Faced with economic pressures and patients with abundant choices, hospitals are using unconventional ways of connecting directly with the public. Seeking to attract or educate patients, entice donors, gain recognition, and recruit or retain top doctors, hospitals are using Twitter from operating rooms, showing surgery on YouTube, and having patients blog about their procedures. They consider the methods inexpensive ways to stand out in an era of reality TV and voluminous medical information available online.
Only one of the nine companies bidding to purchase Prince George's County's (MD) healthcare system wants to run the entire network, raising the possibility that bidders may partner to develop more comprehensive proposals. Eight bidders are not interested in or not capable of operating the system on their own, according to Donna Wilson, vice chair of a panel created to find a buyer for the system. Under a Maryland law, the Prince George's Hospital Authority may sell the system in pieces but cannot transfer any part of it until all of it is sold.
Accelerating healthcare premiums and sharp revenue shortfalls due to the recession are forcing some small companies to choose between staying in business and dropping health insurance or laying off workers. Health-insurance premiums for single workers rose 74% for small businesses from 2001 to 2008, according to nonprofit research group Kaiser Family Foundation. About 10% of small businesses are considering eliminating coverage over the next year, up from 3% in 2005, according to a recent survey by National Small Business Association.
Temple University Health System is now forging ahead with its efforts to end all inpatient services at Philadelphia-based Northeastern Hospital by June 30. Fire rescue ambulances have stopped taking patients to Northeastern's emergency department, the officials said. The hospital will reopen July 1 as an ambulatory care center, which will offer an array of outpatient services.
A Harvard Medical School study finds that even many terminally ill patients and their doctors put off conversations about end-of-life choices. The study found that only about half of the 1,517 patients with metastasized lung cancer who were surveyed had discussed hospice care with their physician or healthcare provider within four to seven months of their diagnosis. The vast majority of such patients do not survive two years.
Now is the time to address how to "rationalize" your service offerings to position your organization for future success, says Sg2 analyst Anthony Malcoun. Here, Malcoun provides quick action steps to get started.
A homework assignment from President Barack Obama is turning into a credibility test for medical providers as Obama has instructed the healthcare industry to come back with specifics on its pledge to slow rising costs and save the nation $2 trillion over 10 years. Experts say the savings are possible, but the problem is getting doctors, hospitals, and other medical providers to change years of ingrained habits that lead to much of the wasteful spending in U.S. healthcare.
Proponents say walk-in retail clinics in grocery and drugstore chains can help the uninsured find healthcare, but a new study suggests most retail clinics aren't in the poorest neighborhoods. Like most businesses, they go where the money is—to more affluent neighborhoods that are already well-served by other medical resources.
Monterey, CA, physician Bradley Carpentier found himself spending so much time fighting with health insurers to get approvals for the treatments he prescribed for his patients that he decided to wage his own lobbying effort. Carpentier formed a new political action committee called Stop Practicing Medicine to target the long-standing practice of insurers hiring doctors to review physician decisions, even though the insurer-hired doctors had never seen or talked to the patient whose care they were scrutinizing.
Connecticut lawmakers are considering a proposal that would outlaw most gifts to healthcare providers from drug or medical-device makers and require the disclosure of any drug or device company payments to physicians exceeding $1,000. Several states, including Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts, have already clamped down on the financial relationships, banning most gifts outright or requiring drug companies to disclose payments to doctors. Now Connecticut's proposal has touched off a fierce fight.
