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 Christopher Cornue

Many of you have probably already seen "10 Steps to Better Health Care," the Op-Ed in The New York Times printed last week by Drs. Atul Gawande, Don Berwick, Elliott Fisher, and Mark McClelland. If you haven't, it deserves a read.

Whether or not you support the ongoing efforts by President Obama and Congress to create Health Care Reform, this op-ed makes a very striking point: that all healthcare/medicine is local. In reflection, I believe this is one of the fundamental differences of our healthcare system here in the United States compared to the rest of the world.

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by Christopher Cornue

Over the past several months, I've noticed a significant shortage of a very important role in hospitals--that of the strategist or planner. These are the folks that understand the market dynamics, the new innovative approaches to care, niches that may exist for evolving technology and are able to collaborate with leadership to develop a vision for the organization's future.

I believe this type of individual is absolutely necessary for the success of an organization, especially during this "economic downturn"--what better way for a hospital to stay ahead of their competition and leverage ripe opportunities for growth, new service development and revisions of current services than to have dedicated folks remain one step ahead of everyone else.

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by Dan Bowman
Associate Editor - FierceHealthIT

By all indications, this year's HIMSS09 show in Chicago will be extremely thought provoking--11 sessions are dedicated to the economic stimulus package and the effects it will have on the healthcare landscape.

What's more, healthcare technology seems to be coming of age rather rapidly. Between the push for mandatory adoption of electronic medical records and the expanding efforts by physicians and organizations to be relevant in a Health 2.0 world, the healthcare of yesterday is being swept aside to make way for the practices of tomorrow. Compliance issues for new technology and physician-oriented social media networks were among the hot topics of FierceHealthIT's preview webinar, which took place this past Tuesday.

Count us, at FierceHealthIT, among those who have jumped on the bandwagon. Both Anne Zieger--Editor-In-Chief of FierceHealthIT--and I will be sending out live updates from HIMSS09 via Twitter; furthermore, we'll provide you with in-depth stories from various keynotes and educational sessions. If you're unable to attend this year's conference, we've got you covered.

by Christopher Cornue

As part of an ongoing series reviewing my first 100 days as a CEO, I spent the first 45 to 60 days assessing the current culture, operations, strategy and environment at my new hospital. My initial (and lasting) assessment: I'm working for a wonderful group of individuals--the employees, physicians, board, community, etc.--everyone has been so welcoming and positive!

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by Christopher Cornue

Nick Jacobs recently wrote about what he will miss as a hospital CEO and, like most of you, I enjoyed reading about his final thoughts as he leaves his current role.

At the same time Nick is leaving his CEO role, I've had the opportunity, as some of you may know, to start a role as CEO. In September 2008, I started as the CEO of a hospital in Colorado. Now, I've read up on the "First 100 Days" literature, planned an approach to those first few days, and worked to identify what my leadership will look like. Still, while all of this has been done with the best intentions, no amount of preparation can adequately prepare one completely for assuming a CEO role.

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by Nick Jacobs

Periodically, I write about articles that have appeared in Modern Healthcare; one of my favorite writers is Charles Lauer, former VP- publishing and editorial director of the magazine. The sweet irony of his most recent article, "Growing Evidence, Studies show the therapeutic value of healing gardens" was difficult for me to express.

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Just last week, Jim Collins published a monograph: Good to Great and the Social Sectors: Why Business Thinking is Not the Answer

(Taken from a review I wrote for amazon.com)
As a non-profit leader, I've been waiting for this monograph to be published for several months, and Collins did not disappoint.

In a lucid style that only Collins can deliver, he masterfully explains the subtle (but seismic) concepts of good to great for the social sector. Similar to his previous books, he effectively uses a broad array of real-life examples (e.g. the NYPD, a church, the Girl Scouts, the Cleveland Orchestra, a high school science dept), helpful graphics, and a very readable, conversational tone. Even though the monograph is only 31 pages, he contributes his clear thinking on numerous issues that will be very familiar to social sector leaders:
- how to measure success in non-$ metrics
- how to recruit and motivate a passionate (and poorly-paid or unpaid) staff
- how to think differently about "restricted funds"
- how to transcend systemic / external problems.

I particularly enjoyed his discussion on "legistative" leadership (versus "executive" leadership in the business world). Collins predicts a dramatic reversal - that one day non-profit leaders, who have mastered legistative leadership, will be wooed away to lead for-profit businesses. Also, he says that the true difference is not between for-profit vs. non-profit, but good vs. great - regardless of organization type.

This monograph does stand on its own. However, I think you would have to be fairly familiar with the concepts in Good to Great to fully appreciate the value of this monograph.

Regardless, I would recommend this to every hospital leader. For $9-10, you really can't go wrong.

This week's Grand Rounds are up at Diabetes Mine, maybe the best patient blog on the web.

Next week, Grand Rounds will be right here at hospital impact! Please email submissions to me at tony[at]hospitalimpact[dot]org by Monday night 11:59 EST, October 24.

Archives of previous Grand Rounds can be found here on Blogborygmi. For a list of submission guidelines, click here.

For those that are new, Grand Rounds is the weekly wrap-up of the best entries in the medical/healthcare blogosphere. Check out a few in the archive and you'll see a little bit of everything: patient stories (funny and scary), healthcare policy musings, health trends, patient/physician relationship mishaps and heroics, and the works.

Consumer Reports and Health Improvement Institute have launched a beta site for comparing consumer health websites: healthratings.org

Two things I find particularly impressive:
(1) The site provides strengths AND weaknesses for each site. For example, for WebMD, weaknesses mentioned include: "busy with distracting advertising; poor visual representation of pages."
(2) The site attempts to objective rank each website along 9 dimensions (e.g.identity, ease of use, design, coverage, etc). Maybe I'm just a sucker for harvey ball graphics.

By the way, the only hospital to make the top 20 is Mayo Clinic.

Is there a day coming when such a site would exist for hospital websites?