Articles
Get Involved, Financial Oversight, Governance Effectiveness, Leadership
Financial Challenges Claim Top Spot on CEOs List of Concerns
Community hospital chief executive officers ranked financial challenges first on a list of their top 10 concerns in 2014, according to an annual survey by the American College of Healthcare Executives. Financial challenges also claimed first place in 2013 and 2012. Concerns about health reform implementation and governmental mandates ranked next in a tie for second.
Financial Oversight, Strategic Planning, Issues & Trends
Medicare Spending Trajectory Shaped by Older Beneficiaries
As the U.S. population ages and lives longer, the trajectory of Medicare per capita spending is shifting, according to a study in Health Affairs. The age at which Medicare per capita spending peaked rose from 92 in 2000 to 96 in 2011. The average spending for beneficiaries age 96 in 2011 was $16,145.
Delivery System Transformation, Financial Oversight, Strategic Planning
As Uninsured Rate Drops, So Do Cost Barriers to Care
More Americans were able to get needed care and pay their medical bills in 2014, according to a survey from the Commonwealth Fund. The number of people who reported not having received health care because of its cost dropped from 80 million in 2012 to 66 million in 2014. Additionally, the number of respondents’ saying they had trouble paying their medical bills or were paying off medical debt fell from 75 million in 2012 to 64 million in 2014.
Delivery System Transformation, Strategic Planning, Issues & Trends
Nation Unprepared for Disease Outbreak
The Ebola outbreak exposed major gaps in the nation’s ability to manage serious infectious disease threats, according to a report from Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Half of states and Washington, D.C., scored five or lower out of 10 key indicators related to preventing, detecting, diagnosing and responding to outbreaks. Indicators include public health funding commitment; incident and information management; vaccination rates; public health laboratory capabilities; and food safety. Significant gaps were found in five areas:
Physician Workforce, Workforce
Newly Trained Physicians Flooded with Job Solicitations
Newly minted physicians are in great demand, according to a survey by Merritt Hawkins.
Delivery System Transformation, Quality & Patient Safety, Strategic Planning, Issues & Trends
Hospital Use of Quality Improvement Methodologies
This is 14 percent more than all hospitals with an organized quality improvement program that responded to the November 2014 American Hospital Association Survey of Care Systems and Payment. Hospitals use these programs to teach clinical leaders continuous quality improvement methods and team training, which support accountable care organization goals of better care at lower cost. Although 68 percent of ACO participants use more than one methodology, 80 percent of them have adopted Lean, which uses root cause analysis to minimize unnecessary steps.
Governance Effectiveness, Strategic Planning, Issues & Trends
AHA President to Retire in 2015
American Hospital Association president and CEO Rich Umbdenstock announced that he will retire at the end of this year. The AHA board of trustees has formed a search committee and engaged Korn Ferry to conduct the search for his successor. AHA Chair-elect Jim Skogsbergh, president and CEO of Advocate Health Care in Illinois, will lead the search committee. Umbdenstock has led the AHA since Jan. 1, 2007. www.aha.org
Financial Oversight, Rural issues
Hospital Financial Indicators
For urban, teaching and system-affiliated hospitals, the median is 49 days, and for rural hospitals, the median is 52 days, according to data from the 2013 AHA Annual Survey of Hospitals and the Healthcare Cost Report Information System maintained by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Days in net patient accounts receivable measures how long it takes for a hospital to collect payments and provides a window into the efficiency of the organization’s revenue cycle.
Strategic Planning, Issues & Trends
Obesity, Physical Inactivity Rates Climb in Health Rankings
Americans’ rates of obesity and physical inactivity rose in 2014, according to “America’s Health Rankings,” which is published by United Health Foundation. The obesity rate climbed from 27.6 to 29.4 percent of adults, and the percentage of adults who reported not participating in any physical activity in the last 30 days rose from 22.9 to 23.5 percent. During the same period, however, the number of Americans who smoke declined by 3 percent.
Care Delivery, Patient and Family Education/Engagement, Leveraging Technology
Patients Value Online Access to Electronic Health Records
A growing number of consumers are embracing electronic health records, and the significant boost in online access to health information may be increasing patient engagement in their care, according to findings from a study by the National Partnership for Women & Families. It also reveals how patients use health information technology and which functions are valuable to them.
Key findings include: