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It's a buyer's market for equipment leasing To buy or not to buy. That is the question facing health care executives today as they examine capital acquisition. Leasing equipment appears [...]

Office costs soar New technologies, staff shortages, the rising cost of supplies, and overall costs that are outpacing inflation. All of this has nothing to do with your clinical operations; [...]

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the critical care unit, the 22nd anniversary of the first heart transplant, and the 17th anniversary of the first image produced by magnetic [...]

Hospitals learn to deal with unionization Many hospital executives are panicked about labor relations in wake of recent National Labor Relations Board rulings. But two hospital administrators in Minneapolis are [...]

Pressured GPOs put hospitals in driver's seat Survivial of the fittest. It's a phrase that can be applied to health care group purchasing as easily as to the animal kingdom. [...]

Nursing shortage eases: AHA data King's Daughters' Hospital hired 40 nurses in eight weeks. It wasn't magic or luck; it was due to the efforts of Darrel Scott, president of [...]

Employee hotline: CEOs act to solve labor shortages Dick Pettingill has two telephones on his desk. One is for the typical business calls that he receives as administrator and chief [...]

Nurses: a sound investment for financial stability Last August, Memorial Hospital, Cumberland, MD, was in the final stages of a $24.5 million bond issue. Everything was running smothly; a feasibility [...]

Although there is no villainous Darth Vader, and it isn't taking place on a far-away star, a definite war is developing in the hospital industry--a price war. When Saint Francis [...]

Construction Trends in Health Care Face-lifts were a temporary solution to hospitals' physical problems. But today hospitals are putting money into reconstructive surgery for their buildings. And such surgery isn't [...]

Will marketing ever grow up? Children learn to stay away from the stove after burning themselves the first time. Hospitals keep going back to the heat to touch it again [...]

Hospitals call a marketing time-out It's only the second quarter, and already hospitals are calling a time-out in the game of marketing. And not a bit too soon, according to [...]

Aging Physical plants: holdovers from another era? Today's hospitals are headed the way of the dinosaur--toward extinction. 'The big medical centers, as we know them today, will die,' say ARmand [...]

Telecommunications thrives in hospitals Communication. Its vitality has caused the telephone of yesterday to develop into the telecommunications systems of today. Less than 100 years ago, the first commercial switchboard [...]

Telecommunications: exploring new options in health care Wehve come a long way since Bell uttered these words to his assistant on March 10, 1876, marking the first intelligible words transmitted [...]

Southern region is ready and waiting for HMOs If you are starting an HMO, do it in the South and market it to 18-to 24-year-olds earning between $20,000 and $24,999 [...]

Physician referral services: boom or bust? Warren Todd receives 8,000 telephone calls a year-- through the physician referral service of Monmouth Medical Center, Long Branch, NJ. Is this an adequate [...]

Options: the name of the new lab game If the word laboratory conjures up images of glass test tubes and petri dishes, think again; think options. Cost-containment pressures are causing [...]

Central region hungry for info Now is the time for all good hospitals to come to the aid of consumers. Or at least those in the Central region of the [...]

Although the word sales brings to mind pictures of plaid-jacketed used-car salesman touting, 'Drive it away today,' some hospitals are finding their customers very agreeable to the concept of hospital [...]

What's in a name? Well, in the case of PPA, the new acronym for preferred provider arrangements, it is the growing recognition that a separate organization (the 'O' in PPO) [...]

Business works to cure disability problem Workers work. Except when they're sick. That's why business is concerned about getting employees back into the workforce quickly after an illness or injury. [...]

Hospitals seek to take risk out of construction You take risk in anything you do today. But when you start a construction project, you are subjected to more risk than [...]

Pharmacies gain profits... It's been a hard pill to swallow--for years, hospital pharmacies have lost money. But that's all changing. Today, almost 70 percent of hospital pharmacies are looked upon [...]

Banking at Work Banking is moving out of the bank and into the hospital. No, banks aren't setting up teller windoes next to the radiology department--but almost. In fact, banks [...]

Retiree Benefits You probably don't pay much attention to the retiree benefits that you're providing. Why should you? Your pension plan is invested safely in a trust, and your retirees' [...]

Hospital-physician link generates $4 million At a strategic planning meeting in the 1970s, Little Company of Mary Hospital (LCM), Evergreen Park, IL, determined that it needed a comprehensive hospital information [...]

Billing errors extend beyond bottom line What's an aspirin here and an IV there when it comes to the final inpatient bill? For University of Illinois Hospital and Clinics, Chicago, [...]

Liability insurance crisis hits nursing industry One Chicago insurer is no longer offering liability coverage to nurse practitioners; it isn't even renewing coverage for previous nurse practitioner clients. The reason? [...]

Teamsters look to expand provider contracts One of the largest Teamster funds is looking for a few good doctors. In fact, the Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Health and [...]

Marketing for nurses: an answer to the shortage? The radio DJ comes over the air waves announcing a commercial break. You're expecting a snappy tune promoting a new car model. [...]

Pricing, quality concerns dictate decision support software Administrative software systems are offering decision support to top hospital management-- support needed to cope with payer demands in pricing and quality. Twenty [...]

Bedside terminals help bring nurses back to nursing Hard-hit by the nursing shortage, hospitals need all the help they can get when it comes to patient care. And vendors of [...]

Rydell: Hospitals centralize information systems management Richard Rydell knows his information systems. In fact, Rydell is the chairman of an advisory panel of chief information officers created by the American [...]

Florida tax stifles hospital advertising Florida implemented a sales tax on advertising on July 1--the only state to make such a move. As a result, the hospital community there has [...]

Long-term needs shape hospital marketing In the early part of 1986, hospitals 'rushed into advertising without plans' and 'gave lip service to doctor marketing' (see pp. 51-52, Feb. 5, 1986). [...]

Hospital sales efforts begin to take shape Like babies who must master standing up before taking their first steps forward, hospital sales efforts are just starting to get off on [...]

Premature births top coalition's concerns Angela weighed two pounds at birth. She faces extensive medical care, repeated hospitalizations, and possibly death. If she does make it through the first year [...]

Consumer gripes about hospital services drop Cold dinners, insensitive nurses, and unkempt rooms have all but disappeared from the hospital industry. In fact, consumers interviewed in a recent survey conducted [...]

Employers applaud AHA's indigent care plans It's getting applause but not a standing ovation. This is the reaction from the business sector to the American Hospital Association's recommendations for financing [...]

Market research: learning the numbers game When the going gets tough, the tough get going. And that's why hospitals are going in the direction of market research. But there is [...]

HMOs can teach hospitals the marketing game Although HMOs are newer to the health care scene than hospitals, they can teach hospitals a thing or two about marketing. 'HMOs are [...]

Deere & Co. plows into outpatient data Big business is no fool. Large corporations know that the trend is toward outpatient care. And now they want outpatient data to get [...]

Although labor and management have historically haggled over many issues, the two groups agree today on at least one subject--the cost of health care. One of the results of this [...]

Despite declining use, a mature marketplace, and continuing competitive pressures, hospital emergency departments remain the predominant deliverers of emergency care and make some money in the process. Patient visits to [...]

At the end of 1983, about 12.5 million individuals across the nation were enrolled in HMOs, not one of which was located in New Orleans. But that didn't last for [...]

Affiliations with multis: rurals becoming picky Small rural and suburban hospitals-- faced with greater competition from their city counterparts--are taking a more aggressive role when it comes to affiliating with [...]