Operational Excellence

Governance AHA seeks to strengthen services for trustees The American Hospital Association board of trustees in July approved a plan to strengthen the AHA’s role in supporting good governance in a changing health care environment. The plan is intended to broaden opportunities for…
Foresight and planning by a Florida hospital prevented a random shooting from escalating even further. Patient Cynthia Zingsheim, 92, and health care aide Carrie Rouzer, 36, were shot and killed July 17 for no apparent reason by an armed man who entered Parrish Medical Center in Titusville,…
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.
It’s the proverbial match made in heaven for Northwest Community Hospital, northwest of Chicago in Arlington Heights, Ill., and Little City Foundation in nearby Palatine. For the past 20 years, the hospital has hired residents with disabilities from Little City to fill jobs in environmental…
Hospitals and health systems throughout the country face many of the same challenges. One of the most dangerous — and almost always overlooked (if an organization is even aware of it) — is the persistent use of inconsistent terminology. When there are a lack of rules guiding…
In her book Notes on Nursing, originally published in 1859, Florence Nightingale stressed the importance of a number of environmental factors that are now understood to be critical to patient care, such as cleanliness, noise control, natural light and views of nature. Nurses have long…
AHA Resources Understanding board’s role in hospital–physician relations The American Hospital Association's Center for Healthcare Governance invites hospital executives, board members, clinical leaders and others to view a three-part webinar to help health systems continually…
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.
Trustee Talking Points Trustee Talking Points Health systems now require enterprise data warehouses to create a foundation for future analytics. The shift from fee-for-service to value-based reimbursement is driving the need for sophisticated analytics systems that can…