Remote data exchange is extremely useful to a number of medical applications. It requires an infrastructure including systems, network and software tools. With such an infrastructure, existing local applications can b...
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Remote data exchange is extremely useful to a number of medical applications. It requires an infrastructure including systems, network and software tools. With such an infrastructure, existing local applications can be extended to serve national needs. There are many approaches to providing remote data exchange. Selection of an approach for an application requires balancing of various factors, including the need for rapid interactive access to data and ad hoc queries, the adequacy of access to predefined data sets, the need for an integrated view of the data, the ability to provide adequate security protection, the amount of data required, and the time frame in which data is required. The applications described here demonstrate new ways that the VA is reaping benefits from its infrastructure and its compatible integrated hospital information systems located at its facilities. The needs that have been met are also needs of private hospitals. However, in many cases the infrastructure to allow data exchange is not present. The VA's experiences may serve to establish the benefits that can be obtained by all hospitals.
作者:
BOOTH, FVMHASSETT, JMDepartment of Surgery
School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences State University of New York at Buffalo 100 High Street Buffalo New York 14203-1154
Organizational change has become commonplace among U.S. hospitals. Empirical investigations of the consequences of organizational change, however, are relatively scarce, and findings of existing studies are inconsiste...
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Organizational change has become commonplace among U.S. hospitals. Empirical investigations of the consequences of organizational change, however, are relatively scarce, and findings of existing studies are inconsistent. In this article, the authors review the rationale and performance implications of hospital organizational change in three areas: (1) the development of new multi-institutional arrangements, (2) change in traditional ownership and management configurations, and (3) diversification in organizational products/services and consolidation of organizational scale. Empirical research on hospital change published between 1980 and 1999 in the health services research, social science, and business literatures is reviewed to highlight the potential pitfalls that hospitals may encounter in their effort to remain viable. The article also summarizes the strengths and weaknesses of current hospital change research and provides specific suggestions for future research in this area.
The policy arena is hungry for objective information regarding the potential effects of comprehensive national and state health care reform. Such information reduces the dependence of policy-makers on information gene...
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The policy arena is hungry for objective information regarding the potential effects of comprehensive national and state health care reform. Such information reduces the dependence of policy-makers on information generated solely by advocacy groups and serves as a checkpoint for such information. Unfortunately, the academic community is often unable to mobilize its resources quickly enough to help meet this information need. This article describes one model for overcoming this difficulty. When the time frame is especially short, academic expertise can be brought together in the form of an expert panel. However, for such an approach to be effective, it must be carefully configured and orchestrated. Critical ingredients include much preparatory groundwork, a well-defined framework and methodology for conducting the policy analysis, and a professional facilitator. The Rural Policy Research Institute used such an approach to analyze President Clinton's Health Security Act shortly after the initial blueprint was released (but before the legislative language was released). The consensus of the expert panel was that the Health Security Act would, on balance, represent an improvement over today's rural reality. However, a number of troubling aspects were noted. First, the Act's emphasis on primary care and nonphysician providers is a double-edged sword. While these are precisely the types of providers needed in rural areas, the short-run effect may be to create increased competition for such providers from urban areas.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Woolley (1989) attempted to analyze the competitive impact of horizontal hospital mergers using the 'event study' method. Woolley characterized his results as consistent with traditional 'oligopoly' th...
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Woolley (1989) attempted to analyze the competitive impact of horizontal hospital mergers using the 'event study' method. Woolley characterized his results as consistent with traditional 'oligopoly' theories of market behavior. We scrutinize in detail a large number of his events, however, and find that most either generated concentration increases too small to plausibly produce market power, or could not have conferred monopoly returns on firms improperly characterized as rivals. Accordingly, any observed abnormal returns are likely attributable to some other cause; we suggest some alternative interpretations of his results. Our paper highlights the need for care in the selection of events and the identification of rivals when applying the event study method to the analysis of mergers.
This article describes the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI) collaborative group process used to create a multihospital care path for the child with acute lymphoblastic...
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This article describes the National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI) collaborative group process used to create a multihospital care path for the child with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), and presents strategies for implementation and future direction. Although most children in the United States with cancer are treated according to National Cancer Institute-sponsored comprehensive protocols, there is a wide variation in the implementation of protocols by physicians and hospitals. The development of this care path was based on evidence from the literature, review of practice patterns, expert opinion, and group participant consensus building. The resulting 4-day care path was organized into six categories of care (e.g., assessment practices, diagnostic tests, teaching, and discharge planning). Discharge criteria are stated at the beginning of the care path to emphasize the planning process immediately on admission. Clinical outcomes, skill and knowledge outcomes for the parent and child, and home assessment considerations are also included. Strategies to create change and gain support of various stakeholders toward implementation of the care path are presented. The strength of the resulting care path is possible in large part because the multihospital group process brought professionals from around the country together to discuss, analyze, and reach consensus on the practices related to the child with ALL. The group process enabled the development of a care path that goes beyond a traditional care path developed by a single institution.
Many hospitals are turning to cluster relationships to gain the benefits of diversification without the troubles of increased capital costs and management conflicts. The goal of healthcare clusters is to provide a con...
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