Patients should not have to advocate for their own safety

Health Policy
November 14, 2014

Last year the New York Times reported that the aviation industry had become so safe that one could fly every day for 123,000 years before dying in an aviation crash.

I wish we could say the same for the U.S. health care system. Nationally, problems with health care quality (doing too much, doing the wrong things, and doing too little when indicated) are pretty clear. The bigger problem is that the progress …

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Patients should not have to advocate for their own safety

What Apple can teach health care: Hire unorthodox applicants

Physician
October 26, 2014

Recently, Apple introduced its newest product, the Apple Watch. According to Businessweek, Apple spent years researching watches before deciding to build one. The company flew watch historians to California and they worked to understand how wristwatches have traditionally been used, and how a new “wrist computer” might work. They have hired leaders from diverse backgrounds — none of them techies — to lead these efforts.

It struck me that health care could learn a lot …

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What Apple can teach health care: Hire unorthodox applicants

Why do some health systems fail? There are 2 reasons why.

Health Policy
October 17, 2014

Around the country, for every health system that is successfully navigating the early years of value-based health care, there are several others that are failing — even though many don’t yet realize it.   These failing organizationscan’t or won’t restructure themselves to deliver effective, efficient and affordable care.

I’ve come to the conclusion, after observing struggling systems, that two basic characteristics are necessary for systems to transform themselves in response to external pressures: execution and motivation. Successful systems have …

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Why do some health systems fail? There are 2 reasons why.

How to improve doctor-administrator relations

Health Policy
October 3, 2014

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A colleague at a hospital-based health system recently told me about physician alignment initiatives his employer was introducing. These included co-management deals (where doctors get per patient incentives for on-time discharges, and high quality scores) and new salary models that adjusted based on various metrics. At the same time, he noted, his hospital was laying off clerks, leaving him spending hours on clerical tasks …

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How to improve doctor-administrator relations

Will integrated physician groups appeal to millennials?

Health Policy
September 28, 2014

Around the country, doctors are leaving independent practice and joining large groups owned by health care systems. It’s a trend: the recruiting firm Merritt Hawkins predicts that if current growth continues, over 75% of newly hired physicians will be hospital employees within two years.

There seem to be a number of reasons for this consolidation of physicians and hospitals into islands of care. One is the desire for larger groups to …

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Will integrated physician groups appeal to millennials?

Urgent care won’t replace primary care. Here’s why.

Health Policy
September 19, 2014

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About seven years ago, the California Healthcare Roundtable and Health Affairs sat down to prepare a white paper on the emerging phenomenon of urgent care centers, and what it might mean for primary care. At the time the group couldn’t agree that urgent care (UC) was a disruptive innovation, but it seemed clear to all participants that it represented a threat to primary care: The …

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Urgent care won’t replace primary care. Here’s why.