Tag: observation-care
How to Boost Hospital Revenue by Optimizing Hospitalist Case Mix Index Documentation
by: USACS
As hospital margins shrink, hospital leaders seek strategies to enhance revenue. Accurately capturing Case Mix Index (CMI) is a prime way to do just that. The key? Physician documentation. At each of our partner hospitalist programs, we see consistent improvement in CMI by focusing on physician documentation education and mentoring. In this post, we explain the importance of CMI documentation optimization and how to leverage it to help hospitals increase […]
read articlePosted in General, Hospital Partnership, Leadership
Level-of-Care Process Management: Getting it Right the First Time
September 12th, 2013by: USACS
New regulations stemming from the Affordable Care Act and the associated push toward determining the appropriate level-of-care for patients have changed the way in which hospitals utilize resources to make this determination. Managing this process involves getting the determination of level of care early in the decision making process and performing frequent evaluations to determine […]
read articlePosted in Hospital Partnership
Hospital Capacity Management and the Enlightened Hospital Leader
June 11th, 2013by: Dr. Robbin Dick
Nearly every hospital leader in America will tell you their hospital is all about patient-centered care. Of course, we know this isn’t true in many cases, especially when it comes to hospital capacity management. Though many institutions will deny to its last dying breath that they have any priorities that supercede patient care, nearly all […]
read articlePosted in Quality Efficiency Utilization
What is observation care? Clearing up common misperceptions
February 7th, 2013by: Dr. Robbin Dick
To treat observation care as simply a loophole that allows hospitals to avoid the Medicare penalties from readmissions — as Brad Wright, an assistant professor of health management and policy at the University of Iowa did earlier this month on KevinMD.com — is to take a short-sighted approach to a complex health issue. Observation care in […]
read articlePosted in Observation Care
Observation Medicine Belongs to Emergency Medicine
November 14th, 2012by: Dr. Robbin Dick
I started my first observation unit over 15 years ago, and even now, as then, it is not exactly settled opinion that observation should be a part of emergency medicine. But it should be. That is one of this company’s central insights about observation medicine, and a big part of what interested me in joining as […]
read articlePosted in Observation Care
Healthcare Pressures Will Remain No Matter Who Wins Tomorrow – And Go Vote!
November 5th, 2012by: Dr. Angelo Falcone
There are some who will tell you that the fate of America’s entire healthcare system hangs in the balance based on the outcome of tomorrow’s presidential election. To be sure, there are big differences between President Obama and Governor Romney. But the truth is that the pressures facing America’s healthcare system today are the same pressures […]
read articlePosted in Future of Healthcare
Patients to the Healthcare System: “Change is for the Other Guy, Not Me”
August 31st, 2012by: Dr. Angelo Falcone
I wrote a while back about the need for a social contract in healthcare. The essence of that contract is that I have a right to receive timely, quality and appropriate care. In return for that care, I need to take responsibility for my health and lifestyle as well as appropriately use healthcare resources. I […]
read articlePosted in Future of Healthcare
Thoughts on Choosing Wisely and Overuse
August 2nd, 2012by: Dr. Vipul Kella
About five months ago nine physician specialty groups got together and decided to examine specific tests and procedures that are commonly used but not necessary in their respective fields. They named their organization “Choosing Wisely”, and compiled a list of over 45 specific recommendations on practices that should be curtailed. Examples included “lumbar series in […]
read articlePosted in Quality Efficiency Utilization
The Decline and Fall of Triage in the ER
April 13th, 2012by: Dr. Vipul Kella
The national trend toward overcrowding in emergency rooms is having an interesting effect on a process that was conceived to handle a large number of injured patients: triage. One might expect that as more and more patients flow into the ER, the process of triage would become even more central to the smooth flow and […]
read articlePosted in Quality Efficiency Utilization