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Health Data Management: “Kaiser's Long and Winding Road”
August 2009
—"Many other
organizations have come to the same conclusion," says Jantos, the consultant.
"Traditionally, many thought that it was better to use the classroom setting
where users would not be distracted by their day-to-day responsibilities,"
Jantos says. "But although there is still a role for that on a small scale,
users learn best while on the job.”
(article)
Health Data Management: “Remotely Hosted EHRs: The Pros and Cons for Clinics”
July 2009
—"Clinic
administrators must be aware that price haggling in the remotely hosted software
arena is far rarer than when licensing software for local installation," says
Jantos, the consultant. "Most subscription prices are fixed and non-negotiable,
she says. Also, because vendors often standardize implementation of remotely hosted
applications, getting custom interfaces to the information systems at local labs,
hospitals and others can sometimes prove challenging," she contends.
Jantos also urges practice administrators to make sure they understand all the costs
involved, including any upfront fees and training charges, in addition to monthly
subscription fees. Some vendors also will charge extra to integrate their remotely
hosted records system to a legacy practice management system, she points out.
(article)
HealthLeadersMedia: “Simpler Surgeries,
Complex Market”
May 2009
—"Surgery
isn't always thought of as a traditional service line.
Instead, it's often considered a functional department
or viewed from the perspective of the many surgical
subspecialties. But the multidisciplinary nature of
surgical services and the need for a consolidated
management structure make it a prime candidate for a
service line management approach," says Kevin Kennedy,
principal with ECG Management Consultants.
"Organizations need to constantly reevaluate how their
surgical services are organized in order to improve
operational efficiencies and meet strategic goals.”
“Structure
matters because shortages of providers are forcing
organizations to do more with less. Specifically,
there's a need for more anesthesiologists nationwide,
and the supply-demand dynamic is driving up compensation
levels and making competition fierce," says Kennedy.
(article)
For the full story, visit HealthLeadersMedia.com
Managed
Care Contracting & Reimbursement Advisor: “Use
Lessons Learned from Capitation to Improve Managed Care
Performance”
May 2009
—"Risk contracting also forces providers
to develop a healthy business discipline, which hasn’t
occurred across all healthcare organizations,"
says James W. Lord, principal at ECG Management Consultants
in St. Louis, who supervised the 2008 Capitation Survey.
“When groups understand their costs and negotiate
rates for which they know they can deliver the right
kind of care, that knowledge translates all the way
through fee-for-service medicine to models that could
emerge in the future,” Lord says.
“Groups that have figured out capitation and made
investments in their infrastructure are potentially
at a strategic advantage,” explains Joshua Halverson,
senior manager at ECG in St. Louis. “They can
go to their payers and demonstrate that they can deliver
high-quality care for less.” (article)
HealthLeadersMedia:
"Redefining Cardio"
April 2009
— In fact, top performing hospitals are more likely
to have a physician at the top of the organizational
chart than average ones, according to a study by ECG
Management Consultants, Inc. and Thomson Reuters. The
study compared hospitals that had landed in the top
quintile of Thomson's annual list of the 100 best heart
hospitals with a control group of average-performing
organizations. Roughly one-third of the top hospitals
had either physician-directed management or a dyad system—a
partnership between a physician and a business administrator—compared
to only 8% of the control group. (article)
For the full story, visit HealthLeadersMedia.com
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