I'm reading three—that's right, three—self-improvement books because I want to learn how to get more done in less time. These days, doesn't everybody? +
While many hospitals have long operated with slim margins and careful expense management, today's worldwide financial crisis raises the pressures to unprecedented levels. Mary Ann Holt, RN, MSN, a senior partner at IMA Consulting, discusses how the biggest impact may stem from debt financing bonds that require certain performance targets to be met. +
If the economy were one of your patients, it'd be lying unconscious in your ICU right now. The global recession is unforgiving and indiscriminate. We're all up against it. +
Electronic surveillance has proven to be a favorite tool among the various government agencies charged with keeping us safe. What does that have to do with healthcare? Plenty. +
Jerry Miller, MD, president of Holston Medical Group in East Tennessee, talks about strategizing on investments needed to make in strategic initiatives to diversify revenue streams. +
The well-documented influx of baby boomer patients promises to increase the already high demand for senior services. But the prospect of expanding a service line that relies so heavily on Medicare has some hospital leaders jittery. +
The new president and chief executive officer for West Virginia University Hospitals-East has started the New Year by starting his new job, and overseeing a $22 million expansion and upgrade project at the hospital will be a big part of it. The extensive $22 million upgrade and expansion project for City Hospital is scheduled to begin this year. Much of the funding will go toward expanding and improving existing departments.
The Utah Health Information Network is poised to provide care providers with complete access to patient data after the UHIN tapped San Jose-based Axolotl for the technology and services to power the network. The statewide initiative will provide clinicians with the ability to electronically locate, connect to, and review, in an integrated manner, patient information scattered across multiple healthcare organizations.
Researchers that tracked patients for months or years after an ICU stay found that some, even young ones, can be weak for years. Some have difficulty thinking and concentrating or have post-traumatic stress disorder and terrible memories of nightmares they had while heavily sedated. While patients may be suffering lingering effects from illnesses that landed them in the ICU, researchers are increasingly convinced that spending days, weeks or months on life support in the units can elicit surprising, long-lasting effects.
So now some ICUs are trying a solution: reducing sedation levels and getting patients up and walking even though they are gravely ill.
This opinion piece in The New Republic is from Jacob S. Hacker, co-director of the Center for Health, Economic, and Family Security at University of California-Berkeley. With deficit spending expected to soar in an effort to stave off an economic depression, Hacker offers the Obama Administration a strategy for getting opponents to support whatever healthcare plan he ends up proposing: Buying them off.
Many blogging organizations struggle with how often they should post to their site. Seth Godin, marketing blogger, says the golden rule is to post when you have a particularly useful insight. But don't over do it.
If you're uncertain about how to start your online marketing efforts this year, learn from this practical guidance that will steer you toward success. Start with borrowing and sharing content on your company blog. It's a simple concept but it's usually hard for marketers to embrace.
Weirton (WV) Medical Center is laying off workers in an effort to save the hospital $2 million a year. The hospital is cutting 36 full-time equivalent positions. The layoffs affect union, non-union and management jobs at the hospital, including nurses and LPNs.
Officials at North Wilkesboro, NC-based Wilkes Regional Medical Center have announced that 45 positions have been eliminated in order to cut costs. According to Gene Faile, who assumed duties as the hospital's chief executive officer in early December, the restructuring is intended to improve the hospital's operating performance and secure its future prosperity.
