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Hospital Impact has been ranked one of the top 50 healthcare blogs by Wikio.
Blogs we like:
Noted healthcare journalist Shannon Brownlee is not alone in her assessment that more medical tests and treatments do not necessarily lead to better overall outcomes. In her 2007 book "Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer", Brownlee elaborates on that opinion, noting that one of the main motivators behind such behavior is that doctors, oftentimes "are paid for how much care they deliver, not how well they care for their patients."
This is something that I know about all too well.
by Gwen Darling
A recent FierceHealthcare headline read, "Nearly half of surveyed hospital employees 'discontent' in their work." The article cited the results of a study that found that 45 percent of the 235,000 employees surveyed consider themselves "distanced from or discontent with their current work." It went on to outline that the most unhappy employees tend to be younger--"mostly Gen Y and Gen Xers"--while those born before 1945 usually are satisfied with their roles. Part of the reason for that gap, researchers noted, is that Gen X and Gen Y employees want recognition for their work and inclusion in decision making processes.
These findings are actually a bit more sobering when you stop to do the math and figure out that according to the survey, the happy employees are 65-plus and most likely on their way out the door.
I recently read in the New York Times that, in an effort to ensure medication and adherence and prevent hospitalizations, various programs are paying people to take their medicine. One program uses a digital pillbox to monitor compliance.
The article goes on to discuss other innovations, such as insurance companies rewarding doctors for prescribing medications that help prevent hospitalizations. Such preventive and pay-for-performance measures are key components of the new healthcare reform law.
I think the lesson learned here is the true importance of health IT. These payment innovations are made easier by health IT. As a result, we'll save money by preventing future hospitalizations and thereby improve productivity -- and better productivity is exactly what our healthcare system needs.
by Marco Huesch
In the rush toward "meaningful use" and amid the HIT sales pitches, let's pause for a moment to consider strategy.
What, for example, does "interoperability" mean for your strategy? It might mean little now -- even if you're in Boston, and have the planet's best hospital CIO. When Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital gets paid substantially less than Partners HealthCare despite clinical parity or superiority, it's hard to imagine real "interoperability" working out just yet.
But what if "interoperability" does get exploited in all its neat potential? What happens to your strategy when the balance of power in your relationships with other providers, regulators and referrers gets turned?
by Dan Bowman, FierceHealthcare
This week, FiercePracticeManagement reported on a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine that raised quite a few eyebrows with regards to medical school rankings. The study looked at things from a "social mission" point of view, essentially ranking the nation's 141 medical schools by how well they produced graduates who practiced primary care, worked in areas with a federally designated shortage of health professionals and belonged to underrepresented minority groups. While some relatively unknown schools like Morehouse School of Medicine, Meharry Medical College and Howard University topped the list, traditionally high-ranking med schools like Harvard, Stanford and Johns Hopkins were ranked much lower.
Dr. Candice Chen, one of the authors and an investigator at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, talked to FierceHealthcare about the study, and why she thinks it's important to also look closely at experience and intangibles when it comes to our doctors, as opposed to just test scores.
FierceHealthcare: In the paper, you specifically discuss medical school rankings (like the one created by U.S. News & World Report) and their flaws. What do you think can be done to address these flaws, especially considering that you constantly see schools like Johns Hopkins and Duke atop most medical school rankings, but on your list they rank near the bottom of the pack?
Candice Chen: The interesting thing about U.S. News & World Report is that they do two different ranking systems right now. They've been doing their primary-care rankings now for a good decade-plus. Prior to adding the primary-care ranking, they really valued research, and in their main ranking they still do that. So there's always a question of "what do we value in our medical schools?" It's not that we shouldn't value research and the research that they've produced, but sometimes I think we value research in the absence of valuing some of the things that are looked at in our paper.
by Debra Beaulieu, FiercePracticeManagement
Last month over at FierceHealthcare, we reported on a study revealing that 90 percent of parents surveyed would welcome email access to their child's doctor. Picture me, a mom of two tough-to-wrangle toddlers, raising my hand emphatically from behind the laptop.
How nice would it be if I could just beam our pediatrician a digital photo of a rash, describe any other symptoms and get a response--even if it's that I'll need to make an appointment--without necessarily having to haul both kids over there and inevitably bring the healthy one back with the germs of some other kid who couldn't resist smooshing his face right up against the giant fish tank? As a parent and as a patient, it would be very nice indeed.
Read more!
It's one thing to discuss anecdotal symptoms of our broken healthcare system. It's something totally different to live with those symptoms, or to witness their impact on a loved one. The cost of a broken healthcare system to a dear individual is significant. The financial cost to us all of having a broken system can be significant, as well.
Today I want to tell a story about a family member "Betty" and her recent experience in our healthcare system.
I'm a huge fan of soccer (or non-American football) and this week kicks off the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
As I've been chatting with friends internationally and reading up on preparations, there has been interesting news about some of the challenges the host country is facing from a healthcare perspective. Apparently the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) has very specific requirements of the host country and cities where the matches are played.
by Neil Versel, FierceHealthIT
If you think this whole "meaningful use" thing is a challenge, get a load of what they're trying to do in Europe.
Last week, the European Commission--think of it as the executive branch of the European Union--published its "Digital Agenda," a 10-year plan for IT advancement across the continent. Healthcare figures prominently in the agenda, including the goal of providing secure, online, patient-controlled medical records for many Europeans in the second half of this decade. There are some interim steps in the near term, though.
One aim, according to E-Health Europe, is to "increase safety and medical assistance to Europeans, for instance in an emergency abroad, by defining a minimum set of health information to be included on patient records that can be accessed electronically anywhere in the EU." This is to be done by 2012.
As you may have read this week in FierceHealthcare, two new studies suggest that nurses working in hospitals are much more susceptible to depression than their counterparts in clinics, schools or other locations, especially if their hospital is high-volume.
A study in the May 4 Journal of Clinical Psychiatry looked at the relationship between bed occupancy rates and absenteeism and found that those working in units that were 10 percent more crowded than the optimal rate had twice the rate of depressive illness than their counterparts in less crowded units.
The second study, appearing in the May 19 issue of Health Policy, is based on data from the 2005 National Survey of the Work and Health of Nurses in Canada. While looking at absenteeism in general, the report notes that depression is a "significant determinant" for missed work among RNs and LPNs, and that those who work in a hospital are more likely than those working in other settings to miss work.
If you've ever been lucky enough to stay at the Ritz, you've experienced their first-rate customer service, attention to detail, inviting atmosphere, unique gift shops and scrumptious food. Could such luxurious pampering and quality translate over to the hospital environment?
It could, and it does. Bill Taylor, cofounder of Fast Company magazine, blogs for the Harvard Business Review about Henry Ford West Bloomfield, a suburban Detroit hospital that's run by former Ritz-Carlton executive Gerard van Grinsven.
