Days after the University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics announced the theft of 2.2 million patients' billing records containing a variety of personal information, a former patient claims Perpetual Storage Inc. negligently allowed the records to be stolen and exposed him to the risk of identity theft. The patient's attorney, Karra Porter, wants the storage company to fund any credit repair, legal counsel and technical support for patients whose identities are actually misused. Porter said her firm, Christensen & Jensen, also plans to sue the university on behalf of the patient.
West Virginia University has fired a consulting firm that had cited severe medical and financial problems confronting the university's $1 billion healthcare enterprise. Fred R. Butcher, interim vice president of WVU's Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center, said an interim report by R&V Associates contained "many errors of fact and understanding." The report on the university cited "alarming deficiencies" in cardiovascular surgery; "serious leadership and productivity issues" in the anesthesia department, which will post an estimated loss of $12 million to $14 million this fiscal year; and an "alarming lack of surgeons."
In April, Christopher Gessner was named president of the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh. The institution has about 360 doctors, 220 pediatric residents and fellows, and between 2,500 and 2,800 nurses, pharmacists, therapists, and other employees. Gessner's role includes overseeing Children's relocation next year to a $625 million facility in Lawrenceville, and discusses the process in this interview.
A jury has awarded a Lauderhill, FL, family $35 million in a medical malpractice lawsuit that accused Broward General Medical Center of causing irreversible brain damage to their child by botching the delivery. Following the verdict, the hospital district that operates Broward General released a statement saying that while it wishes to extend its condolences to the family, the district is "deeply disappointed with the verdict and are currently evaluating and considering our options regarding this matter going forward."
A report by consumer advocacy group Families USA criticizes states for not doing more to protect consumers who buy health insurance through the individual market. Most states don't require insurance companies to sell policies to all applicants, don't prohibit charging higher premiums based on health status, and don't require insurers to spend at least 75% of premium revenues on healthcare, rather than on marketing, profits and other expenses, according to the report. Ron Pollack, Families USA's executive director, said the federal government needs to set a minimum level of consumer protection that states can always add to.
I've written a lot lately about how healthcare providers are finding it necessary to compete as never before. We've written a lot in HealthLeaders magazine over the years about mission and margin, two goals that for nonprofit organizations like hospitals often seem at cross purposes. Sometimes leaders get wrapped up in the bizarro world of healthcare, an industry that depends on a super-complicated web of third-party payments and gaming the system. It's a survival strategy, CEOs and CFOs tell me. All that is necessary work. You should be working to improve your revenue cycle. You should be training your physicians and coders to make sure they get the reimbursement your hospital deserves.
But sometimes we get so wrapped up in that rat race that we don't take the opportunity to take in new ideas—to listen to what other industries have to offer.
All of the editors here at HealthLeaders, including myself, have an advisory board to help us sort out the issues. Mine's made up mostly of CFOs I trust to give me the straight dope—off the record, of course—about their frustrations and trouble spots, as well as their successes and accomplishments. It's the only way I can learn about this stuff from behind my desk in an anonymous office park in Brentwood, TN. My advisory board has proven to be a valuable resource for me as I feel out trends and an indispensable sounding board off which to bounce story ideas.
But I was surprised to learn that some of you have your own similar advisory boards. In Mark Laret's case, he's drawn a group of successful CEOs and former CEOs from around the San Francisco Bay area to advise him on the direction of the hospital he runs, the University of California at San Francisco Medical Center. I first met Mark, that hospital's CEO, a year or so ago in the process of reporting this personalities feature about his affiliation with Mercy Ships for HealthLeaders magazine. Often I interview folks on one subject and am left with lots of leftover material that I can't find a use for at that moment. His business advisory board was one of those side paths we took during the interview.
I've left it languishing in my notes, and for that, I apologize. But Laret says essentially that he couldn't live without the folks who populate his board. This high-powered group of current and former big-time business executives doesn't have time to waste, but makes time each quarter for a half-day meeting with Laret and his leadership team. At the time, his chairman was Dick Rosenberg, the former chairman and CEO of Bank of America. Also on the board were Howard Lester, former chairman of Pottery Barn/Williams-Sonoma; Max Messmer, chairman of Robert Half International; Bill Davidoff, one of the first venture capitalists in Silicon Valley; Doug Shorenstein, an office building developer; and Mike Ullman, chairman and CEO of JCPenney.
Quite simply, Laret calls the advisory board, which he formed a little more than seven years ago, "the best idea I've ever had."
"It's a great resource to test out our business strategies," he says, (for example, how to deal with third-party payers, dealing with pricing, and market strategies). "They have also been helpful with patient safety and helping think through how businesspeople might evaluate some of the challenges that face us in healthcare." The board meets quarterly, and in return for a presentation by one of the medical center's research scientists or one of its clinicians, the board gives Laret and his leadership team "priceless business advice," as he so eloquently puts it.
Priceless. As in, free. It doesn't get any better than that.
Philip Betbeze is finance editor with HealthLeaders magazine. He can be reached at pbetbeze@healthleadersmedia.com.
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New advertising campaigns for Minnesota-based HealthPartners, Fairview Clinics, and Park Nicollet Health Services focus on speed and convenience for the patient. They also move away from more traditional advertisements, which tend to tout technology and physicians' credentials, and emphasizing consumerism at a time when people are paying more out-of-pocket for medical care.
After emergency room staff at Northfield (MN) City Hospital thought an obviously disturbed patient was about to turn violent, they called the police. Officers used a Taser to shock the man, and he was injected with medications and transferred to the psychiatric unit at another hospital. Now federal and state health officials have cited the hospital for violating the patient's rights.
Ron Davis, MD, is the American Medical Association president and he got a diagnosis of advanced pancreatic cancer eight months into his one-year term. In a 45-minute speech delivered during the AMA's annual meeting, Davis talked about his life and how it has changed, both good and bad, since his diagnosis. Davis urged his fellow doctors to help patients live healthier lives, and applauded the AMA for raising awareness about people who don't have health insurance.
Only one-third of terminally ill cancer patients said their doctors had discussed end-of-life care, according to a federally funded study. Patients who had these talks were no more likely to become depressed than those who did not, were less likely to spend their final days tethered to hospital machines, and they avoided costly, futile care, the study found. Convinced of such benefits and that patients have a right to know, the California Assembly has passed a bill to require that healthcare providers give complete answers to dying patients who ask about their options.
