And four more news items for hospital administrators, health system leaders, practice managers, and other healthcare executives to peruse this week.
- Sourcing Moody’s Investors Service’s S. Not-for-Profit Hospital 2016 Medians report, Becker’s Hospital Review highlights over five dozen financial benchmarks that can help hospital administrators identify areas for improvement within their organizations. These yardsticks, such as “maintained bed occupancy: 65.4 percent” and “operating margin: 2.7 percent,” also show healthcare leaders how they compare with facilities across town and throughout the country.
- As stated in the American Journal of Managed Care’s (AJMC’s) In Focus Blog, America’s Essential Hospitals (AEH) designed a road map that combines person-centered care and evidence-based research into hospital care for vulnerable patients. In addition to providing examples of current programs, the plan pinpoints tactics to assist facilities in conquering obstacles to its implementation, such as including the participation of hospital executives, clinicians, patients, and patients’ families.
- Health Exec shares the results of a newly conducted survey of hospital administrators that indicate the growth of hospital utilization is decelerating. The survey’s findings show a preference for using lower-cost outpatient care, though utilization rates are “modestly positive” for facilities. According to Leerink Partners, the specialist investment bank that conducted the survey, throughout inpatient, outpatient, emergency departments (EDs), and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), acceleration in utilization reduced during Q2 2018 and year over year.
- Last week, during a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Affairs hearing, the American Hospital Association (AHA) spoke about the need to decrease the regulatory burden on providers to improve patient care, through an AHA news post. John Riggi, AHA senior advisor for cybersecurity and risk, agrees regulation is necessary but says many providers frequently dedicate more time to regulatory compliance, pulling them away from patient care. He also conveyed that hospitals and health systems have made great strides to secure patient data and safety but need more support from the government.
- University of Michigan Medical School researchers examined the relationship between high hospital occupancy and rates of hospital-acquired difficile, reports MD Magazine. “We expected that when hospitals get busier, rates of hospital-acquired infections would go up—with staff being less compliant and hand hygiene and other related protocols given heavier workloads,” study author Mahshid Abir, MD, MSc, told the comprehensive clinical news and information portal. “However, we found that rates of infection were highest when a hospital is at its average occupancy and that infection rates drop at higher occupancy.”
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