Dan Beckham writes about why and how academic medical centers generally continue to do better financially and otherwise than community hospitals, with higher operating margins and bond ratings and upper-strata overall excellence and consumer-preference rankings.
Among their strengths, he lists:
“Depth and breadth of capability”
“Collegial commitment”
“Proximity”
“Loose coupling”
To read his piece, please hit this link.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, N.H., the main teaching hospital of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College.
Dan Beckham writes here about how academic medical centers can maintain their competitive edge in these risk-and-value-based times — through marketing their differences compared to other kinds of hospitals.
He identifies four key competitive advantages:
“Depth and breadth of capability. Academic medical centers, because of the depth and breadth of their specialty capabilities as well as their commitments to research, are well-positioned as the preferred resources for complex care.”
“Collegial commitment: Faculty physicians in academic medical centers tend to have a stronger sense of shared purpose and common values than do the physicians who comprise the medical staffs of most community hospitals.”
“Proximity. Academic medical centers concentrate lots of talent and resources in close proximity. In this, they are like cities. Cities enjoy significant efficiencies as well as economies of innovation.”
“Loose coupling. This describes elements that retain a comparatively high level of independence despite operating as part of a broader system or organization. The strength and relative autonomy of departments in academic medical centers result in their operating as loosely coupled organizations.”
This article in Academic Medicine discusses the difficulties of an Accountable Care Organization formed by Johns Hopkins Medicine, some Washington, D.C.-Baltimore area hospitals and three medical practices.
One big problem was electronic health record systems that didn’t communicate with each other.
Other problems included trying to getting and analyzing claims data, governance issues and getting the full cooperation of providers.
The authors’ conclusions included this observation:
“Network strategies among AMCS {academic medical centers}, including adding community practices in a nonemployment model, will continue to require thoughtful strategic planning and a keen understanding of local context.”
Highmark headquarters in Pittsburgh.
David L. Holmberg, the company’s chief executive, told The Wall Street Journal that Highmark had lost $318 million on its individual health-law plans in the first six months of 2015, after, as the WSJ said, “rolling out a very broad array of options that had attracted many consumers with chronic conditions who required costly care.”
The paper said the company “was still working on the details of its offerings, but it expects a ‘mix shift’ toward plans that offer more limited choices of health-care providers. Such plans typically have lower premiums than versions with broader networks. About Highmark’s offerings for next year, Mr. Holmberg said: “Is there going to be a trend toward more narrow networks? Yes.”
Many insurers are trying to manage costs by offering plans with considerably tighter controls over the services that members use. The idea is to limit consumers’ access to higher-cost health-care providers, especially hospitals and physicians outside an insurer’s network. This could particularly hit academic medical centers.
