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In a recent report that summarizes the reasons that hospitals undertake construction projects, "operational efficiency and patient flow" are cited as the most common objectives (Carpenter 2004). Intuitively, improvements in [...]

AT A GLANCE Recognizing existing capacity constraints and the accompanying lost revenue and market share, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford implemented an improvement initiative, beginning with an assessment of [...]

Of all the advances that hospitals are making in the delivery of care, nowhere is the impact felt more dramatically than in the patient room. Even as room decor grows [...]

Cancer. It's a diagnosis that no patient ever wants to hear. Yet with all of the advancements that have been made in the care and treatment of the disease, more […]

Nestled at the foot of southern California's San Gabriel Mountains and blocks from the 210 Freeway, Methodist Hospital sits in a pleasant neighborhood of well-tended lawns and palm trees. It's [...]

When ever northeast Indiana residents are admitted to a hospital, need emergency care or visit a hospital for outpatient care, more likely than not they're being treated by one of [...]

For years, cardiology has been health care's golden child. Fueled by advances in technology and by demographic changes requiring more care, cardiovascular services expanded steadily over the past decade, hitting [...]

Survey data on patients' satisfaction with health services offered by hospitals in US are discussed. Additional information on level of patients' satisfaction with hospital services over time is included.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The increasing pressures on integrated healthcare delivery systems (IDSs) to provide coordinated and cost-effective care focuses attention on the question of how to best integrate across multiple sites [...]

Information on how patients of various income types select hospitals is offered. Additional information on models analyzing patients' hospital choice is also included.

A survey of patients on hospital service quality by using the Key Quality Characteristics Assessment for Hospitals (KQCAH) scale is discussed. Additional information on the methodology used to develop the KQCAH instrument is included.

Information on the use of the National Registry for Myocardial Infarction (NRMI) at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, CA, to treat cardiac patients is offered. Additional information on the NRMI database use in a medical environment and its economic benefits to community hospital care is also included.

Is Hawaii's health care industry ready for the baby boomers? While a few mainland hospitals are introducing door men and room service for picky boomers, Hawaii's hospitals are struggling with [...]

Intensified competition in healthcare is stimulating an enhanced focus on consumer satisfaction. Critical barriers to customer service are being dismantled and hospitals are instituting comprehensive models to promote consumer-oriented environments., Healthcare providers are evolving towards becoming a true customer-oriented industry, spurred by the removal of regulatory and economic barriers to competition. Providers who are seeking this orientation should examine the ingrained paternalistic attitudes towards patients. They should put customer service into their mission statements and corporate philosophies, clearly define their customers, empower their staffs, develop a system to handle complaints and other customer comments, and ensure that their facilities are user-friendly., A shopper in a large supermarket noted for its commitment to customer relations told the manager in the dairy department she thought she lost an earring near his department. The [...]

Hospitals are promoting their health clubs as part of their preventive medicine and wellness programs. Hospitals are making multi-million dollar capital investments in state-of-the-art health clubs that combine excercise programs, aerobic exercise equipment and rehabilitation treatment. According to the Assn of Hospital Health and Fitness, there are now 350 hospital fitness centers in operation., Jack LaLanne, meet the Sisters of Mercy. Bally Total Fitness, say hello to the Rush System for Health. Hospitals and healthcare systems are responding to demands by managed-care plans and [...]

Indiana's hospitals are using gee-whiz technology to deliver health care better, faster and cheaper. Two days after her hysterectomy in December 1991, Carol Sue Wright of Frankfort was out buying [...]

The rate of change and the fast pace of everyday life makes it hard to look back at what interventions could have changed the course of history. Twice last year [...]

Byline: Shawn Rhea When materials managers at West Penn Allegheny Health System went looking a few years back for innovative methods for reducing supply-chain costs, they didn't turn to the [...]

SALEM, Ore.-The state of Oregon has launched a Web site where consumers can find out the average hospital payments for 82 common medical procedures and conditions. The Compare Hospital Costs [...]

Byline: Vince Galloro When HCA came to Brunswick County, N.C., in 1984, it was riding to the rescue of a struggling county-owned hospital. Opened in 1977, Brunswick Community Hospital, located [...]

Ailing cabrini medical center has long been on many experts' informal hit lists for closure because of its location in Gramercy Park, a part of Manhattan with a surfeit of [...]

Byline: Melanie Evans Healthcare watchdogs in Wisconsin and Florida took unusually aggressive action against hospitals in recent weeks, putting Wisconsin hospitals on the defensive over uninsured billing practices and shuttering [...]

lenox hill hospital got a boost last week with the Food and Drug Administration's approval of a new stent system to clear arterial blockages in the neck. The device will [...]

Byline: John Bagnato "The entire hospital industry renders its highest bills to the customers who are least able or likely to pay.'' That's quite a remarkable statement, especially coming from [...]

Byline: Paul Barr After months of stagnation, the market for so-called participating bonds may be ready to get moving again with a planned $5.7 million March offering by Reid Hospital [...]

In the middle of the night, while emergency-room doctors are treating patients at hundreds of U.S. hospitals, a few dozen radiologists working thousands of miles and many time zones away […]

Over the summer, Jacobi Medical Center became one of the first hospitals in the area to test a new patient-tracking technology that has the health care world buzzing. When the [...]

Byline: Charles S. Lauer I love reading. Give me any book, fiction or nonfiction, and if it's well-written, conveys passion and conviction, and is clear and focused, I'm there. Many [...]

Byline: Laura B. Benko Via Christi Health System, Wichita, Kan., plans to sever ties with its sole California hospital. Officials at St. Rose Hospital, Hayward, Calif., are completing a financial [...]

Byline: Paul O'Neill and Jan Jennings The chief executive of a Pittsburgh-area hospital that was recently identified as providing among the highest-quality and lowest-cost care in the country wasn't impressed: [...]

Byline: Mike Colias Four years ago, 334-bed Medical Center of Aurora (Colo.) started a pilot program aimed at boosting the survival rate of heart-attack patients, part of a broader strategy [...]

Byline: Susanna Moon Kaiser breaks ground Kaiser Permanente broke ground late last month on a $546 million, 1 million-square-foot medical center in Downey, Calif. The 352-bed replacement hospital, along with [...]

Ealing Hospital NHS Trust is one of the first four hospitals in the UK to be involved in an ongoing scheme aimed at reducing delays in hospital. Here, Gwynneth Kirkpatrick [...]

Byline: Mary Chris Jaklevic With hospitals continuing to claim bewilderment over how to implement discounts to patients who can't pay their bills, the Healthcare Financial Management Association said it's planning [...]

Oakwood Healthcare Inc. * Offers halal and kosher food. * Arabic and Hispanic versions of the American Diabetes Association diet. * Web site has information in Arabic and Spanish on [...]

Georgia's first hospital plans to make the most of its 200th birthday. In January, Savannah's Candler Hospital kicked off its yearlong bicentennial celebration by planting a commemorative oak tree while [...]

A new "VIP pavilion'' at Howard University Hospital in Washington has everything a well-heeled diplomat or dignitary might want or need, including marble-accented bathrooms, personal gourmet chefs, fresh flowers and [...]

A #500,000 dispensing robot at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital has halved stockholding, reduced pharmacists' workload in the dispensary, cut patients' discharge times and reduced the incidence of patients missing medication [...]

Byline: Mark Taylor Indiana is one of the world's largest exporters of corn, soybeans, steel, chemicals and heavy equipment. Now, thanks to an Indianapolis health system, it can add ambulatory [...]

When Karen Freedberg's 93-year-old father fell gravely ill, she didn't want him to go through the same traumatic and futile medical interventions that her mother endured four years earlier. Her [...]

Byline: Ed Finkel When Arlene High was diagnosed with cancer in 1978, the resident of rural Gallup, N.M., immediately was sent 150 miles away to a hospital in Albuquerque. The [...]