This weekly column presents recommendations for streamlining processes in order to improve productivity in a hospital setting. It focuses specifically on employing lean processes in the deliverance of quality healthcare services:
“One way to improve hospital productivity and labor practices in hospitals is to assess your facility’s nursing unit report process. Three factors than can impact the report productivity process include:
- Streamlined approach;
- Continuity of patient care;
- Effective nurse to nurse communication.”
Posted in Mass Media Articles, READ Portal | Tagged with Economics, Efficiency, Hospital administration, Nurses, Nursing | No Comments
February 8, 2011
ABSTRACT: Patient satisfaction is receiving greater attention as a result of the rise in pay- for-performance (P4P) and the public release of data from the Hospital Consumer Assesment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. This paper examines the relationship between nursing and patient satisfaction across 430 hospitals. The nurse work environment was significantly related to all HCAHPS patient satisfaction measures. Additionally, patient-to-nurse workloads were significantly associated with patients’ ratings and recommendation of the hospital to others, and with their satisfaction with the receipt of discharge information. Improving nurses’ work environments, including nurse staffing, may improve the patient experience and quality of care.
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Evidence-based, Health human resources, Hospital administration, Indicators, Nurses, Nursing, Patient satisfaction, Patient-centered care | No Comments
February 3, 2011
This 2010 white paper from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement presents a synopsis of the results of the eight year Pursuing Perfection Initiative. The goal of the initiative was to determine how healthcare organizations could improve their operations in order to have more efficacious and efficient healthcare systems.
In order to achieve this, the 13 organisations from US and Europe “designed, tested, and implemented changes in strategy, structure, and key processes, supported by IHI faculty and with frequent contact with each other in a collaborative learning model.” The study ended with all participants demonstrating significant improvements in one or more areas of operations, while also learning about the critical factors of optimal healthcare performance.
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Benchmarking, Efficiency, Evidence-based, Health care reform, Health technology, Hospital administration, Indicators, Patient-centered care, Program evaluation, Quality assessment | No Comments
January 25, 2011
Despite deep and vocal disagreements over health care reform, virtually everyone believes that the current system is not economically sustainable. We are spending too much and getting too little in return. This recognition has spurred health care leaders to examine every aspect of hospital operations. But what about the health care building itself, the physical environment within which patient care occurs? Too often, cost-cutting discussions have overlooked the hospital structure. Changes in the physical facility provide real opportunities for improving patient and worker safety and quality while reducing operating costs.
Posted in READ Portal, Reports & Papers | Tagged with Economics, Efficiency, Hospital administration, Safety | No Comments
January 15, 2011
Large gains in hospital efficiency can be made through streamlining patient flow and redesigning care processes. Once managed efficiently, US hospitals, on average, could achieve at least an 80–90 percent bed occupancy rate without adding beds at capital costs of approximately $1 million per bed. This article outlines a plan for hospitals to accommodate more patients without increasing beds or staff, and for policy makers to require hospitals to make these changes or provide incentives for them to do so.
Posted in Journal Articles, READ Portal | Tagged with Economics, Efficiency, Health care reform, Hospital administration | No Comments
January 13, 2011
Brian Hazen, MD, medical director of the Inova Fairfax Hospitalist Group in Falls Church, Va., was given permission early last year to grow his group from 19 hospitalists to 25. But being able to add staff—as much of a victory as that is in the face of the most severe and prolonged economic downturn since the Great Depression—is just the first step in negotiations.
What schedule will the hospitalists work? How will health benefits be structured? How will quality goals (and their ensuing achievements or failures) be measured? And, of course, the sticking point in employer-employee standoffs in every field: What will they be paid?
Posted in Journal Articles, READ Portal | Tagged with Economics, Efficiency, Health human resources, Hospital administration | No Comments
January 10, 2011
The authors of this paper conducted a detailed study of hospital performance over a four year period. Using difference-in-differences regression analysis they assessed improvement in hospital operations in myocardial infarction, heart failure, and pneumonia care. Results indicated that use of electronic health records can have a positive, negative, or null effect on hospital operations. Researchers suggest that hospitals need to employ a set of criterion for electronic health record measurement, functionality, and use.
Posted in Journal Articles, READ Portal | Tagged with e-health, Efficiency, Health technology, Hospital administration, Information technology, Program evaluation, Quality assessment, Safety | 1 Comment