|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Hospital Impact has been ranked one of the top 50 healthcare blogs by Wikio.
Blogs we like:
Last week, while facilitating the Chief Quality Officers healthcare roundtable, I listened to a provocative talk by Nate Kaufman on the future of healthcare delivery, in which he stated that a tsunami is approaching, for which we must prepare. He said that fee-for-service reimbursement has resulted in a feeding frenzy and made an analogy to the 2004 USA Olympic basketball team who won a bronze medal, despite outstanding players, because they chose not to play together as a team.
He advised everyone to plan for a 10 percent reduction in revenue over the next 30 months as the ability to cost-shift to cover Medicare and Medicaid losses diminished. When he told another audience they could not cut enough administrators to achieve those results, a physician reportedly answered, "But we could try."
That comment stimulated my thinking about three ways physicians have cut expenses...
Prior to going into healthcare management, I served as a psychiatric counselor. No doubt, I've heard some of the offhand remarks about my role and how it helps me in the world of management. A couple of things stand out. First, I don't need a key to walk out the front entrance. Second, it was a great experience learning how to do things differently when reimbursement or our "subsidy" changed.
You see, living in California at the time, we saw patients in need of more than 30 days, quickly get cut to a seven-day stay. If our organization didn't act rapidly, the negative implications would have most likely closed the hospital. It was the first "in-house managed care office" that would serve case management and admitting today. We had one person manage this operation out of a former supply/janitorial closet. All staff chipped in to make our new model a success.
by Kent Bottles
Healthcare, wellness, hospital care and post-acute care all depend on relationships between providers and patients. The gap between health care professionals and the public that has been documented in Kaiser Family Foundation polls indicates that these relationships are not working perfectly.
For example, professionals believe 30 percent of healthcare services are not necessary, but 67 percent of the public say they do not get all the care they need. Professionals state there is wide variation in quality of providers, but 70 percent of the public believes there is not much difference in quality of physicians in their area.
A Facebook presence is much more than simply having a page for your hospital. People will usually become a fan of your page because they are aware of your brand or because they see a friend "liked" your page. But once they've liked you, how do you keep those fans?
Being on Facebook is not just about how many "likes" you can build up. If you're not listening to those folks and interacting with them, then it's pointless to even have a page. On top of that, if you're not giving them a reason to continue paying attention to your page, then you're going to lose them. It's very easy to "unlike" a page.
So what are the secrets to keeping your fans, and keeping them engaged? Of course there's no scientific method, but in general, it's all about the content. Yes, it's been said many times that "content is king." And it's true.
Yes, I mean you! In fact, I believe that to ensure the greatest quality, service and care, each and every one of us must "be" the patient experience.
As you look to improve patient encounters in your healthcare setting--be it a physician practice, outpatient center, critical access or acute care setting--there is a declared sense of accountability that comes with the endeavor. This is not a new idea, though some may say there is greater motivation due to policy and now financial implications based on performance (for example, through value-based purchasing in the United States).
With this, I believe the issue has now taken on even greater significance as the conversation on overall experience has moved to center stage. So if you are to say, "I am the patient experience," what does that really mean and what ultimately matters?
:: Next Page >>
Read more!