Articles
Nurses, Care Delivery, Physician Workforce, Rural issues, Strategic Planning, Workforce
Nurses as hospitalists
By Lola Butcher
Trustee talking points
- A growing number of small and rural hospitals, unable to recruit or afford physician hospitalists, are staffing their hospital medicine programs with nurse practitioners.
- Hospitals that use this approach must comply with state and federal regulations regarding scope of practice, billing and other factors.
- In many states, NPs can manage patients independently with access to a collaborating physician who does not have to be on-site.
- Hospital medicine is frequently not part of NP training programs, so h
Physician Leaders, Nurses, Care Delivery, Physician Workforce, Workforce Supply and Demand, Workforce
Case study: Wisconsin hospital embraces NPs as hospitalists
By Lola Butcher
When the independent primary care group that served Rusk County Memorial Hospital started referring patients to a competing facility in another community, the critical access hospital in Ladysmith, Wis., faced a crisis. The hospital’s market share fell from 43 percent to 21 percent from 2011 to 2013, and patient satisfaction scores plummeted.
Rusk’s turnaround strategy included a novel solution: a hospitalist program staffed by nurse practitioners.
Care Delivery, Quality & Patient Safety
OhioHealth boosts hospice care
By Lola Butcher
Hospice care has been shown to improve patients’ quality of life while reducing costs near death, but hospice services are chronically underused.
OhioHealth, however, has used a quality improvement approach to address that conundrum — and with good success. Within less than a year, the average length of stay in hospice care for cancer patients nearly doubled for the health system in the central part of the state.
Care [Almost] Anywhere
By Lola Butcher
Trustee Talking Points
• Health systems are experimenting with new types of access that make care more convenient and less costly for consumers.
• Access points pioneered by entrepreneurs — including quick-care clinics, online and video visits, and home visits — are being embraced by traditional health systems.
• Low-cost venues that make it easy for patients to find care also support population health initiatives and the move to value-based payments.
Delivery System Transformation, Care Delivery, Strategic Planning
Housing programs lay foundation for health
By Lola Butcher
Trustee talking points
- Homelessness is a growing problem in many communities, and many health systems are stepping up to be part of the solution.
- In the era of population health management, housing initiatives can have a positive return on investment if they help reduce avoidable emergency department and inpatient utilization.
- Although a few health systems have been involved with housing for years, this is new terrain for most.
Financial Oversight, Governance Effectiveness, Operational Excellence, Care Delivery, Strategic Planning
Independence through collaboration
By Lola Butcher
Trustee talking points
- Collaboratives or alliances of neighboring health systems are an alternative to formal consolidation.
- They provide a way for systems to gain efficiencies of scale without losing independence through a merger.
Separate but Stronger
By Lola Butcher
Trustee Talking Points
· Collaboratives or alliances of neighboring health systems are an alternative to formal consolidation.
· They provide a way for systems to gain efficiencies of larger scale without losing independence through a merger. They also allow systems to share resources and knowledge needed for population health management.
Operational Excellence, Care Delivery, Strategic Planning
Painting a portrait of your patients
By Lola Butcher
Trustee Talking Points
Trustee Talking Points
- This is the second in a three-part series on the rise of health insurance exchanges and what they mean for hospitals and health systems.
Delivery System Transformation, Financial Oversight, Governance Effectiveness, Legislation and Legislative Advocacy, Strategic Planning, Issues & Trends
As more Americans shop for health care coverage on private insurance exchanges, hospitals face challenges and opportunities
By Lola Butcher
Trustee Talking Points
Trustee Talking Points
- This is the first of a three-part series on the rise of health insurance exchanges and what they mean for hospitals and health systems.
Delivery System Transformation, Governance Effectiveness, Nurses, Care Delivery, Physician Workforce, Quality & Patient Safety, Strategic Planning, Issues & Trends, Workforce
Hospitals are Successfully Stepping Up the Fight Against Sepsis
By Lola Butcher
Trustee Talking Points
Trustee Talking Points
- Sepsis is a leading cause of death and the most expensive condition treated in hospitals.
- Nearly half of patients who die in the hospital have sepsis.
- Many hospitals have given sepsis control less attention than other types of patient harm.
- Health systems that make sepsis diagnosis and treatment a priority often are able to reduce sepsis mortality dramatically.