Hospital Administration

Patient engagement / shutterstock

I have long suspected that there may be motives behind all this talk about patient engagement that go beyond the simple argument that it’s “the right thing for patients to do.” Motives which I believe constitute a fundamental “unspoken truth” about why we are so passionate about patient engagement.[read more]

Patient experience / shutterstock

There’s a huge gap “between hospital management and frontline clinicians with respect to improving patient satisfaction,” according to a study out of Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). It seems as if “patient satisfaction” is everyone’s destination, but few hospitals have a map to get from here to there.[read more]

Unplanned readmissions to the hospital have been the focus of much attention in recent years for obvious reasons: First, they are relatively easy to measure using administrative claims data. Second, like all inpatient hospitalizations, they cost a lot of money–and are therefore a target for reducing spending. Third, they are a proxy for quality of care, as at least some portion of them are likely avoidable if the hospital does its job well.[read more]

healthcare best practices / shutterstock

I met a colleague this week that arrived at her current healthcare role via a pathway that brought her to Silicon Valley. She has been struck by the tendency for healthcare workers to look to their "superiors” for permission prior to trying something new.[read more]

Don't let patients drive you crazy!

The nearly daily reality is that every hospital and healthcare provider has “difficult” patients. “[We] don’t always like the patients that we take care of. It sounds harsh, but let’s be honest,” Lanette Anderson writes in a NurseTogether.com post.[read more]

Fun content for hospitals

It's hard to figure out what patients want to hear. Effective healthcare marketing should start with great content. Whether you need a starting concept, or you are just plumb out of ideas, this article will help you develop content that will educate, engage and impact your patients.[read more]

While team care, care coordination and EMRs may increase practice efficiency, there is nothing inherently patient-centered about these “things.” That’s because patient-centered care is a philosophy of care delivery…not simply a punch list of HIT and staffing requirements.[read more]

Noise reduction in hospitals / shutterstock

Patient experience can make a significant difference to patient care and comfort. A case in point is hospitals’ recent emphasis on reducing noise, as described in a recent Wall Street Journal article. Noise is the biggest issue on patient experience surveys, so it’s been an obvious place for hospitals to focus.[read more]

Hospitals and providers across the country are gearing up for implementation of the tenth revision of the International Classification of Diseases, or ICD-10 codes. With a tight time frame, and staggering start up costs, the initiative can be a challenge that is both critical and expensive for healthcare delivery systems[read more]

Doctors sticking together / shutterstock

The June 2nd New York Times article titled “The 2.7 Trillion Medical Bill” and the response to it provide fascinating and powerful insights into the whole health care debate.[read more]

Every doctor's long & arduous education

No sooner than a newly minted MD hangs out a shingle, is he or she hit squarely in the face with the reality that “Healing is an art, medicine is a profession, but healthcare is a business.” To the degree that might have been true years ago, now it’s an inescapable challenge.[read more]

Humanizing a hospital's brand

Many hospital marketing departments know there’s a need for pushing good content out via their website and syndicating that content to their social networks. It humanizes the hospital’s brand and can have a positive effect on website search engine optimization (SEO).[read more]