Category Archives: Human Resources
AHRQ Study Reveals Low Hanging Fruit
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) recently published a new report that identifies the most promising practices for improving patient safety in U.S. hospitals. Following up on a similar report published all the way back in 2001, this report includes analyses of a growing body of patient safety research to determine the level of evidence regarding the outcomes, as well as implementation, adoption, and the context in which safety strategies have been used. After analyzing 41 patient safety practices, a panel of experts identified 22 practical strategies. Here are the top 5: Preoperative and anesthesia checklists to help [...]
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SEIU Labor Agreements Called Out as “Unsustainable”
Yesterday, five Connecticut healthcare centers filed voluntary petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code in order to implement a plan to create a more competitive and durable cost structure. And for a change, the focus isn’t on the supply-side of the equation. This time, the focus is plainly on labor costs. Specifically, these providers are seeking relief from what they have termed as “unsustainable” union pension and medical benefits costs and other restrictive elements of their SEIU labor agreements. HealthBridge Management LLC –a much larger enterprise– manages these particular facilities, but the Chapter 11 filing pertains only [...]
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The South Becoming Known as “The Stroke Belt”
If you regularly read the newspapers, you can’t escape the ridiculous amount of print given to stories that link something common in our diet to chronic disease or even worse, something catastrophic –like a heart attack or a stroke. Obviously, way too much money is being spent funding studies that verify things we already know. I mean, who doesn’t know that a steady diet of ice cream may lead to weight gain or that eating fruit and vegetables is probably a good idea? The point is: Enough is enough. We get it already. It was in that cynical spirit, however, [...]
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HIPPA Covered Entities Get New Directive: “Omnibus” Final Rule Released by HHS
Late yesterday, Health and Human Services (HHS) released the long anticipated “final rule” for HIPPA covered entities. Aptly called the “omnibus” privacy and security rule, it is comprehensive. A quick review: The Privacy Rule provides federal protections for personal health information and gives patients an array of rights with respect to that information. At the same time, it is balanced in that it permits the disclosure of personal health information when needed for patient care and other important purposes. The Security Rule specifies a series of administrative, physical, and technical safeguards for covered entities to use to assure the confidentiality, integrity, and [...]
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Friday Rant: Making “Meaningful Use” of Communication Technologies Too
It’s common knowledge that doctors are leaving private practice in droves. Sixty-one percent of independent physicians are now seeking employment, and the majority of those doctors say that the government requirement for them to adopt and show meaningful use of an electronic health record (EHR) is one of the big reasons, a new Accenture report finds. That’s remarkable to me. I know a dozen doctors who are currently negotiating the sale of their private practices and all of them are doing it for the same reason –more money and security. None of them mentioned EHRs. Said Kaveh Safavi, MD, managing [...]
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CEOs Jump on the Social Media Bandwagon
For you supply chain professionals out there who suffer from “collaborative fatigue,” I’ve got some bad news for you. Not only has your CEO discovered that newly defining word, but he/she has fallen for an entirely new context in which to promote it. Yes, technology continues to transform healthcare in many ways, but CEOs surveyed by IBM seemed to have fallen hard for applications that will enable doctors, nurses, payers and patients to be more communicative –and collaborative. IBM recently surveyed about 1,700 CEOs and about 60 of them lead hospitals, insurers and other types of medical practice groups. The [...]
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HPG Recognizes CDW Healthcare For IT Services Excellence
CDW Healthcare, a leading provider of technology solutions for healthcare, today announced that it has again been named a winner of a HealthTrust Vendor Excellence Award. HealthTrust Purchasing Group, L.P. (HPG), supports nearly 1,400 not-for-profit and for-profit acute care facilities, as well as 10,600 ambulatory surgery centers, physician practices and alternate care sites, presents the awards each year. By the way, HealthTrust members select the Excellence Award winners and this is two years in a row for CDW. Working with more than 15,000 healthcare organizations nationwide, CDW Healthcare has customers ranging from small, rural providers to large, integrated delivery networks. [...]
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BravoSolution Hosts UK Reality Sourcing Series
The UK’s top procurement practitioners are gathered in London this week and are attending a meeting hosted by BravoSolution, the spend analysis and strategic sourcing company. The meeting is all about “Real World Sourcing,” with a welcomed focus that effectively puts technology on the back burner for a change and suggests a renewed emphasis on the need to improve our basic communications. What a concept! Purchasing and supply chain expert Guy Allen, and Peter Smith, Managing Director of Spend Matters UK/Europe, led the discussions. Here are the top “back to basics” takeaways from the meeting: Sourcing success starts with honest [...]
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What’s More Important: Your Privacy or Your Life?
The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has collected a cool $7.5 million in administrative fines –levied against hospitals– since the founding of its “safety program” back in 2007. According to CDPH records, that’s 235 penalties assessed against 135 California hospitals over the last several years. In fact, just last week, six Bay Area hospitals were stung again, including the Kaiser Permanente hospitals in San Francisco and South San Francisco, St. Francis Memorial Hospital and St. Mary’s Medical Center, both in San Francisco, Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto and Menlo Park Surgical Hospital. Kaiser San Francisco was slapped with a [...]
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Examining Services Procurement SOW Adoption: Driving Adoption and Implementation
This post references material from the SpendMatters Compass series report: Overcoming Challenges of Project- and SOW-based Solution Adoption. This paper is available in the Spend Matters Research Library and is free to qualified practitioners. One of the most vexing challenges of SOW enablement is building consensus and motivation for adoption outside of procurement and HR programs. This is due to the fragmentation of “spend ownership” with the business. As one organization we interviewed suggested, while the SOW contracts may be centralized, “the spend owners are distributed across the BUs, thus making it very difficult for procurement to achieve buy-in.” The [...]
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Physician Shortfall is a Process Problem –Not Just a Med School Issue
We all know the definition of insanity. Einstein had his own twist on the same thought, stating that a problem will never be solved with the same mindset that created it. Kay Plantes, a MIT-trained economist has suggested that Einstein’s thinking is “sorely needed” to address the coming shortfall of physicians. In fact, it’s a supply chain problem and the supply chain for producing US-trained physicians is broken. It’s expensive and restrictive. Health care reform is not only making prevention and early treatment the focus, but it is making such care available to more people, adding up to 300,000 more [...]
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Time for a Raise? Salaries Rising for Healthcare SCM Professionals
Supply chain salaries in healthcare averaged $83,391 in 2012, an increase of 6% over 2011 levels, according to the latest Healthcare Purchasing News’ annual salary survey. Not bad. If you’re interested in doing some real investigative work (i.e. you’re on tap for a salary review), both HPN’s survey and the AHRMM survey are not to be missed –truly outstanding resources. For example, the HPN salary survey results are broken out by geographic region, urban/suburban/rural status, non-profit/for-profit/government, gender, education, type of facility, hospital bed size, years of experience, and by these job title groupings: Corporate/executive/senior VP, materials/supply chain management/support services Director [...]
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Shareholders Force Class Action Against Accretive Health
Well, it was bound to happen. When your YTD stock price is off by a mere 54% based on what are alleged to be “concealed, deplorable business practices,” being a public company BOD member can be a dangerous line of work. Just ask business titan Edgar Bronfman (CEO of Warner Music Group), former Secretary of State George Shultz and nine other Accretive Health director defendants. Of course, that’s why there’s such a thing as Directors & Officers insurance –and that’s why Accretive Health’s board members, officers and investors are probably spending more time on the phone with their insurance agents [...]
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Sourcing Rx Benefits: PBM Coalitions Offer Low Risk Prescription
The transformation of the purchasing function from a passive, administrative process to a proactive, strategic and boundary-spanning function has been ongoing for the better part of decade. Companies continue to hone their supply chain management capabilities and engage experts able to deliver turnkey sourcing “values” that they can’t readily reproduce. The newest tools not only definitively answer questions around what should be in-sourced versus outsourced (i.e. “make versus buy”), but they challenge executive leadership to revisit their ideas around what is operationally core. That’s why even the most sophisticated SCM departments continue to shuffle their mix of staff, tools, consultants [...]
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ADP Survey: Healthcare HR and Benefits Decision Makers Uncertain
ADP-sponsored surveys are always worth a look. Key findings from ADP’s latest HR and benefits study, can be found here: ROSELAND, N.J., June 15, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — A newly released ADP Research Institute(SM) survey reveals that a majority of Human Resource and benefits decision makers at U.S. companies of all sizes believe the U.S. health care landscape is going through profound change. In addition, a significant number of these decision makers expressed a lack of confidence that their organizations clearly understand their new responsibilities under the requirements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The study also found that preparedness for [...]
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Vendormate Advances Mobile Rep Crendentialing with New Release
Vendormate’s brand and “vendor credentialing” are becoming increasingly synonymous given the success the company has had in selling its core solutions. With 1400 hospitals clients, 50,000 vendor companies and 200,000+ representatives already credentialed in its system, the company is learning to leverage the competitive advantages born of critical mass. Early this year, we covered its launch of Contract Manager, an aptly named new system for storing a contract’s relationship-defining terms. In a market where competitiveness is becoming a function of the quality of collaboration that exists between the players in the supply chain, Contract Manager’s developers acknowledged the market’s existing [...]
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- Healthcare in the Cloud: Forecast Still Hazy : HIMSS 2013: Top Takeaways Gathering Clouds said: [...] to David McCament’s mind, the future of healthcare cloud is not so clear. In a gue... more
- Time Definite Logistics –MNX Expands Global Network and Adds Track & Trace : Daniel said: Everything is very open with a precise description of the issues. It was definitely inform... more
- Varian Runs a “Clinic” in Effective Lobbying –Harry Reid Rides Shotgun : Thomas Finn said: Thanks for your comment Bo. I do not fully comprehend the differences between the two opti... more
- Varian Runs a “Clinic” in Effective Lobbying –Harry Reid Rides Shotgun : Barton 'Bo' Cooke said: Tom, you nailed it. This rider, put in at the last minute and was rushed into the Congres... more
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