hospitals

Adaptibility important for the future of hospitals

Dan Bowman — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:26:31 -0500

What are hospitals of the future going to have to do to keep up with increasing challenges in the field of healthcare? According to a new whitepaper put out by The Joint Commission entitled Health Care at the Crossroads: Guiding Principles for the Development of the Hospital of the Future, a lot.

Five areas in which hospitals will have to take action, according to the report, are economic viability, adoption of technology, patient-centered care, staffing and hospital design. Economically, hospitals will be expected to "increase efficiency and reduce costs," among other things. Technologically, hospitals will have to make changes that can reduce the workload, while at the same time being easily integrated. "The Joint Commission has brought together broad expertise in health care to point to directions for optimizing health care in hospitals," said Dr. Herbert Pardes, president and CEO of New York Presbyterian Hospital. "Hospitals have an enduring role in the delivery of health care and have provided major contributions to enhancing the treatment of disease."

With healthcare costs at an all-time high and the diversity of new patient complications, Dr. Mark R. Chassin, president of The Joint Commission, hospitals will continue to be under scrutiny, even in the best of times.

"As they have been in the past, hospitals must be equally transformative as the future unfolds," Chassin said. "The Joint Commission urges hospitals and public policymakers to use the principles in this report to achieve that aim."

For more on The Joint Commission's whitepaper:
- view the press release
- check out the whitepaper

PA and NY hospitals may merge

Molly Bernhart — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:31:56 -0400

Two hospitals in Pennsylvania and New York that are only about 10 miles apart, may reach across the state border and form a new parent company. Bradford Regional Medical Center, a 96-bed facility in Pennsylvania, and Olean General Hospital, a 156-bed facility in New York, have signed a letter of intent to integrate the two hospitals. The decision followed a recommendation by New York's Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century, a 2007 statewide effort that aimed to "right size" New York healthcare.

For more:
- read the ModernHealthcare.com article

NY offers grants to help facilities restructure

Anne Zieger — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:09:33 -0400

Not too long ago, New York legislators created a firestorm when they approved a plan to restructure the state's healthcare industry by force. The state is still experiencing fallout from the plan, which involved a range of measures including nursing home and hospital closures, mergers and restructuring. Several facilities sued, but many others have prepared for the inevitable, with financial help from the state.

This week, the state announced it would provide $280 million in grants, the latest in a series intended to help facilities make these transitions. This grant brings to $1.26 billion the amount New York has spent to support the plan developed by the Commission on Health Care Financing in the 21st Century, which was given the power to make decisions on the fate of various facilities by enabling legislation.

The current $280 million in grants includes $100 million for clinics and public-health departments which offer primary and community care. Another $150 million of the money went to 26 hospitals, nursing homes and other providers, which are now handling patients displaced by downsizings and closures. Meanwhile, 10 nursing homes received $30 million to downsize and invest in adult daycare and assisted living options.

To learn more about the grants:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece (reg. req.)

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MO hospitals' suit against tobacco cos. still in motion after 10 years

Anne Zieger — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:31:35 -0400

For nearly 10 years, Missouri hospitals have been in a legal wrestling match with the nation's largest tobacco companies, as they prepare for a jury trial in their case against the tobacco industry. While the pretrial arguments are complex, the hospitals' claim against Big Tobacco boils down to a simple notion: that the tobacco companies got people sick.

The hospitals contend that since they have had to pay for the care of uninsured smokers and smokers who didn't pay their bills, Big Tobacco should. The group of 30-odd hospitals are seeking payment for patients going back to 1993, which could result in damages of $1 billion or so. Big Tobacco, meanwhile, argues that they simply can't be sued by the hospitals, as they don't have standing. Since the hospitals themselves weren't directly damaged by cigarettes, the hospitals can't collect for the costs of cigarette-related illness.

The hospitals filed suit in 1998, just before 46 states signed an agreement with the five largest tobacco-makers to recover the costs of treating smokers' illnesses. In 2001, they won a major victory when a judge decided that the case could move forward to trial. Since then, the two sides have been stuck in "discovery," the phase where each side shares evidence with the other.

One hot issue between the two has been patient records. A skirmish came when the tobacco companies asked for records on each patient treated for a tobacco-related illness during the period. The hospitals balked and turned over millions of records that included the smokers as well as countless other patients. A judge then ordered the hospitals to give the tobacco firms what they wanted and fined seven of them a collected $418,000. And so it has gone, back and forth, for 10 years.

Now, the case may actually be heard in 2010. While it's far from a sure thing, experts note that the suit has already gotten further than 160 other similar cases, many of which were pitched out of court before the plaintiffs were given the opportunity to go to trial. If the hospitals prevail, you can be pretty sure that other hospitals and health organizations will follow suit, so to speak.

To learn more about this case:
- read this St. Louis Post-Dispatch piece

Hospitals in nearly half of states won't bill for never events

Anne Zieger — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:49:52 -0400

A new analysis suggests that hospitals in almost half of U.S. states will no longer bill patients for serious medical errors, up sharply from the beginning of 2008. In February, an analysis by a news organization concluded that hospital associations in 11 states had asked members to waive payment for never events. Now, the number states with such policies in place is 23, according to research by MSNBC.com.

This trend, of course, has gained a great deal of momentum as hospitals and their trade groups have braced themselves for Medicare, and commercial health plans, to roll out no-pay rule for serious errors. Medicare will cease such payments as of October 1, while various commercial plans like Cigna, Aetna and a number of Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliates have set their own policies and schedules.

The next wave may come from Medicaid agencies, which CMS has urged to enact their own non-payment policies. To date, Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania have done so, but no one knows yet how many more will follow.

To learn more about this trend:
- read this MSNBC.com article

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Study: Nursing homes unprepared for pandemics

Anne Zieger — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:33:51 -0400

If your hospital is counting on having help from nursing homes when emergencies hit, think again. A new study suggests that more than half of nursing homes won't be prepared to accept hospital overflow if an influenza pandemic occurs. For example, 52 percent of nursing homes in Michigan and Nebraska don't have a plan for any pandemic, according to an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Of those with a plan, only 10 percent have rehearsed it, researchers say. All told, out of 400 nursing homes in the study, only 23 percent had a specific plan for influenza pandemics. Researchers note that while any flu could result in a pandemic, the greatest threat comes from avian flu, which has killed at least 216 people worldwide since 2003.

To learn more about this study:
- read this Associated Press article

CMS awards $7M to top performers in P4P program

Anne Zieger — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:11:10 -0400

CMS has announced that it will award a collective $7 million this year to the 112 top performing hospitals in its ongoing pay-for-performance project with Premier. The best performer, Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane, Wash., will receive the highest quality incentive payment of $385,342 after getting top ratings in four out of five clinical areas being measured. All hospitals are reporting data on heart attacks and heart failure, coronary artery bypass grafts, pneumonia, and hip and knee replacements.

Officials with the P4P program, which is in its third year, say that there has been substantial and continual improvement among all 250 participating hospitals in 36 states. Hospitals in the CMS/Premier Hospital Quality Incentive Demonstration have raised quality of care by an average of 15.8 percent during the first three years, as evaluated by 30 measures in five clinical areas, CMS officials reported. To date, CMS has awarded $24.5 million in bonuses to top performers in the program.

To learn more about the CMS quality improvement project:
- read this Modern Healthcare article (reg. req.)

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VA issues 'report card' touting hospital quality

Anne Zieger — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:31:23 -0400

Lately, the VA has taken a pounding over its handling of mentally-ill soldiers, not to mention the conditions under which physically-injured veterans have been treated at its facilities. Now, the agency has made public an internal "hospital report card" citing data suggesting that its facilities may actually offer higher-quality care than the private sector in some cases. The report, which was requested by Congress, concluded that in both inpatient and outpatient care, the VA achieves higher scores than private hospitals for patient satisfaction, staffing levels, surgical volume and other significant quality measures. That being said, the VA is behind the private sector when it comes to screening women for breast and cervical cancer. Also, women and minorities were less satisfied with inpatient and outpatient care than white vets, and rural facilities scored lower than urban facilities.

To learn more about the report:
- read this Modern Healthcare article (reg. req.)

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