That’s good for keeping the readmission rate up!
Becker’s Hospital Review summarizes below steps for improving the physician-hospital relationships:
“1. Assess what each market needs to achieve their goals and improve their quality program.
“2. Report on progress in the quality journey.
“3. Keep everyone accountable for their responsibility in improving quality.
“4. Create buy-in from day-to-day managers to implement best practices and operational disciplines.
“5. Share new developments among other leaders in the organization.”
“Uber and/or Accountable Care Organizations?”
Becker’s Hospital Review reports that that was the question on the first side of the presentation of Brad Helfand, Sg2 ‘s associate vice president for consulting, at a recent Becker’s conference, where he talked about “Health System Strategy in the Age of a Retail Consumer.”
He said that three core concepts for consumerism today include:
1. Shopping online.
2. Price comparison.
3. Freedom of choice.
“We think that now is the time to think about your channel strategy. We are starting to see channels that never existed in healthcare in the past, including mobile applications, virtual health, direct-to-employer contracting and onsite clinics for employers.”
“Within the new consumer-driven healthcare market, the concept of leakage is very real. Patients who were previously loyalists could go into a channel directing them to another organization….”
And he noted: “There aren’t many organizations creating service area strategies for the ambulatory footprint, but that’s where consumers are headed.”
He says: “We view person-centered care as our sacred promise to support individuals’ lifelong health and well-being through holistic care. It’s something that goes back to our roots. We have a 200-year legacy of caring for the whole person — body, mind and spirit. ….We believe, as care develops in the future, it’s going to become much more personalized than it has been in the past. Bottom line, the emphasis on person-centered care is our way of demonstrating the commitment that our founders have had for the last 200 years.”
He says that all this means more work at Ascension for such professions as social workers, nutritionists, coaches and partners for health.
He said: “Our destination point is to develop the capabilities to take care of millions of lives from birth to death.”
The Sedasys anesthesiology machine might replace anesthesiologists.
It’s the leading tip of a healthcare automation wave that could transform hospitals just as technology changed automobile factories. “But,” The Washington Post reports, “this machine doesn’t seek to replace only hospital shift workers. It’s targeting one of the best-paid medical specialties, making it all the more intriguing — or alarming, depending on your point of view.”
But the very high prices charged by anesthesiologists make their replacement by machines very attractive to payers.
As they they say, population health means a lot more than just medicine.
“As the needs of our communities have grown and evolved, so has our company,” Chairman and CEO William F. Carpenter III said. “We began by operating community hospitals and, today, our operations have expanded to include physician practices, post-acute services, outpatient services, and wellness and prevention programs that enhance the health and wellbeing of those we serve. Our new name is a fitting reflection of our strategic direction for the future.”
Jay Bookman writes in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution of a proudly uninsured diabetic and smoker Luis Lang, a loyal conservative. Now he’s very sick.
“It’s the free-rider problem, the political problem, the pre-existing condition problem, the role of ideology, the often enormous expense of healthcare, the human eagerness to believe that ‘it can’t happen to me,’ the difficult conflict between feeling sympathy for someone in trouble and the reality that his trouble is to a large degree self-inflicted — it’s all there, all wrapped up in the story of Luis Lang.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has closed a series of insurance loopholes on coverage of preventive care.
The most important:
Henceforth insurers must cover at least one birth-control option under each of 18 methods approved by the Food and Drug Administration, and without co-pays.
And insurers can’t charge patients for anesthesia in connection with colonoscopies.
For insurers, the new government requirements take effect in 60 days but most consumers will not notice major changes until their coverage is renewed for 2016.
The new collaborative of Mercy, University of Missouri Healthcare and St. Joseph-based Mosaic Life Care is called MPact Health.
The partners predictably said they plan to deliver high quality care at a low cost and will work together to share best practices.
The St. Louis Post Dispatch says the trio are already working on certain initiatives, including expanding telemedicine to “underserved areas of Missouri, creating a database to support population health and working with payers to offer ‘Innovative network options’ that are also low-cost for patients. ”
They also say that they’ll explore developing “a clinically integrated network of employed, independent and private practice physicians focused on improving healthcare quality and outcomes.”
