Developing Healthcare

What is the most cost efficient method of expansion for a hospital: adding or renovating facilities? Return on invest is key to this question as hospital executives plan to add to their medical real estate portfolio or focus on enhancing their current assets. Faced with outdated boilers, chillers and heating and ventilation systems along with [...]

An operating room (OR) that has medical imaging, catheter-based interventions and surgery may sound far fetched as these disciplines have traditionally been in separate spaces, but as hospitals are discovering new and more efficient methods and technologies of delivering patient care, so are they also bringing these processes together. Commonly referred to as a hybrid [...]

How can hospitals promote efficiency and high-quality results? Look at a Lean approach when designing a new hospital or redesigning an existing one. Used as a way of managing data gathering and analysis to help develop a smooth workflow environment, Lean methods help direct optimal operational layout of health facilities. Lean initiatives involve hospitals identifying [...]

“Organizations that position themselves to provide solid, integrated care — regardless of what happens with the health care reform law — will do better,” Tom Dennison, a Syracuse University professor and health care expert. Truer words cannot have been spoken, especially as the Supreme Court just heard oral arguments defending and denouncing the constitutionality of [...]

With Medicare spending an estimated $12 billion on avoidable readmissions, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, two new programs are being introduced to help curb these costly, unneeded expenditures while improving patients’ quality of care. The Community-based Care Transitions Program (CCTP) and Initiative to Reduce Avoidable Hospitalizations among Nursing Facility Residents are innovative programs [...]

As hospitals and physician groups look for ways to expand into new markets, while keeping costs down, building off the hospital campus has become a popular and growing trend. Historically, on-campus was the ideal place to build. Within walking distance of a hospital and a great tenant referral source, physician groups were setting up shop [...]

What’s a progressively growing medical facility that stands to benefit health system and hospital executives, especially in response to healthcare reform? A satellite emergency department (ED). New hospital construction for this year revolves around lower-cost, community based facilities. As health systems are trending toward smaller, neighborhood based facilities, satellite emergency departments are popular buildings that [...]

Healthcare reform is by far the most dissected, discussed and debated topic in the medical industry.  Federally mandated healthcare legislation, and the yet to be determined detailed fine print, influences every decision a hospital executive considers on a daily basis. While some health systems are moving forward with planned projects, most hospital executives are planning [...]

With tight margins as the uninsured population grows and uncertainty as healthcare reform approaches, hospitals and physicians groups across the country are seeking merger opportunities. In 2011, there were 86 hospital merger and acquisition deals, up from 77 in 2010, and 107 physician group merger and acquisition deals, up from 67 in 2010, according to [...]

As a leader in specialty procedures, cardiology is a growing field that is in demand from patients, as well as from hospitals looking to acquire practices. While some cardiologists are interested in being employed by hospitals, about 67% according to a Price Water House Coopers 2011 Report, others prefer the private practice route. When looking [...]