Hospitals
The power of community to create health is far greater than any physician, clinic or hospital - Mark Hyman
image by: Tom Fisk
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What the Hospitals of the Future Look Like
The days of the hospital as we know it may be numbered.
In a shift away from their traditional inpatient facilities, health-care providers are investing in outpatient clinics, same-day surgery centers, free-standing emergency rooms and microhospitals, which offer as few as eight beds for overnight stays. They are setting up programs that monitor people 24/7 in their own homes. And they are turning to digital technology to treat and keep tabs on patients remotely from a high-tech hub.
For the most part, the investments in outside treatment are driven by simple economics: Traditional hospital care is too costly and inefficient for many medical issues. Inpatient pneumonia…
Resources
Rethinking the Hospital for the Next Pandemic
The coronavirus caught hospitals flat-footed. Now, worried about a resurgence and future infectious diseases, they want to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
Are Hospitals Becoming Obsolete?
Hospitals are disappearing. While they may never completely go away, they will continue to shrink in number and importance. That is inevitable and good.
Hospitals need to create a plant-based food system
There is growing evidence that animal products like bacon and ham cured with nitrates and nitrites – which preserve the meat and give it its pink colouring – are carcinogenic, raising the risk of people developing cancers of the breast, prostate, and bowel. Yet 61 NHS trusts in England may be helping to create future cancer patients by serving chemical-cured meats to those in their care, including children, according to an investigation by the Guardian. This is in spite of expert advice to the UK government that there needs to be a 30 percent reduction in meat consumption nationally by 2030 for public health and environmental reasons;
How Hospitals Are Becoming Safer for Children
I walked out of the NICU with my laptop in hand, feeling grateful for people like her who keep our children safe and the rest of us in line.
How Hospitals Can Kill Us
Imagine an institution where the occupants are routinely left immobile, deprived of sleep and fed a diet that is tasteless and nutritionally marginal. Imagine further that they experience the indignity of losing any semblance of privacy and get stuck multiple times a day with needles. Sounds like a brutal prison, right? Yet the same description could apply to a typical U.S. hospital.
Imaging Centers: Useful or Harmful?
Imaging centers have proliferated in the past decade. You would think that the potential to develop cancer years or decades after an imaging procedure would ensure that imaging centers are as safe as possible. Think again!
Milk, Bread and...Medical Care? Healthcare goes Retail
Retail medical clinics have done what the healthcare industry has been unable or unwilling to do - give consumers what they want...fast, convenient and affordable care for minor problems.
Obamacare Cash Fuels Healthcare Merger Mania
A gusher of Obamacare money is fueling a merger frenzy in U.S. healthcare.. And more billion-dollar deals are in the works as health insurers, hospitals and drug companies bulk up in size so they can seize on government spending in Obamacare exchanges, state Medicaid programs and Medicare Advantage for the baby boomers.
Reducing Preventable Harm in Hospitals
Each year, in the United States, millions of patients are harmed while receiving care in hospitals. They get infections, experience adverse reactions to drugs, develop dangerous bed sores, or come down with pneumonia from the very ventilators meant to help them breathe.
Should Hospitals Be More Like Airplanes?
I wanted to see if medicine might learn from other professionals who need to perform their tasks in a swirling, often confusing, high-stakes environment. The aviation industry seemed like a natural place to look, so I spoke to Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the famed “Miracle on the Hudson” pilot.
Stossel: I have lung cancer. My medical care is excellent but the customer service stinks
I shouldn't be surprised that hospitals are lousy at customer service. The Detroit Medical Center once bragged that it was one of America's first hospitals to track medication with barcodes. Good! But wait -- ordinary supermarkets did that decades before.
The Overlooked Danger of Delirium in Hospitals
The condition, once known as “ICU psychosis,” disproportionately affects seniors and those who have been heavily sedated—and the delusions can last long after they’re discharged.
Watch Out, Hospitals: Medicare's Planning To Punish You If You Misbehave
It used to be that hospitals billed Medicare for the services they provided, and Medicare–I know this is crazy!–simply paid the bills. Those days are rapidly receding into history. Soon, a significant chunk of hospital revenue will be at risk, under a series of Medicare pay-for-performance programs.
When the Hospital Fires the Bullet
More and more hospital guards across the country carry weapons. For Alan Pean, seeking help for mental distress, that resulted in a gunshot to the chest.
Hospitals’ new emergency department triage systems boost profits but compromise care
The provider-in-triage model was created by health care consultants who applied the Toyota model of lean production to health care. Hospital administrators and emergency department directors embrace lean production with the hopes of reducing inefficiencies and improving patient throughput. But while a manufacturing model that favors standardization and reproducibility might be ideal for making quality SUVs, it leads to mediocre medicine.
How Much Does a C-Section Cost? At One Hospital, Anywhere From $6,241 to $60,584.
New federally mandated disclosures by California’s Sutter Health illustrate the wide disparity in healthcare rates negotiated by insurers.
The Untamed Rise Of Hospital Monopolies
Hospitals do a lot of good things. They save lives. They create good jobs. But because of growing monopolization of them, Zack Cooper, an economist at Yale School of Public Health, worries that they're becoming like a "Dracula" that "sucks some of the vibrancy out of a lot of towns across the country."
Behind Your Rising Health-Care Bills: Secret Hospital Deals That Squelch Competition
Contracts with insurers allow hospitals to hide prices from consumers, add fees and discourage use of less-expensive rivals.
Design Thinking for Doctors and Nurses
Health providers are good problem solvers, and because they work in the hospital and other health care settings are uniquely positioned to come up with fresh solutions to health care problems.
Epidemic of Violence against Health Care Workers Plagues Hospitals
Hospital administrations and the judicial system do little to prevent assaults against nurses and other caregivers by patients.
Flurry of Health-Care Deals Reflects Shift Away From Hospitals
Managed-care companies such as Humana are plunging deeper into the business of delivering health care outside hospitals.
Hospitals Fund Potential Game-Changers in Health Tech
Startups receive support from hospitals hoping to find ‘the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs’.
Hospitals keep ER fees secret. We’re uncovering them
Reporter Sarah Kliff is collecting emergency room bills as part of a year-long project focused on American health care prices.
Hospitals Step Up the War on Superbugs
To curb life-threatening infections, medical centers are setting hygiene standards for commonplace equipment.
How hospitals could kill the health insurance industry
When and if the bean counters figure out a way that hospitals can do better without the private insurers around, it's hard to see why they wouldn't simply sweep them away faster than Amazon put an end to your local book store.
In Hospitals, Pneumonia Is a Lethal Enemy
Pneumonia is the No. 1 hospital-acquired infection in America and hospitals aren’t doing enough to fight it. The best weapon: a toothbrush.
Mandatory Shots: Should Hospitals Force Health Care Workers to Get the Flu Vaccine?
A growing number of U.S. hospitals now compel health care workers to get vaccinated against the flu and other infectious diseases to protect patients from communicable diseases.
Warding Off Decline, Hospitals Invest in Outpatient Clinics
As patients increasingly seek cheaper and more convenient care, some of the largest U.S. hospital operators are investing in surgery centers, emergency rooms and urgent care clinics.
Why Hospitals Need to Stop Boarding Patients in Emergency Rooms
Studies show that mortality increases along with the duration of ER boarding and that boarding increases the amount of time in the hospital for all patients. Stroke patients, in particular, have poorer management and outcomes when ERs are crowded. Despite the harm, 90% of ERs report frequent overcrowding and most have experience with boarding.
What the Hospitals of the Future Look Like
The days of the hospital as we know it may be numbered. In a shift away from their traditional inpatient facilities, health-care providers are investing in outpatient clinics, same-day surgery centers, free-standing emergency rooms and microhospitals, which offer as few as eight beds for overnight stays. They are setting up programs that monitor people 24/7 in their own homes. And they are turning to digital technology to treat and keep tabs on patients remotely from a high-tech hub.
Becker's Hospital Review
Becker's Hospital Review features up-to-date business and legal news and analysis relating to hospitals and health systems. Content is geared toward high-level hospital leaders (CEOs, CFOs, COOs, CMOs, CIOs, etc.), and we work to provide valuable content, including hospital and health system news, best practices and legal guidance specifically for these decision-makers.
International Hospital
The online source of medical device information connecting healthcare professionals to global vendors.
Hospital Compare
Welcome to Hospital Compare. This tool provides you with information on how well the hospitals care for all their adult patients with certain conditions or procedures. This information will help you compare the quality of care hospitals provide. Talk to your doctor about this information to help you, your family and your friends make your best hospital care decisions.
Hospital Safety Score
The Hospital Safety Score is an A, B, C, D, or F letter grade reflecting how safe hospitals are for patients. For the first time ever, this score empowers you to make informed decisions about the safety of your hospital care.
Hospital Survey
The annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey assesses hospital performance based on national performance measures. These measures and practices are of specific interest to healthcare purchasers and consumers, and cover a broad spectrum of hospital services, processes, and structures.
HospitalCareers
HospitalCareers is the healthcare industry's career destination site that connects healthcare candidates and hospitals to find their perfect match.
HospitalLink.com
The HospitalLink.com web site directory makes it easy to locate more than 6,000 hospitals and 1,700 web sites by city, state, hospital name and/or zip code.
World Hospital Directory
Hospital directory, contact info, jobs and commentary.
CMS.gov
Quality health care is a high priority for the President, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS implements quality initiatives to assure quality health care for Medicare Beneficiaries through accountability and public disclosure. CMS uses quality measures in its various quality initiatives that include quality improvement, pay for reporting, and public reporting.
HCAHPS
The intent of the HCAHPS initiative is to provide a standardized survey instrument and data collection methodology for measuring patients' perspectives on hospital care. While many hospitals have collected information on patient satisfaction, prior to HCAHPS there was no national standard for collecting or publicly reporting patients' perspectives of care information that would enable valid comparisons to be made across all hospitals.
The Leapfrog Group
Founded in 2000 by large employers and other purchasers, The Leapfrog Group is a national nonprofit organization driving a movement for giant leaps forward in the quality and safety of American health care.
Cancer
How fortunate we are that there are plenty of specialized cancer care facilities worldwide and in most of our communities.
Cardiac
When it comes to an acute cardiac emergency most of us are not in a position to choose where we go. Similarily for those who have chronic heart issues, you also may not have a choice. But then again maybe you do or would like to. How fortunate we are that there are plenty of specialized heart care facilities worldwide and in most of our communities.
Diabetes
When it comes to the prolonged management of diabetes and its complications, how fortunate we are that there are plenty of specialized diabetes care facilities worldwide and in most of our communities.
Dialysis
Hemodialysis is big business. There are an estimated 4200 commercial kidney dialysis centers in the U.S., with revenue of approximately $18 billion. A small center treating about 170 ESRD patients could cost up to $5 million. More than 90% of these centers are run by large health care companies that include DaVita, Renal Care Group, DSI Renal, Renal Advantage, and Fresenius Medical Care. In addition, there are also publicly owned dialysis centers or hospitals providing dialysis care.
Drug Rehab
Drug addiction is a life long struggle. The good news . . . there are treatment centers and rehabilitation programs for every kind of addiction.
Nursing Homes
Looking for a long term care facility or residential living? Here's some of the better facilites including nursing homes.
Organ Transplantation
When it comes to the organ transplantation most of us are not in a position to choose where we go. How fortunate we are that there are plenty of specialized facilities worldwide and in most of our communities. So, where's your facility?
Stroke Centers
Specialized stroke care facilities are evolving on a worldwide basis. Currently there are only a handful of stroke systems with protocols for screening potential patients and directing them to the stroke center, bypassing other hospitals. The goal is to administer thrombolysis treatment usually within 3 hours but in some cases up to 4.5 hours, although this may change as new treatments develop.
Tattoo Removal Clinics
Our objective is to provide general information on tattoo removal and provide the public with a list of tattoo removal clinics and facilities which may remove tattoos using the latest laser technology.
Introducing Stitches!
Your Path to Meaningful Connections in the World of Health and Medicine
Connect, Collaborate, and Engage!
Coming Soon - Stitches, the innovative chat app from the creators of HWN. Join meaningful conversations on health and medical topics. Share text, images, and videos seamlessly. Connect directly within HWN's topic pages and articles.