Healthcare leaders face unintended consequences of reform
by Jonathan H. Burroughs
To say the roll out of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) has been difficult is a gross understatement. It is a classic study in mismanagement, poor planning, poor judgment and administrative hubris.
Unfortunately, something akin to the PPACA was necessary and yet its unanticipated consequences have created unexpected challenges for healthcare leaders.
1. Insurance reform
In more than 29 states, one or two insurance entities make up more than 70 percent of the states' market share. For instance, New Hampshire's health insurance exchange consists of a single entity,...
Source: hospital impact - November 27, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
Don't lose your hospital brand when changing names
by Andrea J. Simon
A wave of renaming activity has been taking place among healthcare organizations throughout the past two years. Our research shows almost 75 hospitals or healthcare systems have changed their names, and the list is still growing.
So what are hospital administrators' reasons for changing their institutions' names--never a simple or inexpensive undertaking--and what are the real consequences--seen and unseen--that accompany these name changes?
Whether these new names are actually going to help their brands during changing times is up in the air and only time will tell. But hospital leadership that belie...
Source: hospital impact - November 27, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
Turn emergency docs into end-of-life experts
by Jeremy Tucker
My first introduction to medical futility was as an intern in Chicago in the late 90s. I was working on a medical floor when a code blue was called overhead. I responded to find the nursing staff attending to an elderly male. As I started CPR and called out orders, I inquired as to what his medical conditions were and started looking at this shell of a man.
The nurse reported, "He is a 99-year-old male with diabetes and cardiovascular disease." I realized the man was blind, had above knee amputations to both legs and also had bilateral arm amputations. He was a full code. I am not sure if that was be...
Source: hospital impact - November 27, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
Engage docs in business planning
by Kenneth H. Cohn
I felt honored to be asked to speak on mission-, vision-, and values-based business planning to approximately 100 physicians and allied healthcare professionals earlier this month. I summarized an article I had written in response to a chief operating officer who dismissed a practicing physician with an idea of how to shorten the time from presentation to diagnosis for patients with a prostate mass.
"Fine, now write me a business plan," the COO told the physician.
The physician did just that. Moreover, the business plan I helped him write became the blueprint for a multidisciplinary cancer center (Coh...
Source: hospital impact - November 23, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
What if patients designed experience surveys?
by Jason A. Wolf
In a recent Hospital Impact post, I shared the experience I had during the birth of our son this spring. I stressed an important point that continues to emerge in the many conversations I have with caregivers, patients and family members--the how trumps the what in patient experience success.
With all that I believe to be central to the improvement of patient experience, I also have been increasingly aware of some gaps in the overall process itself and want to poke a bit at our accepted practices.
In conducting interviews for an upcoming paper exploring the measurement of patient experience, I thought ...
Source: hospital impact - November 23, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
What hospitals can learn from the Thanksgiving Day Parade
by Jenn Riggle
Thanksgiving is a time known for pilgrims, football and eating way too much turkey. It also marks the beginning of the holiday season with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
While hospitals may not be in the business of selling sweaters and scarves, they can learn some marketing lessons from the grand dame of department stores.
Celebrate your community: The Thanksgiving Day parade is not only a celebration of the holiday season, it also celebrates New York City. Hospitals need to celebrate the communities they serve. It's been said healthcare is local. However, being a local hospital is more than calling...
Source: hospital impact - November 23, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
How to build momentum in healthcare
by Scott Kashman
I recently graduated from our Leadership Cape Coral class, Lucky 13 (and the best class ever) where we had a chance to learn about different businesses and leadership styles around our community. Last year I provided the commencement speech and this year I went through the program. Yes, somewhat backwards.
Looking back, I would have slightly changed my message after gaining more perspective of the program. See, at times we provide leadership without enough intention or understanding of our own environment and culture. We need to understand where we are and provide a clear direction on where we are going ...
Source: hospital impact - November 16, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
What a hospital CEO learned as principal for a day
by Raymond Hino
I have written in the past about my passion for spending time in each of my hospital's departments, getting to know the inner workings of our organization and the key roles eac team member contributes. I like to spend the entire day in the departments and I often refer to these days as "Adopt a CEO."
Each time I come away with a greater appreciation for every member of our team. It was for that reason I recently jumped at the chance to take part in an innovative program, created by our Local Unified School District, in which I became "Principal for a Day" at a local elementary school.
Now I have to adm...
Source: hospital impact - November 13, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
Healthcare consumer engagement lessons from South Park
by Matt Seager
When the recent South Park episode "Taming Strange" kicked off with a joke about the school counselor's expensive new app that was supposed to streamline the process for seeking school-offered health services (but really managed to do anything but), I thought I was in for 22 minutes of jokes about HealthCare.gov's troubled launch.
However, Comedy Central's flagship show went deeper. Much of the show was an impressively poignant commentary on the value and pitfalls of electronic medical records (EMR) and health IT-based consumer engagement strategies.
The mere fact South Park focused an episode on HIT and ...
Source: hospital impact - November 13, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
Why it's important to pick healthcare partners carefully
by Anthony Cirillo
Working on both sides of the aisle so to speak, I get to see the best and the worst of both the hospital world and the long-term care world. And recently long-term care has gotten beaten up, more so than usual.
Hospital folks you need to take note because increasingly you are looking for partners in skilled nursing, rehabilitation and assisted living who can provide high-quality care while reducing readmissions.
When doing your homework, you may want to get a primer on what has been happening lately. First there was a scathing Frontline report on life and death in assisted living. And the largest assi...
Source: hospital impact - November 8, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
Attack healthcare inefficiencies with data
by Lynn McVey
I'm waiting in the Fargo, N.D, airport waiting to fly back to New Jersey. I had both the honor and the pleasure to speak at the Intelligent Insites 2013 Build conference. Intelligent Insites is a very passionate team of data scientists, marketers, entrepreneurs and IT developers who want to use unbiased, chronic/constant data collections to deliver operational intelligence to fix this healthcare mess. Their hunger for harsh improvement was infectious.
For two days I listened to mavericks who attack problems with data, data and more data. One problem is that hospitals have 30 percent more devices, equipment...
Source: hospital impact - November 8, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
The hidden costs of incentivizing patient satisfaction
by Thomas Dahlborg
"If a portion of my compensation is based on patient satisfaction then to maximize my reimbursement I must provide to my patients everything they want. And if that means services they don't actually need, be it an antibiotic or x-ray, so be it. If I say no they are mad (unsatisfied) and it will cost me money. These are the rules of engagement the system has created and thus these are the engagement rules I will follow."
This is an example of many conversations I have had with physicians working within our broken healthcare system, and this is an example of an unintended consequence associated with prot...
Source: hospital impact - November 8, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
Attack healthcare inefficiencies with data
by Lynn McVey
I'm waiting in the Fargo, N.D, airport waiting to fly back to New Jersey. I had both the honor and the pleasure to speak at the Intelligent Insites 2013 Build conference. Intelligent Insites is a very passionate team of data scientists, marketers, entrepreneurs and IT developers who want to use unbiased, chronic/constant data collections to deliver operational intelligence to fix this healthcare mess. Their hunger for harsh improvement was infectious.
For two days I listened to mavericks who attack problems with data, data and more data. One problem is that hospitals have 30 percent more devices, equipment...
Source: hospital impact - November 6, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
Making sense of the healthcare debate
by Kent Bottles
"Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words." - Baruch Spinoza.
The most depressing aspect of the debate about the transformation of the American healthcare system is how liberals and conservatives talk past each other. It is hard not to get frustrated when zealots on both sides of the aisle refuse to listen to each other and refuse to learn from each other.
The "ObamaCare 2016: Happy Yet?" op-ed in the Wall Street Journal last week serves as a prime example of an unbalanced and unfair attack on the Affordable Care Act. Bradley All...
Source: hospital impact - November 1, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
Improve patient experience by reflecting on your own
by Doug Della Pietra
"My mom is not Patient 507!"
I was stunned, appalled, disgusted, actually.
My mom, siblings, wives and I were at a second opinion appointment; my mom is working with multiple myeloma and wanted to know more about the stem cell transplant option.
So, we waited in the lobby space for the restaurant buzzer to go off in "30 to 45 minutes" so she could register. At the 45-minute mark, I edged forward in my seat ready to spring up as soon as the red circle of lights started chasing each other around the buzzer's perimeter. At the 55-minute mark, I worried: "Is the buzzer broken? Did they try and call us...
Source: hospital impact - October 30, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
