The Spring issue of Great Boards is ready with articles that readers have been asking for. Download the entire issue at http://www.greatboards.org/newsletter/ and look for these articles:
Unannounced JCAHO Surveys Will Require Changes in Culture, Board Work. The days when hospitals spent months sprucing up documents and facilities for the triennial accreditation survey are ending. Starting in 2006, hospitals will have to be "continuously ready" for a survey by constantly measuring, maintaining and improving the quality of care and patient safety. Editor Sharon O'Malley looks at the dramatic impact the new rules will have on hospital culture and board work. Included: A checklist of the 10 questions boards should ask to ensure their hospitals are prepared.
Board's Role in the Strategic Planning Process. How does a board make a substantive contribution to the organization's mission, vision and strategy without getting into management? Great Boards offers a "Best Board Practices Checklist" with 21 tips to help your board leverage its expertise and unique perspective to maximum advantage.
Governance Book Reviews. These two recently published books on governance are worth a look. Read the Great Boards review.
While you're downloading the new issue, cruise around the site and you're bound to discover resources you've missed on past visits. We've redesigned the entire website to make it easier to find what you're looking for. For example:
SUTTER HEALTH TO INVEST $1.2 BILLION IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY. When it comes to using information technology to drive operations and productivity improvement, hospitals and health systems pale behind other industries. But that's changing. Northern California giant Sutter Health has announced it will spend $1.2 billion on information technology over the next decade. The 26-hospital system plans to create a patient database, an electronic medical records system, electronic systems for recording prescription and laboratory information, and a digital imaging archive. When the job's done, a patient won't have to tell the physician in any Sutter emergency room or physician's office his allergies or medical history -- it will be there at a glance. Sutter has been investing heavily in IT for several years. What's new is the long term plan that allows board members and executives to see the present in a bigger context.
See the full story in the Contra Costa Times at http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/business
/8501341.htm. And see how Sutter communicates its vision to the community on its website at http://www.sutterhealth.org/about/patientsafety
/ps_hc21stcent.html.
THE END OF PRIMARY CARE. Physician Lisa Sanders explains what happened to the high hopes that primary care medicine would create a more patient-centered, efficient and effective healthcare system. This story from the New York Times website, and others in a special issue on the future of medicine, are good educational materials for boards and physician leaders. Go to http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/18/magazine/
18PRIMARY.html?pagewanted=1. (Payment may be required by the time you receive this newsletter.)
LEAPFROG GROUP LAUNCHES NEW INITIATIVE. The Leapfrog Group announced plans to launch a new, comprehensive hospital rating survey intended to help patients better assess hospital safety, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Leapfrog Group began evaluating hospitals four years ago based on three quality indicators: investment in computerized physician order entry, use of intensivists in critical care units, and medical procedure volume. Observers have praised Leapfrog's intent but criticized its unrealistic and limited measures. For example, only a small percentage of U.S. hospitals have invested in CPOE, and a nationwide shortage of intensivists makes widespread adoption problematic at best.
The new survey is an "acknowledgement" that the three quality indicators from the previous system, "though still important, are too limited to fully inform consumers and provide enough financial incentive for hospitals to adopt them," according to Suzanne Delbanco, executive director of Leapfrog, the Journal reports. The new survey will score hospitals on 27 new measures -- in addition to the existing three -- and give an overall score. The Leapfrog Group will post the first rankings by state on its Web site in July, and hospitals will be able to update their survey monthly thereafter. The survey will initially include about 1,300 of the 2,500 urban acute care hospitals in the 24 areas it surveys, and the group has also invited rural hospitals and pediatric hospitals to fill out the survey.
Thus, the Leapfrog Group is following in the footsteps of Medicare and the American Hospital Association in their efforts to make hospital outcome data readily available to the public. For more information, go to www.wsj.com and look for “Report Card to Rank Hospitals on Safety: Group Will Rate Efforts To Prevent Medical Errors” by Laura Landro in the April 22 edition. (Payment may be required by the time you receive this newsletter.)
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Barry S. Bader, Bader & Associates
12225 Seline Way, Potomac MD 20854, 301-340-0903
www.GreatBoards.org *** bbader@GreatBoards.org