Truven’s top 100 hospitals focus on standardization to improve patient outcomes and cut costs.
Truven reported that top performers have shorter average lengths of hospitals stays, fewer complications, lower mortality and readmission rates and higher average operating margins than their peers.
”Ambulatory care employment, including physician offices, added 21,700 jobs in January, an increase of 0.3%.”
”Physician-office hiring boomed in January, adding 13,400 jobs during the month, compared with 3,300 jobs in December, bringing the number of employees in that setting to 2.5 million. For the year that ended in January, physician offices increased their payrolls by 71,800 workers, or an increase of 2.9%. ”
”Nursing home and residential care added 7,000 jobs last month, an increase of 0.2%, to bring total employment in the sector to 3.3 million. In the year that ended in January, nursing homes and residential care added 44,300 jobs, an increase of 1.4%.”
Some nursing homes are suing to obtain guardianships over residents in order to seize assets of those who owe them money. Will hospitals and other healthcare organizations take similar actions, especially as the the flood of aging people swells?
The New York Times reports that ”few people are aware that a nursing home can take such a step {of filing for guardianship}.”
But, says The Times, ”the practice has become routine, {at least in New York State} underscoring the growing power nursing homes wield over residents and families amid changes in the financing of long-term care.”
”At least one judge has ruled that the tactic by nursing homes is an abuse of the law, but the petitions, even if they are ultimately unsuccessful, force families into costly legal ordeals.”
