Get to know your patients to improve care
by Doug Della Pietra
"Tell me something new or something you didn't already know about your patients," the nurse manager asked her team.
Silence--awkward silence; the kind of silence most of us would want to fill with just about anything.
"Come on, you just worked a 12-hour shift," she said. "No one has learned anything new about their patients?"
Silence prevailed that day and the next and the next.
Undeterred, Clare kept asking the question at daily huddles. "They were doing the work," she said, "but weren't talking to the patient. You don't always have to do something for the patient like give meds. You can just go ...
Source: hospital impact - October 1, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
Montefiore dishes on what it takes for medical home success
by Alicia Caramenico, FierceHealthcare
The patient-centered medical home (PCMH) continues to help healthcare organizations achieve lower costs and better care, as well as improve physician and staff morale. With such potential benefits, FiercePracticeManagement reached out to Montefiore Medical Group in the Bronx, N.Y., to hear how it has established a PCMH model and received National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) recognition.
For providers looking to transition to the PCMH model, don't reinvent the wheel and recognize it will take time, according to Sabine Nicoleau (pictured), director of Montefiore's Patient-...
Source: hospital impact - September 27, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
Hospital strategic plans must go beyond the status quo
by Raymond Hino
Local groups and organizations often ask me to speak about anything new at the hospital. I am delighted to do it because our hospital is a major resource for our entire community and extremely important for the health and wellness of our population.
In each presentation I usually start by talking about the importance of having a strategic plan and the importance of following it through. In the case of our institution, our strategic plan is particularly relevant to the community that we serve because they helped to create it. By including the community in our strategic planning retreat, we have found that...
Source: hospital impact - September 27, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
Why hospital leaders need business intelligence
by Kent Bottles
Recently I gave a keynote at the Healthcare Business Intelligence Summit in Minneapolis. I had a basic knowledge of business intelligence programs and data warehousing systems, and I had first-hand knowledge about how most hospital leaders do not appreciate how business intelligence can help them move to sophisticated data reporting and analytic systems.
Meeting the other Healthcare Business Intelligence Summit faculty at a pre-conference dinner and listening to some of the other presentations improved my appreciation for the importance of hospitals embracing this movement.
On my flight back from Min...
Source: hospital impact - September 27, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
Move away from disease-care to make healthcare matter
by Lynn McVey
When Jeff Daniels recently won his Emmy Award, he quoted American playwright Lanford Wilson who said, "Whatever you do with your career, make it matter and make it count."
At my hospital's monthly orientation of new employees, I tell them something similar. I tell them what they have chosen to do is our most honored profession. I tell them no matter where they work in this hospital, they are a member of the team that takes care of sick people and saves lives.
Can their non-healthcare friends say that? Nope. When you choose to work in healthcare, you do something that matters and that counts.
For me, th...
Source: hospital impact - September 27, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
Arizona REC 'cuts through the clutter' to aid EHR adoption
Many providers in Arizona use some form of an electronic health record, but the Meaningful Use incentive program is just one of several initiatives vying for their attention, according to Melissa Rutala, CEO of Arizona Health-e Connection (AzHec). Arizona's regional extension center (REC) is officially a part of AzHec.
"It's a challenge just keeping up with the flurry of programs going on these days," Rutala (pictured) told FierceEMR in an exclusive interview. "There's still Meaningful Use but practices also have to prioritize with other programs."
Rutala also talked about some of the obstacles Arizona practices have f...
Source: hospital impact - September 19, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
Must-follow healthcare marketing folks on Twitter
by Nancy Cawley Jean
I've been on Twitter for almost five years now. It has become my go-to source for everything: research, breaking news, trends, healthcare marketing information and meeting wonderful people.
Over the years, I've used the list function in Twitter to easily organize the people I follow so I can quickly browse through categories like news outlets, journalists or healthcare marketing folks.
This post highlights some of those on my list because if you are in healthcare social media you should be following them too. Now believe me when I say this list is not all-inclusive. I know there are many folks who...
Source: hospital impact - September 19, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
6 strategies hospitals should steal from the airline industry
Conclusion:
Although air traffic flow is simpler and easier to manage than healthcare, the industry can offer many lessons that will enable us to treat patient flow systemically as a 24/7, inpatient/outpatient, continuous operation that requires continuous management and oversight to standardize processes, exploit bottle-necks, manage random variation and eliminate non-random variation. By doing so, we can reduce costs, improve quality/safety/service and successfully compete globally for high quality-low costs services.
Jonathan H. Burroughs, MD, MBA, FACHE, FACPE is a certified physician executive and a fellow of the Am...
Source: hospital impact - September 19, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
How to maintain a path to patient experience excellence
by Jason A. Wolf
In recent Hospital Impact posts we have see a continued discussion about how the patient experience family is growing, the movement is progressing and the processes to address this issue are continually under refinement. This idea of "a body in motion stays in motion" (in this case the patient experience movement) is perhaps most pertinent in the exploration of organizational performance.
As I travel and visit with healthcare organizations I am consistently asked what the best are doing: How are they addressing their issues, managing their processes, improving their outcomes?
Perhaps my reply may seem ...
Source: hospital impact - September 19, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
6 strategies hospitals should steal from the airline industry
Conclusion:
Although air traffic flow is simpler and easier to manage than healthcare, the industry can offer many lessons that will enable us to treat patient flow systemically as a 24/7, inpatient/outpatient, continuous operation that requires continuous management and oversight to standardize processes, exploit bottle-necks, manage random variation and eliminate non-random variation. By doing so, we can reduce costs, improve quality/safety/service and successfully compete globally for high quality-low costs services.
Jonathan H. Burroughs, MD, MBA, FACHE, FACPE is a certified physician executive and a fellow of the Am...
Source: hospital impact - September 17, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
Top 10 earners among big-city healthcare CEOs
by Ron Shinkman, FierceHealthFinance
Last fall, FierceHealthFinance reviewed the compensation of finance executives from the eight largest publicly traded healthcare systems. This time around, we're looking at the pay of CEOs at the largest hospitals in the 10 largest U.S. cities.
The survey reveals some interesting facts: Many of the CEOs earn well above seven-figure annual compensation, with several approaching the mid-seven figures. And with the Internal Revenue Service promulgating new regulations regarding the reporting of perks, it's also becoming clearer that many hospital CEOs get to jet around in at least busine...
Source: hospital impact - September 12, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
The state of patient experience: Gains and losses
by Anthony Cirillo
I may be late to the game in reacting to the research report "The State of Patient Experience in American Hospitals." The biannual survey was conducted by The Beryl Institute and Catalyst Healthcare Research and included 1,072 respondents from 672 unique organizations.
In the research announcement my friend, colleague and fellow Hospital Impact blogger Jason Wolf, president at The Beryl Institute noted:
"The bottom line is clear, patient experience remains a top priority among American hospitals and continues to be a key issue for hospital leaders. This reinforces the point that the patient and thei...
Source: hospital impact - September 12, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
Create exceptional healthcare with deep meaning, intent
by Scott Kashman
Do you ever ask yourself this question: Do you know who you are and what you are creating in your organization? My friend John likes to ask me this quite often. It always pushes me to think deeper, in a more mindful manner. Am I being intentional in my choices, clear on the desired outcomes and direct on expectations? Is our team doing the same?
Last evening, I met with a few co-workers, a couple of their spouses and Yosaif August, a renowned author who designed Bedscapes--a scenic design tied in with music that helps create a more healing environment. August was here to celebrate our Women's Care-Birthi...
Source: hospital impact - September 12, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
To improve community health, choose mission over money
by Thomas Dahlborg
Dwight D. Eisenhower once said: "The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army or in an office."
Recently a good friend of mine told me a story about identifying the perfect job in healthcare administration, one that aligned with both his head and heart and would allow him to fulfill his personal and professional goals.
The position--Executive director of a physician hospital organization (PHO).
When he read the organization and position description, he was thrilled to se...
Source: hospital impact - September 12, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
Hospitals add video to healthcare marketing toolkits
by Jenn Riggle
"A picture may be worth a thousand words," but to paraphrase a popular credit card commercial, "a video is ... priceless."
Videos have helped hospitals become better storytellers and create an emotional response with viewers, which ultimately, help drive engagement. Hospitals have used videos to humanize their brands, educate consumers, provide virtual tours of their facilities and provide real-time documentation of surgeries.
Each month, YouTube, the videosharing website, has 1 billion unique visitors, who watch more than 6 billion hours of video. It's no surprise YouTube has become the most popular soc...
Source: hospital impact - September 5, 2013 Category: Health Managers Authors: Wendy Johnson Source Type: blogs
