventually other hospitals, nursing homes and schools.
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