As a continuation to a previous series on community benefit, I thought this was a very thoughtful piece from an unique Chicago-based organization.

The Metropolitan Chicago Healthcare Council put together this very well-done economic impact report (pdf highlights or pdf full report) of Chicago hospitals on the community. Among the highlights:
- 400,000 primary and 2ndary jobs
- $23.7B in personal income for residents
- Better (and more sustainable) jobs with an average salary of $63k (~$20k more that region's average)
- $1.8B in capital spending, creating significant construction employment
- ~3,000 new hospital jobs per year through 2020.
- Every $1 in hospital wages creates $1.42 in non-hospital wages
- Every 1 hospital job creates 1.54 non-hospital jobs.

AHIP's new website, HSAdecisions.org, just published a consumer's guide to healthcare spending accounts: "what you need to know about HSAs, HRAs, FSAs, and MSAs." I work in healthcare and I still need help with this! thank you, AHIP.

Also HSADecisions site was recent news: as of 3/2005, 1,000,000+ people were covered by HSA/HDHP products. This is double from six months ago. Get ready for some more explosive growth.

yeah, this one's random - the folks at IBN have developed an urine test that is powered by a drop of urine.

What fun it was to get a comment from Carol Kovac, IBM Healthcare's GM. She's started a new blog called LifeLines. Among her first posts are predictions that EHR: (1) will NOT evolve into smart cards; and (2) will ultimately be paid for by employers and payors.

As I mentioned in a previous post, IBM Healthcare has grown from 2 employees to 1,500 under Carol's leadership. I guess Carol has a knack for growing things as she is an avid gardener as well.

Here's a good article on how not to treat your patients. Too often, in people's greatest time of need and sensitivity, they are treated like a #, an object, and/or a nuisance. Here's a story of one patient that was fed up:

"After one doctor slipped into the room unannounced and tried to give him an injection, Mr. Edwards decided that he had had enough, said his father, James (Red) Edwards Sr., in an interview. His son posted a sign on the outside of his door. It read:

'ATTENTION:
1) Please announce yourself when you come into my room (let me know your name and why you are here).

2) Please let me know what you're going to do and how it will feel before you touch me for any reason.

Thanks - Jim and Red'

The hospital where he was treated, at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, has included Mr. Edwards's sign in a training video for its staff."

Judging by the comments on Matthew Holt's recent posting on hospital price gouging, this isn't exactly a popular topic for the masses: how to increase hospital profits.

Yes, there is some price gouging (intentional and unintentional) going on out there. Yes, some hospitals are overly-aggressive with their collections practices. And yes, lots of hospitals still need to get together a coherent pricing policy (as well as a community benefit stance).

Nonetheless, hospitals also get the shaft thanks to patients who can pay but don't and government agencies that don't even pay to cover costs. To top it all off, many hospitals shoot themselves in the foot with poor medical information technology, wrong coding, poor management etc. It's these controllable revenue cycle factors that this HFMA white paper focuses on - worth a read.

vs.

The California Nurses Association has launched a blog to stop Arnold's "corporate takeover."