Healthcare Administration

While Medicare's new pay-for-performance program may have some effect on hospital quality, the financial incentives don't have any bigger impact than a hospital's voluntary improvement efforts, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study, which looked at data from 54 hospitals in the Medicare P4P program, found that most improved on some important criteria during the test, for example by prescribing aspirin more frequently for …

Quality measures abound in the hospital industry, and each has their virtues. This time, though, Maryland employers have focused in on a set they like, and they've begun a campaign to get hospitals on board. Baltimore and D.C.-area companies, including Lockheed Martin and Marriott, are pushing a group of 46 regional hospitals to participate in the Leapfrog Group's annual hospital quality and safety survey. The surveys, which are progressing in 32 other markets, measure progress in …

A new study suggest that the majority of childhood cancer survivors aren't getting adequate follow-up care later in life. While childhood cancer treatments may save lives, they also create problems of their own, including the risk of new cancers created by treatment-related radiation. In particular, as many as 20 percent of young women and girls treated with chest radiation, commonly used for treating Hodgkin's disease, will develop breast cancer. Another risk: as many has half of the …

Far too often, patients end up dying alone in their bed in an impersonal hospital setting--particularly if they don't have friends or family to keep them company. While hospices routinely provide volunteers to stay with terminal patients who don't have family available, hospitals haven't been prepared to provide these volunteers. Increasingly, however, a new, growing movement is posting volunteers at the bedside of hospitalized terminal patients. These efforts are promoted by several …

This is definitely not the way hospitals like to spend their money. It looks like SynergyHealth St. Joseph's Hospital of West Bend, WI will have to pay a $1.08 million water and sewer connection fee to a neighboring village after losing a legal battle. In 2003, the hospital had signed a contract with the village to provide the hospital with water and sewer connections. Later, though, hospital execs refused to pay the fees associated with the contract, arguing that the charges weren't …

New data suggests that New Jersey hospitals have significantly improved their ability to care for heart bypass patients. Deaths from heart bypass surgery at the state's hospitals fell almost 12 percent in 2004, according to data reported by the state's Department of Health and Senior Services. More significantly, the post-bypass death rate has been cut in half since 1994, when the state first began reporting these statistics. In 2004, an average of 2 percent of the 6,177 patients who had …

Consultants are warning that Georgia's largest public hospital, Grady Health System, can't survive financially unless it undergoes major management changes. Despite rounds of belt tightening, including an early retirement buyout extended to 400 workers, consultants are estimating that the hospital will face a $78 million shortfall by the end of 2007. What's more, the hospital's physical plant is in bad shape, its IT infrastructure is severely outdated and customer service is poor, …

Few hospitals have been through the kind of trauma faced by New Orleans facilities during Hurricane Katrina. No one at the city's Charity Hospital, in particular, can forget being trapped there with sick and dying patients as the city struggled to recover from flooding. But as hospitals must, given their 24-hour-a-day mission, the city's facilities are preparing to try again if faced with another emergency. Among other steps, they're digging wells, stockpiling supplies and buying …

Sometimes, it seems, having someone take an interest makes all of the difference. Despite an array of forces prompting high nurse turnover, a new pilot program has found that nurses are seven times more likely to stay on the job if they're properly mentored. The study drew on data from the California Nurses Association (CNA), which has been running a mentoring program at seven California hospitals. Mentors involved in the program are asked to complete a three-day class, then meet with …

A California medical group has become one of the first large U.S. practices to publish prices for common procedures. To date, a growing list of hospitals have begun to post pricing, but medical practices have not jumped on the bandwagon as enthusiastically. Torrance, CA-based HealthCare Partners Medical Group, a 500-physician primary care practice, has posted fees for 58 common procedures on its site, including chest X-rays, physical exams and flu vaccinations. The group's execs have …