HCM

Showing 97–112 of 132 results

  • 7 tips for enhancing hospital performance

    Summer 2012
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 384

    Abstract: What “extra” things does a top-performing hospital do to distinguish itself from competitors? This article offers seven strategies for enhancing performance that don’t receive enough attention — including forecasting service demand more accurately; evaluating postacute care alternatives for their cost, quality and utilization; and training and recruiting a new breed of physicians.

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  • Population health management — Hospitals work to refocus health care delivery

    Summer 2012
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 632

    Abstract: The latest role of hospitals seems to be assessing and proactively managing the health and wellness of large patient populations, if not entire communities. Population health management (PHM), as this practice is called, requires hospitals to radically refocus their health care delivery. This article discusses three essential concepts underlying a PHM program and lists some or all of the following benefits that hospitals can expect from one.

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  • Health care analytics signal the start of a new era

    Summer 2012
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 1209

    Abstract: Genomic data, clinical trial data, electronic health records, claims data, health outcomes metrics and research study results can all be brought together through analytics — commonly defined as “the science of analysis” — to enable new treatment modalities and support better clinical decisions. As this wave sweeps through the health care industry, hospitals need to prepare for it. This article explores some of the basic elements involved and shows how analytics can improve both the business and practice of medicine. A sidebar explains the importance of using an information agenda when dealing with analytics.

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  • Improving your profit margins: It isn’t just a pipe dream

    Summer 2012
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 923

    Abstract: Persistent reductions in Medicare payments, state Medicaid cuts since the economic downturn and continued demands for uncompensated care have pushed some hospitals to the brink of insolvency. But across-the-board efforts to trim department budgets further and deeper will go only so far. The long-term answer is to pinpoint profit-building strategies throughout the organization. This article looks at reducing readmissions, implementing a population health management program, addressing shortcomings in the OR and ER, adding service lines, controlling supply costs, and outsourcing services.

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  • Maintaining tax-exempt status — Can it be done in light of PPACA?

    Spring 2012
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 897

    Abstract: For almost a decade, pressure has been growing on nonprofit hospitals to justify their tax-exempt status. In a few cases, IRS enforcement efforts have led to some hospitals losing their nonprofit status. On top of that, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has imposed new requirements on these facilities. This article discusses traditional risk areas for tax-exempt hospitals, and lists steps they should take to protect their tax-exempt status. A sidebar briefly discusses whether Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) may qualify for such status.

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  • Integrating doctors with hospitals: A prerequisite for reform

    Spring 2012
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 545

    Abstract: Market forces, reform legislation and survival-based financial strategies are pushing hospitals toward close integration with their physicians. This entails a true intermingling of their decisions, activities, values and desires — not simply joint ventures, working relationships or shared risk. But doing so will take careful planning and execution. This article looks at the basic phases in any hospital’s integration program.

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  • How to reduce medical errors and improve patient safety

    Spring 2012
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 1122

    Abstract: Thousands of Americans die each year as a result of medical errors. Hospital leaders are in a distinctive position to nurture organizational culture and initiate steps needed to reduce the systemic causes of medical errors and harm to patients. This article explains how to nurture a culture of safety, build a safety program, and use proven tools for improving communication and building awareness among staff, patients and families. A sidebar discusses “root cause analysis,” a structured approach for identifying the factors that result in harmful outcomes.

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  • Hospital mergers and acquisitions are on the rise

    Spring 2012
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 755

    Abstract: In health care today, many forces and factors are creating an environment for hospitals that might be called “consolidation friendly.” As a result, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are on the rise. This article lists some of the reasons for considering an M&A deal, how to prepare for one, and what the process involves.

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  • How to engage physicians in quality improvement

    Winter 2012
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 603

    Abstract: Because physicians are key clinical decision makers, it’s critical that they be involved in hospital quality initiatives (QI). Unfortunately, hospital efforts to engage physicians come at a time when physicians are facing reimbursement and time pressures. This article offers six strategies to improve QI efforts.

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  • Harvard gets radical — New cost measurement methodology for hospitals

    Winter 2012
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 971

    Abstract: Harvard Business School professors Robert Kaplan and Michael Porter have proposed a radical new approach to measuring and thereby controlling health care costs. It makes patients and their conditions — rather than organizational units or diagnostic treatments — the fundamental unit of analysis for measuring costs and outcomes. This article discusses the data required and how to calculate it; the processes involved in the methodology; and the resulting benefits.

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  • A storm is brewing over compliance duties

    Winter 2012
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 626

    Abstract: The volume and complexity of legal restrictions on the operations of governing boards continue to grow, making it critical that hospital directors be aware of their responsibility for ensuring compliance with the law. This article lists three points that board members should focus on, and shows how members can help ensure they’re fulfilling their compliance duties. Citation: In re Caremark Int’l Inc. Derivative Litigation, 698 A.2d 959 (Del. Ch. 1996); Stone v. Ritter, 911 A.2d 362 (Del. 2006); In re Citigroup, Inc. Shareholder Derivative Litigation, 964 A.2d 106 (Del. Ch. 2009).

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  • Coordinating care between EDPs and PCPs — Make sure the right hand knows what the left hand is doing

    Winter 2012
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 1102

    Abstract: While many proposed delivery system reforms encourage care coordination among primary care physicians (PCPs), specialty physicians and hospitals, little attention has been paid to the continuity of care for patients treated in hospital emergency departments (EDs). This article notes that there are significant barriers to such coordination — but also a number of benefits. A sidebar offers four specific strategies to help improve EDP-PCP coordination.

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  • 10 capital financing strategies for turbulent times

    Fall 2011
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 320

    Abstract: The capital financing environment for hospitals has become quite volatile and unpredictable. Hospitals and health systems have had to contend with limited capital access, fewer options, higher costs, more restrictive terms and less flexibility than in previous years. Volatility and unexpected events are expected to continue for the foreseeable future. This article offers 10 strategies that can help keep a hospital afloat.

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  • Economic credentialing: Part 2

    Fall 2011
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 775

    Abstract: When HMOs were morphing into MCOs more than 20 years ago, there was a strong movement to accept onto provider panels only physicians who could practice cost-efficient medicine. Such “economic credentialing” provoked vigorous debate. Now, the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has brought economic credentialing back to the forefront. The PPACA’s Medicare Shared Savings Program will offer incentives to enhance care quality, improve clinical outcomes and increase the value of services delivered through the development of Accountable Care Organizations. This article shows where the issues stand now.

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  • How to succeed under CMS’s hospital VBP program

    Fall 2011
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 914

    Abstract: It used to be called “pay-for-performance.” Now CMS describes it as “value-based purchasing” (VBP). Beginning in fiscal year 2013, per-discharge payments from base operating diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) to participating hospitals will be reduced. Hospitals then will have an opportunity to earn back those payment reductions — and more — through CMS’s VBP program. This article explains how the program represents the new paradigm for payment to hospitals initially, and for nearly all health care providers eventually. A sidebar shows how to prepare for current and future VBP criteria.

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  • Private equity firms: Could they help save your hospital?

    Fall 2011
    Newsletter: Healthcare Management Advisor

    Price: $225.00, Subscriber Price: $157.50

    Word count: 1018

    Abstract: Investment in one sector of the hospital industry has been picking up: capital infusions by private equity firms into not-for-profit hospitals and hospital systems. The common goal of these transactions is to earn above-average profits for the equity investors while maintaining the charitable missions and long-term survivability of the hospitals. But this article examines whether these are contradictory aims, and whether private equity firms can provide relief to financially stressed hospitals. A sidebar provides a list of some of the more active hospital-focused firms, along with the entities that make the investments.

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