Articles
Behavioral Health Care Delivery, Delivery System Transformation
Integrating Behavioral and Physical Health through Primary Care
By Lola Butcher
Hospitals and health systems are finding a range of ways to integrate behavioral and physical care in a primary care clinic, thereby improving patient outcomes and lowering costs.
Population/Community Health, Performance improvement
Serving Older Emergency Patients with Extra TLC
By Lola Butcher
Hospitals large and small recognize the value of special protocols and services for older patients who seek emergency care.
Population/Community Health, Delivery System Transformation
Building an Age-friendly Health Care System
By Lola Butcher
A growing movement of health care providers is systematically spreading best practices in the care of older adults.
Physician Leaders, Care Delivery
Expanding the reach of palliative care
By Lola Butcher
When Alexander Gamble, M.D., was hired to develop a palliative medicine program at Phelps County Regional Medical Center in south-central Missouri, he expected it would take some time to persuade physicians to make referrals.
But on the second day of orientation, Gamble received his first palliative care consult. In 2017, the first year that a full palliative care team was in place, Gamble and his colleagues saw 6 percent of the hospital’s inpatients. And this past January, they consulted on twice as many patients as a year earlier.
Delivery System Transformation, Care Delivery, Strategic Planning, Issues & Trends
The rise of house calls
By Lola Butcher
Peter Boling, M.D., graduated from medical school almost 40 years ago, and his career has been driven by a single question.
“Is the hospital emergency room and the inpatient ward the best way to solve the problems of an immobile 80-year-old with complex multimorbid conditions who can't get around within her own house very easily, never mind getting out of the house?” he says.
Delivery System Transformation, Care Delivery, Strategic Planning
In Milwaukee, infant mortality, social determinants top concerns
By Lola Butcher
In 2016, Milwaukee’s infant-mortality rate was 9.1, meaning that slightly more than nine babies died for every 1,000 live births. By contrast, the national infant-mortality rate was 5.8 in 2014, the most recent year for which information is available, according to the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics.
Disparities in birth outcomes present Milwaukee with a major challenge. In 2016, Milwaukee saw 14 deaths per 1,000 live births for some minority groups, as opposed to 7.2 deaths for non-Hispanic whites.
Delivery System Transformation, Care Delivery, Strategic Planning
Milwaukee health systems partner for community health
By Lola Butcher
A decade ago, leaders of four health systems serving Milwaukee residents recognized that they needed to do something different. Their organizations increasingly were burdened by high rates of uninsured and underinsured patients. Primary care services were underused, and emergency departments were overused for nonurgent care, which drove up costs.
Together, these system leaders formed the Milwaukee Health Care Partnership in 2007 to work collaboratively on three key issues: coverage, access and care coordination.
Today, the partnership’s members include:
Physician Workforce, Workforce Supply and Demand, Workforce
Growing list of responsibilities helps fuel hospitalist burnout
By Lola Butcher
Hospitalists are at high risk for burnout due to an ever-expanding list of responsibilities. Learn more about the alarming data points and the actions needed to mitigate burnout.
Physician Workforce, Workforce
Understanding physician burnout
By Lola Butcher
More than five years after her patient died, a physician is still haunted by her role in his final days.
Earlier this year, in an anonymous TED podcast, the physician told her story. Her patient — whom she called Mr. W — was screaming that he wanted to leave the hospital. Instead of using her usual empathy, compassion and well-honed communication skills to convince him to stay, the physician signed a “discharge against medical advice” order.
Leadership, Strategic Planning
Henry Ford Health System board essential for diversity
By Lola Butcher
Henry Ford Health System, a five-hospital system in the Detroit area, routinely earns one of the top spots on DiversityInc.’s Top 12 Hospitals and Health Systems, an annual ranking of health care organizations that are committed to diversity. To make the cut, the 30,000-employee system is continually working to improve its talent pipeline, talent development practices, supplier diversity and other things essential to an inclusive culture.