Service lines may be the mainstay of your organization, but are you using them strategically for the realities of today’s marketplace? If not, you could be missing some important potential for getting, and keeping, your patients. Responding to the Current Climate Health care reform has changed the way most hospitals do business—and the impact includes Read More
In a new SHCM article, Stewart Gandolf, CEO of Healthcare Success Strategies, writes that: Clinical service department profitability is a constant challenge for hospitals. That’s nothing new. What’s changed, however, is just about everything else. He explains how patients, newly empowered, now regard medical services through the critical eyes of retail shoppers. Health care reform, Read More
by Stewart Gandolf Clinical service department profitability is a constant challenge for hospitals. That’s nothing new. What’s changed, however, is just about everything else. The newly empowered patient now regards medical services with the critical eye of a retail shopper. The dynamics of health care reform, facility mergers and acquisitions and increasingly intense competition have Read More
Many hospitals are acquiring physician groups at a rapid pace. But in the operational process of incorporating new practices into the larger organization, it’s crucial that hospitals don’t lose sight of their end goal: getting a good return on their investment. Daniel Weinbach of the Weinbach Group, Inc., in Miami, FL, points out that all Read More
by Lisa D. Ellis Many hospitals are acquiring physician groups at a rapid pace. But in the process of incorporating new practices into the larger organization, it’s crucial that hospitals don’t lose sight of their end goal: getting a good return on their investment. Thinking strategically Daniel Weinbach of the Weinbach Group, Inc., in Miami, Read More
Satisfied patients are a powerful marketing tool for health care organizations, as one hospital learned when it overhauled the scheduling and management of its operating rooms (ORs). The efforts led to increased efficiency and patient satisfaction and helped boost profitability. Dr. Adam Blomberg, Vice Chief of Anesthesiology and Co-Medical Director of the Surgical Services Executive Read More
by Patricia Chaney With reimbursement cuts, increasingly price-sensitive consumers and payers, and the development of accountable care organizations, independent outpatient facilities stand to take market share from hospitals. Outpatient imaging and ambulatory surgery centers pose steep competition for hospitals in certain markets, but with all providers struggling to balance reimbursements and payer negotiations, there’s more Read More
by Jennifer Redmond Implementation of the Affordable Care Act has created an equal share of opportunity and difficulty for health care providers. In an evergrowing market, providers are vying for the attention of consumers in creative ways, but some, in an effort to edge out the competition, are met with vehement criticism. This pressure to Read More
by Cheryl Haas Devi Shetty, MD, is out to change the world of health care delivery through compassion, quality, and affordability. India’s most renowned heart surgeon and Chairman of Narayana Health has built a chain of 21 medical centers that cut costs so substantially that they can provide clinical excellence at a fraction of the Read More
by Joan Trezek For more than 100 years, Children’s Hospital and Research Center in Oakland, CA, has been the go-to facility for tertiary pediatric care in San Francisco’s East Bay. That hasn’t changed, but a great deal about the hospital today is very different from how it was positioned even 10 years ago. One significant Read More
by Nancy Vessell When a Midwest supermarket chain began offering chemotherapy and other infusion services, a few heads were turned. “When I first learned about it, it did catch me by surprise. To my knowledge, I haven’t heard about other grocery chains getting into this [medical area],” says Michael Abrams, managing partner of Numerof & Read More
by Sheryl S. Jackson Keep Focus on Patient-Centric Care and Take Time to Engage Everyone in the Process Increasing financial and competitive pressures within the health care industry have spurred hospital acquisition of other health care providers – physician practices, urgent care centers, and imaging centers. While the reasons for acquiring other entities varies from Read More
by Nancy Vessell The key to spotting and stemming leakage of physician referrals at Texas Health Resources (THR) doesn’t hinge on expensive data collection. Certainly, data showing where patients are going in the large north Texas market is helpful to this health system of 25 hospitals and 5,500 affiliated physicians. But the data only serves Read More
by Nancy Vessell With 40 to 60 new physicians arriving every year to serve an eight-hospital system and its medical group, where 40 people are involved in physician recruitment, onboarding, orientation, and retention, the opportunity for “dropped balls” measures in the tons. That’s according to Jim Zache, vice president of physician recruiting and physician relations Read More
by Kris Rusch “When it comes to health,” asserts an article in Harvard Men’s Health Watch, “males are the weaker sex throughout life.” Compared with women, men on average have more chronic illnesses, die at higher rates from diseases, and have a lower life expectancy. Men also take more risks with their health. They use Read More
by Cheryl L. Serra Imagine bringing health care to patients instead of requiring patients to travel to health care. Ernie Clevenger, co-founder and president of CareHere, LLC, did just that. The result? His company has a health care clinic with a retail component, the CareHere Walk-In Clinic and Wellness Store, located in the Nashville International Read More
by Cheryl L. Serra Members of the Spirit of Women in Springfield, MA, recently had the opportunity to see and hear humorist and work-life balance expert Juliet Funt, daughter of Allen Funt, host of the 1970s TV show “Candid Camera.” They may also take advantage of a discount on the cost of mini-med school, an Read More
by Cecily Lohmar The last decade has seen considerable growth in health care service lines, most often with the objective of expanding the more profitable services. At the same time, there have been numerous market changes – with more to come. Service lines have been an effective model for improving quality and cost in the Read More
by Nancy Vessell Obstetric emergency departments staffed 24/7 by obstetricians/gynecologists are popping up around the country, handling obstetric triage and emergent situations. Two of the newest – and the first in New Jersey – are Christ Hospital in Jersey City and Hoboken University Medical Center. Their parent corporation, CarePoint Health, says the OB EDs that Read More