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Quote of the month
"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever."
- Napolean Bonaparte
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NEWS ITEM
Consumers want innovation, convenience: survey
A newly released consumer-satisfaction survey conducted by Deloitte Consulting reveals U.S. consumers want a more convenient, accessible and innovative healthcare system.
The survey found 60% of consumers want their doctors to provide online access to medical records, test results and appointment scheduling. Thirty-four percent said they would visit a retail clinic for care and nearly 40% said they would consider going overseas for a surgical procedure if they could save 50% or more on costs and be assured the quality of care was equal to or better than what they would receive stateside.
Healthcare affordability and access to coverage was another major concern among consumers, according to the survey. Ninety-three percent of those surveyed said they aren't well-prepared for future healthcare costs, while 84% said they prefer generic to name-brand drugs. Twenty-nine percent said they would support a tax increase to help cover the uninsured.
In terms of innovation, one in three consumers said they want more holistic and alternative therapies included in their treatment programs, while 75% said they want expanded use of in-home monitoring devices and online tools that would reduce the need for doctor visits.
The 2008 Survey of Health Care Consumers polled a nationally representative sample of more than 3,000 Americans 18 and older Sept. 10-23, 2007, using a Web-based questionnaire
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Breaking News
Hospital spending will double to more than $1.3 trillion by 2017, making up roughly 30% of all healthcare spending and representing the largest portion, by far, of any provider group, according to the CMS.
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MARCH SURVEY
Check on the web site, bottom right column, for details on the Boomers and Nursing Homes survey. | |
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Welcome Spring!
You need to have a great deal of faith to believe that spring will appear in Minnesota. The photo above was taken on spring's first day, a day when we received 10+ inches of snow. Of course we still believe that it is coming - soon. This quiet patience is also necessary with quality improvement efforts. Waiting for good things to happen can't be your total strategy however, it takes an internal champion, teamwork and heavy doses of hard work. It takes faith in your people and in the improvement process.
In a way, more so than the coming of the New Year, spring is a time for action for renewal for rebirth. With that in mind, I found several quotes that address action and the need for it.
W. Clement Stone:
So many fail because they don't get started - they don't go. They don't overcome inertia. They don't begin.
Ralph Waldo Emerson:
Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment.
Of course, for rebirth to occur fields need to be plowed and seeds planted. However, keep in mind that if you forgot to plow or plant, something will still grow. That something oftentimes ends up being weeds. It is the same in your organization. Holding back, not making needed changes does not mean that change won't happen, it just means that the changes you wanted won't happen. You'll still get the weeds.
After all "The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it". Norman Schwarzkopf.
One area to consider for "spring cleaning" or better yet, renewal is a review of the key processes that affect your patients. What are the processes at which you must excel to meet and exceed patient, family and physician expectations? When was the last time anyone diagramed those processes looking for bottlenecks, time wasters and inefficiencies? Remember, it's important to look at all three shifts and seven days a week. I often find that the process the manager thought existed only happens Monday through Friday on the day shift. Significantly different things occur on Saturday's night shift. And, as you'll see below, avoid having a heart attack in a hospital on the night shift.
Enjoy spring and its many gifts.
Ken Bast
KenBast@MgtConsultinginHealthcare.com |
Late-night heart issues
Study looks at hospital response to 'code blue' calls
By CARLA K. JOHNSON
Associated Press
Posted: Feb. 24, 2008
Chicago - Many hospitals call it "code blue," a signal given over the intercom when a patient's heart has stopped. When code blue works well, a team speeds to the bedside and revives the patient.
The graveyard shift is the worst time to call code blue, a new study finds. Patients who go into cardiac arrest while in the hospital are more likely to die if it happens after 11 p.m., when staffing may be lower or patients watched less closely.
"Our findings should be a pretty big wakeup call to urge hospitals to critically evaluate how they are performing resuscitation," said the study's lead author, Mary Ann Peberdy of the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System in Richmond. "It may well be possible that there is a less effective and less efficient response at night."
The study, appearing in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, didn't examine why days and overnights differed.
But researchers found among the late-night cases a higher portion of instances where patients were discovered with no heart electrical activity - that is, too late to deliver a lifesaving shock.
Staff who are fatigued, less experienced or too few in number could be to blame, researchers speculated. Weekends had lower survival rates than weekdays, but the difference wasn't as pronounced as that between late night and daytime hours.
Only in the emergency room was there no night-or-day difference in survival.
The study was based on an analysis of more than 86,000 cardiac arrests in more than 500 hospitals over seven years.
After taking into account other factors associated with survival, the researchers still found the chances of surviving until discharge 18% lower if the cardiac arrest was during the period from 11 p.m. to 6:59 a.m.
Past studies have found that, overall, 80% to 85% of patients who suffer a cardiac arrest in the hospital die in the hospital
A study last month found that being in the hospital was no guarantee of getting prompt treatment for cardiac arrest. In that study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers found that one-third of patients don't get a potentially live-saving shock within the recommended two minutes.
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WMC calls for focus on chronic disease
Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state's largest business lobbying group, said Thursday it has joined a national effort to highlight chronic disease - and its cost - as a key health-care issue in this year's presidential election.
WMC is part of the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, a national coalition whose leaders include former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona.
In a statement, WMC said chronic disease accounts for 75% of health-care costs, and that half of costs are related to lifestyle choices such as smoking, unhealthy diet and lack of exercise.
Health insurance in the United States is largely provided through business and other employers, with the employer typically paying most of the cost. |
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The $34 trillion problem
Medicare is poised to wreak havoc on the economy. And our presidential candidates are avoiding the issue.
By Geoff Colvin, senior editor at large
(Fortune Magazine) -- Twice I have asked Alan Greenspan what he considers the greatest threat to the U.S. economy, and both times he has answered immediately with a single word: Medicare. He isn't so worried about the trade deficit and the housing crash; he figures market forces will sort them out. But Medicare is something else - a multitrillion-dollar problem that's about to get dramatically worse, and one that nobody wants to talk about. You'd think that the greatest threat to America's economy would be Topic A for the presidential candidates. But it's actually a topic they hate to touch.
See Fortune Magazine web site:
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