Maryland patients will pay hundreds of dollars more for hospital stays under price hikes made final Wednesday by the state agency that sets rates for the medical institutions.The price for healthcare that hospitals pass on to insurers and patients will soar 4.4 percent this year — adding $596 million to the total tab — under several rate increases approved by the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission. As a result, the average inpatient hospital bill will rise $386, to $12,141.
Go into any OB/GYN office and you're likely to see a large bulletin board covered with snapshots of babies. But the docs at one Irving, TX, OB-GYN practice have taken that ubiquitous display of cute kids into the 21st century. Their patients can post photos on the MacArthur OB/GYNNFacebook page, where the doctors post news about their practice and the medical world at large. It has more than 600 fans. Jeff Livingston, who spearheaded the practice's venture into social media, also manages the @ macobgynrTwitter account, which has about 1,600 followers. He sees Facebook as an educational and, perhaps just as important, marketing tool. "People are looking for information online," Livingston says. But few doctors have embraced social media as enthusiastically as he has. Concerns about time and patient privacy have deterred many.
It’s the Food and Drug Administration’s job to regulate food labels, but it turns out the agency turns a blind eye to some of the items for sale within its own cafeteria. On a recent visit to the FDA’s headquarters in Silver Spring, MD, Bruce Silverglade, legal affairs director for the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, visited the cafeteria in the hopes of picking up a quick and healthy lunch. The first half of the food-selection process was easy. When he went to select his drink, his feel-good, happy thoughts quickly disappeared. The "contraband" beverages that Silverglade spotted were: Purity Organic Functional Drinks' Pomegranate Blueberry, Crystal Light Immunity Berry Pomegranate, and SoBe Lifewater B-Energy Black Cherry Dragonfruit -- each with misleading claims on its packaging.
Children's Hospital is preparing to launch a $228 million expansion that will add 124 new beds to its Aurora hospital. Upon projected completion by the end of 2012, the addition is expected to bring at least 500 new jobs to the hospital's workforce of 4,000. Construction is expected to begin this week. Officials said rapid growth at the hospital, now with 298 beds, mandated the expansion several years before it was anticipated.
The winners in the 7th annual HealthLeaders Media Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare Awards program use words like “accountability” and “decisiveness” to describe the values that makes their senior leadership teams succeed. Yet these winning teams also realize they will need to hone those values and others to prepare for the rapidly-shifting challenges ahead in healthcare.
The Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare Awards program, sponsored by GE Healthcare, celebrates the outstanding teamwork that occurs in healthcare organizations each day, shares what makes top leadership teams successful, and encourages other healthcare leaders to learn more from the best practices of top leadership teams. The 2010 honorees include:
Novant Health in Winston-Salem, NC for large hospitals and health systems;
Columbus Regional Hospital in Columbus, IN for community and mid-sized hospitals;
UHS Chenango Memorial Hospital in Norwich, NY for small hospitals;
Crystal Run Healthcare in Middletown, NY for medical group practices; and
Network Health in Medford, MA, for health plans.
Dynamic change is nothing new to these teams. Novant Health restructured its system leadership team into an operations-based, not site-based, matrix to better promote improvement. After a flood closed Columbus Regional Hospital, the leadership team reopened ahead of schedule and kept all employees on salary during the rebuilding.
Christina Severin, CEO and president of Network Health, believes the health plan’s experience with the expansion of state-mandated health plan coverage in Massachusetts has prepared her leadership team and entire organization for the next challenges that will come with the expansion of federal health coverage.
“We have the chance to identify what’s happening in healthcare locally and what is likely to happen in healthcare nationally, and to act on our internal strengths and weaknesses,” Severin says. “Through analysis and evaluation, we have methodically prepared ourselves for success in the evolving world of healthcare and have instilled a laser-like focus on being a high-value health plan, as we believe that there won't be room for any other kind in the healthcare system of the future.”
Crystal Run Healthcare has been one of the fastest growing medical groups in the state, now reaching more than 30 specialties with 170 physicians and 1,200 employees. Hal Teitelbaum, MD, MBA, managing partner and CEO, says change is a constant that his leadership team has embraced.
“We are bored-and frustrated-by the status quo,” Teitelbaum says. “We have long understood that the present state can always be improved. Our history is one of expanding services and increasing integration. We are believers in accountable care and have been early adopters of electronic health records and the patient-centered medical home model. Given a new playing field, we feel our team is ready to develop and implement the new rules of the game.”
Paul Wiles, CEO of Novant Health, says his leadership team recognizes that change and improvement in the future will be based on value as a measuring stick.
“We are headed in the right direction, yet we have a lot of steps to take to achieve Novant Health’s vision for our patients and communities,” Wiles says. “Most importantly, we are building consensus with all of our leaders and partners that our organization can accomplish what dissimilar companies in other industries have achieved: improving the quality of our product at a more affordable price.”
While the dynamics of the industry may require new strategies, the ties that bind the leadership team will remain constant.
“The most critical quality may be ‘respectful discipline’ which results in individual and organizational accountability to consistently take care of the basics of the business while continuously striving to learn and execute improved ways to be a great place to receive care, a great place to work, and a great place to practice medicine,” says Drake Lamen, MD, CEO of UHS Chenango Memorial Hospital. “This needs to stay the same in coming years.”
As with any challenge, the first step in strengthening team relationships is to build trust, says Jim Bickel, CEO of Columbus Regional Hospital. “Trust is the key first step, so you need to determine if your team members trust their leader and each other. Your team needs to be genuine and that begins with trust. As part of trust building, team members need to learn about both the strengths and weaknesses of each other. Don’t be afraid to delve into this in a candid yet constructive manner and really get to know each other. The team needs both personal excellence and collective accountability. In a crisis or in the middle of rapid change are not the times to begin to develop trust. It must already be there so that you can effectively lead your organization past challenges to meet your goals.”
Recipients of this year's Top Leadership Teams awards will be honored on October 21 in Dallas, TX.
Winners are judged on the team’s overall leadership culture, its ability to overcome challenges, and its ability to demonstrate successes that result from outstanding leadership teamwork. Only one winner per category receives this national honor each year.
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Twin Cities nurses voted overwhelmingly Tuesday in favor of a new proposal that preserved their pension, health benefits and salaries, bringing to a close one of the most contentious and public contract negotiations in state history, Many nurses who cast their votes Tuesday said they were relieved and pleased that they were able to preserve their health care, pensions and salaries. But some said they could not in good conscience vote for a deal that failed to provide the staffing ratios they claimed on lawn signs and at rallies were critical to patient safety.