by Tony Chen

Want to trade notes and chat with other progressive hospital and health care leaders?

Want to know how other hospital leaders are dealing with the issues that you are facing?

Looking for new business development ideas, trends, and insights?

Want to know how to help make your hospital the best hospital it can be?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, this is the community for you! Click here to join!

We've been blogging for almost 3 years now and honestly, some of the best insights on this blog have been your comments. While we'll still be blogging here, I want to open it up more and give you a chance to set the agenda and converse amongst yourselves as well. Join the Hospital Impact Online Community to trade notes, brainstorm for new ideas, or just chat away with other progressive hospital and healthcare leaders. So what do you want to talk about today?

Sign up today and start a discussion and/or join a group!

Visit us at hospitalimpact.ning.com

by Tony Chen

Sorry I haven't been posting as often recently. All the long-term bloggers know - blogging is fun, but it is indeed a lot of work. There are waves of ups and downs. A lot of people ask me, "how do you find the time to blog?" My answer for the last couple of months is that I don't.

Nonetheless, even as I've been preoccupied with other things, the blog has continued to surprise me. Got calls from editors of Spirit Magazine and the American College of Physicians to get quotes from me as an "industry expert" (little do they know how little I know). Through the blogosphere, I also met up with long-time blogger and knowledge management guru Jim McGee. Tomorrow I've got lunch with someone who I was introduced to via facebook from someone I met at a blogging conference.

Yes, blogging is about great insights and great content. But for me, the greatest value has come from the real-life conversations with real-life people I met through the blog. It's about community and relationships as much as it is about information. Look out for an announcement related to this in the next few weeks.

We're very pleased to have Dr. Cohn as part of our Hospital Impact community of bloggers. Dr. Cohn is a board-certified general surgeon who obtained his MD degree from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons Medical School, completed his residency at the Harvard-Deaconess Surgical Service, and performed fellowships in endocrine and oncologic surgery at the Karolinska Hospital and at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, respectively.

He has also served as Assistant Professor of Surgery at SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn and as Associate Professor of Surgery and Chief of Surgical Oncology at the VA Hospital at White River Junction.

With the change in the medical economic climate, Dr. Cohn entered the MBA program of the Tuck School at Dartmouth and graduated June 1998. He worked initially as a consultant at Health Advances, assisting six firms to commercialize new products. At Cambridge Management Group, he led change-management initiatives for physicians at affiliated hospitals within the Yale New Haven, Banner Colorado, Cottage Santa Barbara and Sutter Sacramento Health Systems.

He remains clinically active, covering surgical practices in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. He has been co-mentoring physicians in leadership development since 1999, finding that physicians enjoy learning from fellow physicians.

Dr. Cohn's writing experience includes over 45 published articles in peer-reviewed healthcare journals. His article, "The Tectonic Plates Are Shifting: Cultural Change vs. Mural Dyslexia," won the Dean Conley Award in 2009 from the American College of Healthcare Executives for the best article in a healthcare management publication.

He has written two books, Better Communication for Better Care: Mastering Physician-Administration Collaboration, and Collaborate for Success! Breakthrough Strategies for Engaging Physicians, Nurses, and Hospital Executives, published by Health Administration Press, 2005 and 2006.

Dr. Cohn is also the editor of The Business of Healthcare, a three-volume set, published December 2007 that comprises practice management, leading healthcare organizations, and improving systems of care. He is also the editor of Improving Physician-Hospital Relations: A Field-Tested System, a multimedia distance-learning program helps hospital leaders engage physicians to improve care, improve operating room productivity, deal with disruptive physicians and implement cutting-edge physician recruiting and retention strategies.

And in his spare time (yes, he actually does have some!), he also blogs bimonthly on Healthcare Collaboration.

by Tony Chen

Is your organization seeking to make an impact in healthcare?

If you are interested in purchasing a link (see the sidebar) under our "Healthcare Impacters" area or learning more about other partnership opportunities at hospital impact, please feel free to contact me for more information.

tony [at] hospitalimpact [dot] org

Hospital Impact consistently attracts ~10,000 unique visits per month. Our readers tend to be tech-savvy, progressive, forward-thinking healthcare and hospital leaders - could be a great niche for the right company.

by Tony Chen

It's probably not every day you see someone in their late 40s in a classroom full of 23-year-olds learning about healthcare administration. But that's what happened a few years ago to Jeff McKune - our newest blogger at hospital impact. Read his previous post on hospital strategy here and his bio below:

In 1981 I graduated from Harding University with a B.B.A. in Business Systems Analysis. I worked in information technology in Dallas for several years, and it was there that I met and married my wife. We moved to Missouri in 1985 where I started a systems integration and computer consulting business serving small businesses, county governments, and Fortune 500 companies throughout the state. A number of personal and professional factors, including the illness of my parents, drew me towards healthcare. At the age of 47 I began my graduate studies, completing my Masters in Health Administration at the University of Missouri at Columbia in 2005. I then completed a one-year administrative fellowship at Phelps County Regional Medical Center with the Chief Financial Officer and the Administrative Director of Human Resources as my co-mentors. These days I serve as Director of the Ambulatory Surgery Unit at that same hospital, enjoying each day with a great team of physicians, nurses, and clinical staff. If you would like to learn a bit more about me, please visit my personal site at http://www.mckune.net.

I'm definitely excited to see what topics Jeff ends up posting on - with such a unique path into hospital management, I'm sure he'll have some fresh perspectives to share.

by Tony Chen

Sorry I have not posted in a while. Thanks for your patience.

It's a busy time at work right now. Plus, I've been preparing for out-of-town guests, getting ready to sing & play guitar at a wedding, spending time with the little one, fulfilling local board responsibilities, and fulfilling my blogger role at World Health Care Blog. Read my posts about the AMA and obesity.

I'll have more for you in the next few days, including the introduction of our newest blogger. Stay tuned!

by Tony Chen

Recently, I've been doing a lot of reflecting and thinking around the real impact of this hospital impact blog. I know how it's impacted me: it's opened my eyes to new perspectives and innovations, it's challenged me to synthesize and make sense of the cluttered healthcare news arena, and it's brought me to lots of interesting people and opportunities. Besides getting hacked, getting squatted, & getting plagiarized, I've had a grand ole time blogging and I hope it shows.

But my question today is this: What is the impact of hospital impact on you? What have you found to be most valuable? What's still missing?

If you want to provide feedback confidentially, email me.

by Tony Chen

Ah, the joys and travails of the wild wild west of the healthcare blogosphere.

This past week, I discovered a website (I won't dignify it with a link) that was squatting on hospital impact. They copied hospital impact content, the hospital impact design and likeness, and created a site with a very related url. All the on-going links on the site were to hospital impact. Except that they added a few ... shall we say... "not safe for work" pictures and links.

So you could imagine my dismay when I saw my thoughtful post on Cleveland Clinic's Chief Executive Officer "by Tony Chen" on their site accompanied by very suggestive pictures and links.

I emailed some blogging and lawyer friends for advice. I went to DomainTools to figure out who the culprit was (someone from Istanbul). So I emailed them, their web hosting company, as well as the Turkish Embassy. I was also about to email Google to see how to get their site de-indexed.

Nonetheless, the site was completely changed within 24 hours - all of the hospital impact content/likeness was removed. In my opinion, it was the email to their hosting company threatening legal action that did it.

Word to the wise blogger: check out this link about bloggers FAQ and IP protection.

I guess lots of popular blogs go through this, it's almost a rite of passage. So maybe I should be honored that hospital impact was popular enough to rip off!

by Tony Chen

I'm pleased to announce that Christopher Cornue has joined the hospital impact blogging team. Christopher is currently a Vice President at Mount Sinai Hospital Medical Center and brings a great breadth and depth of healthcare experience. His bio is below.

Mr. Cornue has been leading operational, quality, clinical and growth strategies at Mount Sinai Hospital Medical Center (MSHMC), a 325-bed Level-1 Trauma Center, on Chicago’s near West side since 2004. Included among his areas of responsibility are the Departments of Medicine, Surgery, Anesthesiology, Pathology, Perioperative Services, Laboratories, Physician Development, Trauma Services and Service Line Development. In addition to these responsibilities, he is leading efforts to address disparities and improve quality in the Chicago Metropolitan Area as an Executive Sponsor of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Expecting Success: Excellence in Cardiac Care national collaborative project. Prior to his time at MSHMC, Mr. Cornue worked with sixteen major academic medical centers nationwide in his role with University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) in the identification of strategic cost containment & revenue enhancement opportunities and the development of operational strategies. Prior to UHC, he held several leadership roles at the University of Chicago Hospitals and the University of Chicago. He also provided operational consulting to an international start-up company in Belgium.

Mr. Cornue received his Bachelor of Science (Biology & Chemistry) and Masters of Science in Health Services Administration degrees from Gannon University. Active in the identification of international health care strategies, he is a member of the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua), International Union for Health Promotion & Health Education (IUHPE), and the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations. Furthering international healthcare strategies and partnerships, he has completed a collaboration site visit with the Improvement Foundation, based in Manchester, UK and will be visiting with the NHS Quality Improvement – Scotland Group in May 2007 and the London-based Healthcare Commission in October 2007. Through these relationships, Mr. Cornue hopes to contribute to the efforts addressing healthcare quality, access, disparities, policy and operations globally. Also a member of the American Public Health Association (APHA), Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), Chicago Health Executives Forum (CHEF) and the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE), he became a Certified Healthcare Executive (CHE) in 2005 and a Fellow (FACHE) in 2007.

Also wanted to note that Jared Johnson has decided leave his hospital PR post and move onto greener pastures. So, we thank Jared for his contribution to Hospital Impact and his thoughtful posts on transparency.

by Tony Chen

I will be out of pocket for a couple of days - I've been busier than usual working on some projects for work. Will be back soon to introduce a new blogger that has recently joined the Hospital Impact team. In the meantime, check out the World Health Care Blog, including my post on recent news themes.

by Tony Chen

There's been some good conversations going on here at hospital impact and across the healthcare blogosphere right now:
- I continue to get comments on the "If Disney Ran Your Hospital" series, including a recent comment from Fred Lee, the author, and Chris, someone who helped published the book. Though there was some criticism about the book, a lot of people have benefited from it. I've heard that 60,000+ copies have been sold.
- Nick's post on the Passive Aggressive Organization really seem to hit a nerve with a lot of people, in and outside of healthcare.
- My recent post of Private Equity and M&A in Healthcare has generated some very interested discussion. One asset manager has chimed in on the real reason for LBO: to hide their fraudelent ways.
- There are some excellent comments in the recent post about healthcare 2.0. You know a concept has finally arrived when there's a conference around it - check it out, our friend Matthew Holt is helping to put it together. Check out the ScienceRoll blog that covers a lot of interesting health 2.0 concepts, including tons of screenshots from Second Life.
- The World Healthcare Blog has put up 20 posts in the last 48 hours. Check out the podcasts from Michael Porter, WalMart, Google, and tons of others.

by Tony Chen

Well, it's been a lot of fun doing Hospital Impact recently partly because I get to explore many nooks and crannies of the burgeoning blogosphere business. This blog gives me the chance to learn about blogging / media / publishing just as much about healthcare. So, today we go on a slight detour off our "business of healthcare" track and check out the business of blogging. The blogosphere is alive and kicking and people are starting to figure out business models to monetize blogs in new ways.

Some recent developments:

- Hospital Impact content is licensed by Newstex, a blog aggregator company that makes my blog and many others available to LexisNexis users worldwide. In January, ~150 folks did searches through LexisNexis and ended up on hospital impact posts. That's $5 for me, enough to pay my hosting costs.

- Hospital Impact content is also available via Blogburst, another blog aggregating company whose customers are big media outlets like Reuters, FoxNews, USAToday, and others. When editors see a good post, they'll put it up on their news sites. Take a look at the main Reuters Health page, and you'll see a recent post selected from Hospital Impact. Almost 1,000 people have viewed hospital impact content right on the Reuters site. I only get paid if hospital impact is one of the top 100 blogs referenced by these outlets - that's highly unlikely, given our niche audience. However, our fellow blogger Fard might have a chance - he was #92 last time I looked.

- As you'll see on the right, I've started running google ads (yes, I'm selling out, but to be fair, I've held out longer than most). I think the links are actually fairly targeted, but still deciding whether it just clutters the page too much.

- The popular social media giant MySpace recently entered the news business. They, too, are utilizing blogs as news sources. Hospital Impact has a story up on their front news page for health. Nonetheless, no one seems to be reading MySpace news at all.

- Fun! Memorial Hospital and Health System of South Bend, Indiana is quoting hospital impact on their main website.

- Some company in Arizona offered me $500 for the url www.hospitalimpact.org. (don't worry, I did not accept. Add a zero and maybe we can start talking).

- It's really through hospital impact that I have the honor of blogging over at the World Health Care Blog. Honestly, the last 2 weeks of posts there from all my fellow bloggers have been the best healthcare blogging I've ever seen. Definitely worth a read.

- A couple of months ago, an editor from a health IT magazine paid me to put one of my posts into his magazine. Sure, why not!

- It's really humbling to see hospital impact as a source for Advisory Board and FierceHealthcare news items. Increasingly, I see particular posts sourced for university blackboards.

- 200-300 folks a day stumble upon hospital impact through google searches. Some recent searches: tony chen enh (weird!), clinic in drug store, true incent of father and daughter regarding breastmilk sucking, hardwiring excellence, disney hospital, hospital marketing, world health blog, revolution health, hospital management getting departments to work together. The power of google is amazing - all businesses must incorporate "search engine optimization" in their web marketing strategy (and blogging can be a big part of that!)

Okay, enough hort-tootin'. At the end of the day, blogging is a lot like sports. 0.000001% of all people who play sports get paid to play sports. The rest of us play because it's good exercise, it's social, and it's just plain fun.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program...

Blacksburg, my hometown.

Before yesterday, Va Tech was known for our football, for being nestled in the Appalachian mountains, and for being the 1st community in the US to be internet-wired. On Saturday mornings, the place for breakfast is a little family restaurant, Gillie's. From now on, we'll be known as the site of the deadliest shooting in US history.

To all the media: please be respectful. Hindsight is 20/20.

My dad retired from VA Tech just a few years ago. He used to teach a 9am class in that Norris Building. I actually took one class on the 2nd floor of Norris. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those students and their families.

by Tony Chen

I've been avoiding this post for some time now. It's one of those topics that is sensitive, potentially uncomfortable, and definitely has multiple layers.

So, there's a lot of ways I could address this - I could writes pages upon pages about my experience as a Chinese kid growing up in southwest Virginia. I could write about how Chinese families typically view hospital administration as a career (though my family is very supportive). I could even talk about how I'm probably hypersensitive about being the only non-Caucasian in town hall meetings.

I just deleted a couple of paragraphs. All I'll say is that most of the "racism" I experience is self-imposed and lives in my head only. And I'm really enjoying my job, my progressive organization, and the fact that my path is a path less traveled for someone of my background. Mostly, I want to hear about other people's experiences with paths less traveled or being in the minority - please share in the comments. or if you prefer, send me an email (tony at hospital impact dot org) and I can post your experience completely anonymously.

UPDATE: A few anonymous comments I've received so far:

"In fact, the only time I've caught even a whiff of racism is on the odd occasion that an LCD projector doesn't work right and some people instantly look to me to fix it, rather than put in a call to IT."

The discrimination I sense in hospital administration seems to stem more from clinician vs. non-clinician conflicts ...which is likely another topic entirely.

I've worked very hard to establish a sterling repuation in the organization, but don't feel absolutely sure that race didn't play some part in some way, shape, or form. My hypertension comes more from feeling like I better do an amazing job than being the only non-Caucasian, but I often take notice of the fact that I'm the only non-Caucasian.

With much introspection, I've come to realize that I've experienced very little racism in the hospital.

Hospital administration positions are still dominated by middle-aged Caucasian men. The reality is that hospitals are conservative and risk-adverse organizations and senior level hospital administrators are almost viewed like elected officials. So it's difficult to have a minority or homosexual be the "face" of such an organization.

Just like any other ethnic background, a lot of Asian-Americans are most 'racist' or biased against their own race

I lack the 20+ years of experience of seasoned professionals in this field, and I am still working on completing my graduate degree. Strike one. I am a female, which carries certain stereotypes in the professional world, such as being too compassionate for co-workers, or “caring” too much about my work (hey, I’ve got passion, what can I say?). Strike two. To top it all off, I’m trying to prove to colleagues that not only is marketing a viable and fascinating field of study in and of itself, but also that it has important implications for the future of this industry. Strike three.

I feel as if this career path is reminiscent of grade school gym class, where I didn’t fit in and was always picked last for dodgeball. But, like you, I’m beginning to realize that most of this nonsense is all in my head.

by Tony Chen

I have the opportunity to be one of the bloggers at the World Health Care Blog, the blog leading up to the World Healthcare Congress.

The rest of the blogging crew includes:
- Matthew Holt of The Health Care Blog
- Emily DeVoto of the Antidote
- Vince Kuraitis of e-CareManagement
- Derek Lowe of In the Pipeline
- David Williams of Health Business Blog
- Scott MacStravic of a lot of books/articles and guest blogger at HFMA Views
- Lloyd Davis of PerfectPath

Among us 8 bloggers, you've got several PhDs, a WSJ Must Read blog, a Forbes Best Blog, a dozen or so books written, several dozen speeches made at conferences, a couple of companies founded, and one accordian concert performed. (note: I only contributed to one thing on this list - guess which one...)

My favorite quote from the blog so far comes from Vince:

Professor Gerard Andersen of Johns Hopkins describes the big picture of changing health system needs:

* 1900 to 1950 — Infectious diseases
* 1950 to 2000 — Episodic care
* 2000 to 2050 — Chronic care

About 6 or 7 years ago the light bulbs went on at Medicare — they recognized the upcoming challenges of baby boomers aging, increasing chronicity, and out of control costs. Medicare beneficiaries with chronic conditions incur health care expenses highly disproportionately; the more chronic conditions, the higher the costs.

I'll have to chew on this for a while and post something in response later.

just got back from two days of presentation/communications skills training. In 20 hours of instruction, I made 6 presentations (all of which were videotaped), critiqued 36 presentations made by my classmates, was made to stand on pieces of paper, and was made to "punch" the screen with big gestures. We learned about the 6 types of evidence we should give in support of our points: experience, expert, example, fact, analogy, and statistic - more on these later.

As I get back to the office tomorrow morning after this intensive training & my trip to san fran, I'm sure the blogging will be light for the rest of the week as I catch up on work & try to absorb all these new realities/insights.

by Tony Chen

I'm here in San Fran for a technology transfer conference. Will be trying to soak up as much as possible about this mysterious art of "technology transfer". How do we best leverage the patents, inventions, and discoveries coming from our physicians and researchers? On the one hand, it's relatively straightforward - it's like selling real estate. Get the marketing together, target likely buyers, highlight the best/unique features, get a signed contract. On the other hand, there is a whole set of strategies and thought processes that are based on legal, intellectual property, pharma industry, and patenting considerations. Most inventors don't realize that the work done to get the patent is probably only 3-5% of the work.

I finally got to meet fellow Hospital Impact blogger Andrew Barna face-to-face. Yes, the power of blogging. Two random hospital administrators 2,000 miles away. Through this thing thing called the blogosphere, we are colleagues and friends. It really is a real, living community - and now we have a lunch at a nice Cuban restaurant to prove it.

Anyway, probably light blogging for the rest of the week. Be back in full force next week.

note from Tony: you've recently seen the posts from Jared Johnson on The CEO's Golden Question and color commentary on PwC 2007 healthcare trends. Today, we welcome him in as part of our blogging team - he'll bring unique perspective as a progressive, thoughtful PR professional. Please join me in welcoming him in to the Hospital Impact community!

by Jared Johnson

I count it as a great privilege to join Tony and the rest of the HospitalImpact family. I am the PR coordinator at a hospital in suburban Dallas. Ever since a Communications 101 class led me to pursue PR professionally, I have set my sights on the health care field. Something was always intriguing about all of the moving parts, plus the fact that health care affects everyone. I view health topics as a patient first and as a hospital employee second. It's one of the best ways I have learned to stay grounded and keep in mind the best interests of those we serve.

I have always been one to join in the conversation — not just to speak, but to listen. In fact, I'll admit that I usually gain more by hearing than by being heard. I am constantly in the middle of conversations — administrators speaking with clinical staff, clinicians speaking with patients, patients offering feedback to administration — it's an endless loop. I see words like "transparency" and "accountability," and I think how much more manageable these mandates could be with a more dedicated approach to communications. Fortunately, the blogosphere is a place where such communications can take place.

It may sound a little ideological, but I see an ongoing, intelligent conversation and a good dose of optimism as two necessities for making progress.

by Tony Chen

Have you noticed the recent social movements that have harnessed the power of branding and community?

- Kevin Bacon started sixdegrees.org. Visitors to Sixdegrees.org can click on a celebrity, find out what that his or her favorite charity is and then make a donation. Initially, Six Degrees was just a boardgame (that Kevin Bacon despised). But now, he's turned it into a charity that's raised $70,000+ in just a few weeks. Looks like St. Jude's Children's Hospital has a friend in Jennifer Love Hewitt.

- Global-Cool is a hip new website that encourages all of us to do little every day things to "save the planet." They are trying to get 1 billion people to reduce their CO2 output by 1 ton/year. So far, they've got 10,000 people. Simple things - unplugging your unused chargers, stuffing your freezer, lowering your laundry temperature - seem trivial, but when millions do it together, it starts to add up.

- Last and maybe most innovative: the (RED) campaign, spearheaded by Bono. You've seen the commercials - buy this (RED) phone / credit card / watch / iPOD / shirt, and you're helping to prevent AIDS in Africa. So far, $20MM raised.

You know that an idea is a good one when it makes you want to say: "I should've thought of that!" The beauty of these ideas is in their simplicity. Say what you will about the fuzziness and vagueness of "brand identity," but these ideas work primarily because of branding/association.

You can't get people to turn off the lights to save their life, but if they feel like they're a part of a community of light-turn-offers, then they will. People might not normally give to charity, but will if they feel connected to their favorite celebrity in doing so. People might not choose to buy a red ipod, but they just might if they feel like they're making a statement with Bono.

So what's the next big idea that could impact our everyday very non-hollywood hospital lives? I don't see any A-listers lining up to be a spokesman for preventing MRSA infections, helping the uninsured, or reducing medical errors.

Tell me your thoughts, and I'll share a few of my initial thoughts...
(1) Borrowing Global-Cool's idea, what are the 2 or 3 little things that everyone could do together that would change our nation's healthcare for good and forever? Exercise? Eat right? People won't do that to save their lives - literally. Somehow we'd have to link exercise & eating right with something more "emotional" - for example, if people thought exercising was patriotic, they might be more motivated to do so to help their country. Or if they realized that not exercising will eventually be linked to their children growing up having to pay 60% in taxes... I know, i know, it's a stretch, but you get the picture. help me - what's the compelling link?

(2) Borrowing Bono's thought process, what innovative partnerships could hospitals cook up? Maybe hospitals, governments, and insurance companies should team up to PAY people to get screenings or meet certain health goals? Or what if all of the Chicago hospitals & employers teamed up to make Chicago the "healthiest city in the world?" (talk about a powerful branding advantage!) Wouldn't that eventually draw entrepreneurs and employers to Chicago, and to our hospital doorsteps?

by Tony Chen

Well, it's been a while since I've last written a substantial post. I could jump on the bandwagon and make 2007 predictions about retail clinics (this one's for real), consumerism (not yet, but will hit full stride in 2008), transparency (will still be too complicated), and universal healthcare (we aren't desperate enough to make this happen). Instead, let me just confess something very plainly to start the new year.

There is actually so much that I wish I could blog about, but I can't. It turns out that my job and my blog intersect a lot more than I originally imagined. I am working on a lot of innovative, interesting initiatives (well, at least to me!) that I would love to discuss, but can't for fear of tipping our organizational hand. Thus, since my job pays the bills (and my blog currently is one of the bills!), my job wins.

Don't worry, though, there are still a lot of things to discuss. Now that I've passed the CHE exam, settled into my new job, settled into the new house, and settled into fatherhood (is there such a thing?), I'm ready to tackle the new blogging year. As always, please let me know if there are issues of specific interest to you.