The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the San Francisco healthcare program for the uninsured can continue while a lawsuit challenging the initiative is pending. The initiative requires companies with at least 20 workers to provide health coverage or pay the city a fee to help offset the program's estimated price tag. The Golden Gate Restaurant Association sued, arguing that the mandatory contributions the city imposed had violated federal law and placed a burden on members.
The Georgia Senate has easily passed three pieces of legislation centerned on governance at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. Senators voted to create a legislative oversight committee that will periodically review operations at the hospital. They also voted to prohibit people with financial ties to Grady from serving in a governing capacity and to encourage Grady employees to seek medical treatment at the facility.
Iowa's nursing shortage is quickly turning into a crisis as colleges struggle to graduate enough nurses to replace an aging work force, according to medical officials. A lack of faculty at nursing programs and relatively low wages, say those in the industry. U.S. Rep. Tom Latham of Iowa plans to hold a series of meetings with nursing groups in coming months to discuss the problem.
A decision expected on FDA approval for Genentech's Avastin cancer drug could have ramifications for all companies developing cancer medicines. The FDA has traditionally only approved cancer drugs that extended the lifespan of patients, but in recent years companies have studied alternate measures of a drug's effectiveness. Genentech made its case for FDA's approval of Avastin using by measuring effectiveness based on tumor growth, not patient survival.
Brentwood, TN-based hospital operator Community Health Systems Inc. has set 2008 profit guidance within range of Wall Street expectations, but guided for weaker-than- expected revenue. Community Health expects full-year profit from continuing operations between $2.25 and $2.45 per share on revenue between $11 billion and $11.3 billion. Analysts expect profit of $2.30 per share on revenue of $11.56 billion.
In 2007, when hospital groups and healthcare unions resisted New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer's $1.3 billion cut in health services, he ran a television commercial assailing them. The healthcare advocates responded with their own ads that defied Spitzer. Now Spitzer is again proposing healthcare spending cuts, but both sides are trying to behave. Spitzer's new plan calls for the biggest changes in the way hospitals are reimbursed for Medicaid expenses in more than two decades. He would eliminate $980 million in Medicaid and other healthcare expenses to help narrow New York's budget deficit.
"Innovation" may be the most over-used word in the leadership dictionary. Come up with a new nursing schedule? You're an innovator. Implement a new patient safety process? It's innovation. Redesign your gift shop? How innovative! Every CEO at every healthcare facility in the country tells me he's focused on innovation, but what really constitutes innovation?
I read an article this week that said true innovation occurs when someone takes an idea that seems impossible and makes it work. If an idea seems possible, it's likely been done before. True innovation is about risks, the unknown, and uncertainties--traits that healthcare organizations work hard to eliminate.
Although most healthcare leaders champion the benefits of innovation, few are willing to take the risks necessary to truly do it. Their definition of "innovation" sounds more like "not new but new to us," and the newly hired "Chief Innovation Officer" ends up being a well-paid meeting facilitator who oversees the implementation of last season's techniques. Is it really possible for senior leaders to combine the uncertainty of innovation with the safety assurances required of healthcare?
I wrote about Memorial's innovation efforts for HealthLeaders' What All Great Hospitals Do issue last fall. Memorial's board-approved innovation policy mandates that fresh thinking occurs at all staff levels, and Innovation Propulsion Leaders, including the CEO, COO, and other executives, meet regularly to ensure that happens.
Memorial uses a low-risk testing method called rapid prototyping to eliminate the risks associated with innovation by testing new processes on a small scale before they are rolled out systemwide. Senior executives used rapid prototyping to plan Memorial's new $40-million heart and vascular center.
"We built the hospital room of the future out of cardboard, foam core, duct tape, towels, and sheets, right down to the computer terminals and bathrooms, " CEO Phil Newbold says. "Then we actually built a room and used that for a while. . .our nursing staff, frontline people, patients, visitors--all kinds of people--had a chance to look at that and experiment with it."
While this type of testing takes time, it ultimately saves resources, Newbold says. And once people start thinking innovatively, over time, they do it quicker, better, and more often.
"Competition," "staffing shortages" and "reimbursement cuts" are the other words I hear a lot from healthcare leaders. In today's healthcare landscape, innovation isn't just a nice-to-have--it's a necessity to overcome challenges. But you have to be willing to balance the gamble of innovation with the inherent risk of healthcare.
Think your organization's innovative? I'd love to hear about it. And, if you think you're truly an innovator, apply to our 2008 Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare award program. After all, true innovation starts with a great leadership team.
Molly Rowe is leadership editor with HealthLeaders magazine. She can be reached at mrowe@healthleadersmedia.com.
Building a bug-free relationship with your IT vendor. Plus, news on higher interest rates for healthcare systems. [Powered by Trinity Healthforce Learning.]
Detroit Medical Center and Wayne State University, Detroit's two most important healthcare partners, will hire an outside expert to try to settle a $12-million disagreement over physician pay. The impasse came after DMC told WSU it was cutting $12 million in funds to pay doctors for indigent care.
The Alabama Certificate of Need board was scheduled to vote whether for-profit Community Health Systems Inc., the parent company of Crestwood Medical Center, or nonprofit Huntsville Hospital should build a 60-bed hospital in Madison. Not enough members of the CON board showed up to vote, however, so planned testimony by each hospital, and a planned vote on the issue, has been postponed until March 19, 2008.
