Here are a few more trends to be thinking about as hospital leaders:

- Hospitals keep buying each other up. Based on this report, hospital M&A activity for 2Q05 is up 67% - roughly $900MM of hospitals were bought in the last 3 months. (Update 7/16: LifePoint buys 5 HCA hospitals)

- Hospitals are improving financially, or at least Wall Street continues to be positive on the for-profit hospital sector. Bad debt is being managed and volumes are up. (HCA's stock was hit recently, but overall is still doing well)

- Hospitals continue to suffer from a "trust epidemic." I just started Dr. David Shore's book "The Trust Prescription for Healthcare: Building Your Reputation with Consumers" and let ya'll know what I think of it when I'm done.

- More and more groups are collaborating to get better information for decision-making. This group in Wisconsin is trying to get to the bottom of healthcare costs. Meanwhile, WellChoice (with the help of WebMD) just announced personalized online health records, complete with lab test results, cholesterol levels, and health management tools.

- Supersized healthcare: a more obese nation means hospitals spending more money on supersized beds, wheelchairs, mattresses, and stretchers.

Oversized wheelchairs can cost up to 5x more than its regular-sized counterpart