Healthcare Whitepapers & Healthcare Articles

Adaptive Information Technology: Driving Hospital Quality and Efficiency through Process Improvment   

September 08, 2010

While much of the attention has been on the clinical benefits of health IT, it can also dramatically improve the movement of patients, supplies, staff and other critical aspects within a hospital.  Adaptive technology can be the necessary glue to achieve system-wide peak performance and process improvement.  Find out how hospitals and health systems that embrace change and deploy the righ technologies to see it through will not only survive, but thrive.  Click here to read this article, which was originally published in the book, Paper Kills 2.0: How Health IT Can Help Save Your Life and Your Money.  It was also featured at TAG Think.

Defensive Medicine - "A Costly Defense"   

July 06, 2010

A recent independent national physician Gallup survey found that physicians attribute 26 percent of overall healthcare costs to the practice of defensive medicine. Of the physicians surveyed, 73 percent agreed that they had practiced some form of defensive medicine in the past 12 months. 

The Crumbling Physician-Patient Relationship   

June 28, 2010

Despite ongoing health care reform efforts, one thing does not appear to be changing: the physician-patient relationship.The unique relationship that physicians originally shared with their patients was severed when third-party entities took control of the transactions between parties. Today, we are attempting to "reform" a fragmented health care system that isn't designed to reward healthy lifestyles and high-quality, low-cost medical care.

Defensive Medicine May Cost the Industry Billions   

June 08, 2010

Doctors are using "defensive medicine" as a way to avoid medical malpractice lawsuits, a policy some believe is increasing healthcare costs. According to a series of physician surveys from Alpharetta, GA -based Jackson Healthcare, the root problem driving defensive medicine practices is that physicians' livelihoods are at stake.

How the Cost Center Mindset is Costing Hospitals Millions   

August 10, 2009

Healthcare thought leader, Rick Jackson, believes costs and revenues are misleading metrics in measuring the success of a service line. This white paper challenges executives to transform their hospital's financial model in order to remain healthy staples of their communities. (Originally published through HealthLeaders on May 20, 2009.)

Jackson CEO Proposes New Effectiveness Metric ELOS to Manage Hospitals   

December 10, 2008

Although it has traditionally been the standard measurement for hospital effectiveness, the "average length-of-stay" (LOS) is an ill-advised and inaccurate tool. So says Rick Jackson, Chairman and CEO of Jackson Healthcare. Jackson is calling for a new metric, one that shifts the focus from counting meals and the use of beds to the real culprit in hospital costs -- bottlenecks in and between departments. According to Jackson, his new metric, the "enterprise length-of-stay" (ELOS), will increase throughput, capacity, and revenue.