by Christopher Cornue

As many of you know, in 2008 I accepted the position of CEO of McKee Medical Center in Colorado. It was a wonderful opportunity, one I hadn't necessarily been seeking, but one that I was excited about and happy to accept.

What many of you may not realize is that my wife and young children (ages six and three) were unable to make the move from Chicago to Colorado due to the health of my wife's father. During the course of my time in Colorado, we attempted to make this transition happen but in the long run, were unable to do so.

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by Nancy Cawley Jean

For years, we've relied on the carefully crafted one-way message, distributed through the traditional advertising, marketing and media relations channels, to communicate what we wanted to tell the consumer about our brand.

We've spent months conducting research, polling focus groups, writing marketing plans, and developing new advertising and branding campaigns to support an overall strategy with clear priorities. That's all well and good, but if you're not including social media as part of that strategy, the message just doesn't matter.

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by John Cunningham

With the ongoing debate on the cost of healthcare and the myriad of proposals to "fix" it, it's easy to become distracted from the daily operational issues that acute-care hospitals face in managing one of the fastest growing expense lines; physician preference items.

Physician preference items can end up accounting for a sizable portion of a hospital's total supply expenses. In 2008, the FDA reported that 3,370 new items were submitted for FDA approval and that number continues to climb. In fact, by 2011, the Healthcare Advisory Board predicts that 35 to 45 percent of all procedures will use an implantable device.

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by Dr. Kenneth H. Cohn

I have been thinking a lot about the 2009 ACPE Doctor-Nurse Behavior Study, which surveyed 2,124 physicians and 696 nurses. It found that nearly 85 percent of respondents experienced degrading comments at work, including yelling (73 percent), cursing (49 percent) and refusing to work together (38 percent).

As I wrote in my first book, Better Communication for Better Care, confronting a physician creates fear, but in retrospect, we all benefit from early intervention to avoid lapses in patient care suffers and even burnout. The reason why I use the term "in retrospect" will become apparent after I relay my own humbling experience (from a previous century):

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Cornell University economist Robert H. Frank, in a New York Times editorial, argues that even without a public option, any of the current healthcare reform bills will eliminate the underlying conflict of interest that has caused costs in the U.S. to skyrocket. Actually, "argue" may be too strong a word, as he devotes the entire article to a very lucid explanation of the problem. Does he contribute to the debate? You be the judge. Article

by Christopher Cornue

I recently learned about an online medical practice that uses the Internet to connect with and take care of patients. I was intrigued by what I heard, so I researched the site further and found it to be a very interesting concept.

Through the site, patients use the Internet as a primary means of communication with their healthcare provider. They create an account where their healthcare information will be stored and then have access to multiple physicians at a click of the mouse.

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by Anthony Cirillo

FierceHealthcare recently reported on the latest report that identifies the best-performing hospitals that offer the highest quality of care. The research firm that came up with the list says it's the "first comprehensive index to compare the value of care that hospitals provide."

They measure quality, including CMS's Core Measures, patient safety, mortality and readmission rates; efficiency, including the relative measure of the cost to the hospital for providing services; affordability, a relative comparison of prices charged for inpatient and outpatient services; and patient satisfaction as measured by CMS' patient satisfaction survey (known as HCAHPS).

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by Wendy Johnson

The CEO of a Cambridge, Mass.-based hospital recently wrote a great blog post about how his own health issues have impacted his views of healthcare reform.

"The true promise of health care reform is a transformation to a system that prevents disease more than it treats it," Dennis D. Keefe, CEO of Cambridge Health Alliance, writes for WBUR, a Boston-based National Public Radio affiliate. "There's plenty of money in the system, we just aren't spending it correctly, or aiming it at the programs that produce the best results."

Noting how the proactive steps he has taken to control his diabetes has resulted in fewer medications and trips to his doctor's office, he writes that while "it may seem strange for a hospital CEO to be envisioning declining patient volumes...that's the point. If we are to really succeed with reform that lowers costs as well as improves outcomes, physicians and other clinicians will have to become health educators and hospitals and clinics will be wellness centers."

You can read the rest on WBUR's website.

by Nancy Cawley Jean

If you work at a hospital, you know these institutions are pretty traditional when it comes to modes of communications. And now there's the brave new world of social media thrown into the mix. If you've already dipped your toes into the water, bravo!

If your organization is still on the fence, you'll likely meet up with a few nervous naysayers who, understandably, have concerns. Here are a few ways to alleviate their apprehension:

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by Joe Ingemi

In my last post for Hospital Impact, I spoke of the possibility of standards-based meaningful use criteria, and performance-based meaningful use, such as recording the number of smokers enrolled in cessation. Hidden beneath these regulations are a whole other set of compliance standards that are yet to be discussed: internal controls.

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