Personal marketing during a job hunt

Understanding and facing new employment realities can help individuals recognize the changing needs of employers and match their skills with available opportunities. Individuals should exploit the healthcare industry's new realities by refining their personal product package and promoting it effectively.

CPR and the RCP (1). Training of doctors in NHS hospitals

Six years after the Royal College of Physicians published its report, most hospitals in the UK with acute coronary beds fail to train or test their doctors adequately in the skills of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Doctors want more training, and consultants try to give it, but there is a lack of funds for this basic yet critical task.

Hospital leaders predict tighter finances, need for new initiatives

National health care reform legislation will affect hospitals in ways as dissimilar as hospitals themselves. How prepared are they? Hospitals & Health Networks, in conjunction with Premier Hospitals Alliance, Westchester, IL, surveyed 402 CEOs and chief operating officers to gauge their responses to anticipated changes and garner their opinions on how reform will affect their hospitals.

Retooling for community benefit

Healthcare providers today must have a mission of service both to the individual and to the community. In 1990 the Hospital Community Benefit Standards Program (HCBSP) was launched as a demonstration project to begin the process of defining the elements that constitute community benefit. The HCBSP standards are that a hospital (1) evince a significant organizational and operational commitment to a community benefit process, (2) plan and implement projects and activities that address specific community public health needs, (3) cultivate and maintain relationships with other organizations to foster community benefit, and (4) foster an internal environment that encourages everyone in the organization to participate in community benefit programs. The following elements are important to an effective community benefit program: Governing board involvement CEO understanding and commitment A key senior manager to coordinate An explicit commitment of human and financial resources An epidemiologic data base describing a defined community or population A mechanism for bringing together people in the organization interested in community benefit A mechanism for facilitating dialogue between hospital leaders and representatives from the community A method of linking community benefit processes to outcomes

Healthcare financial managers and CQI

The continuous quality improvement (CQI) process can be a mechanism for balancing a healthcare organization's quests for quality and for profitability. This article explores the role healthcare financial managers can play in the CQI process, discusses how healthcare financial managers can champion a hospital's drive for quality, and presents some basic tools used in the CQI process.

Inventory management for cardiac catheterization labs: the Princeton-Baptist Medical Center experience

Several issues must be considered for implementation in order to decrease inventories and make them more manageable. Physician consensus on products, strict vendor control by the department manager, setting and maintaining low par levels, inventorying stock daily, negotiating just-in-time deliveries, conservation-minded staff, and working in concert with central supply and materiel management personnel are steps that when employed correctly can lead to more manageable inventories in cardiac catheterization departments. If these steps are implemented, they will enhance the liquidity of the department and ultimately that of the medical center.

Managed care is in your future

Though Texas has been slower than most other large states to move into managed care, it is gaining ground. According to the Texas Health Maintenance Organization Association, 1.2 million Texans were enrolled in HMO plans in January 1990. Three years later, 1.5 million had signed on--a 24 percent increase. State enrollment in other managed care plans, which aren't required to file reports with state regulatory agencies, was estimated to be 6.9 million (41 percent of Texans) in 1991, according to Blue Cross/Blue Shield. While these state enrollment figures are large, the most recent numbers available indicate that Texas hospitals have a long way to go. A 1991 AHA survey found that 259 Texas hospitals (47 percent of those surveyed) do not have contracts with HMOs or PPOs. With changes coming at break-neck speed, how can these hospitals position themselves to survive and prosper in the managed care world? This month, HealthTexas presents three examples of hospitals and health care systems that have successfully made the transition to managed care. Their stories illustrate three very different approaches--developing a network, direct contracting, and establishing a health plan. And, those who have led these ventures offer advice to help other hospitals make the transition a little easier.

Strategic recruitment needs executive leadership

Healthcare executives must make a personal investment in physician recruiting. There's no replacement for a president or senior vice president sitting down with a physician and saying, "We need you."