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M Burke

Publications and source records attributed to M Burke.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Women's, children's groups say reform debate ignores needs.

In putting their plans on the table, some health care reformers are forgetting the needs of women and children, advocates for those groups say. Meanwhile, hospitals are collaborating in efforts to fulfill still-unmet health needs.

American Hospital Association

Health care surveys: pollsters present debatable results.

The public is being surveyed more often than ever before on health care reform. But experts say pollsters aren't clarifying people's thoughts as well as they should. Then again, the public's thoughts on health care aren't very clear.

Attitude to Health

New surgical technologies reshape hospital strategies.

New technologies are rapidly transforming hospital surgery, shifting a majority of procedures to outpatient settings and cutting stays for inpatients. This shift is forcing hospitals to re-evaluate physician privileging, surgical staffing and scheduling, facility planning and strategic planning. Meanwhile, the Health Care Financing Administration's efforts to reform Medicare's payment system for outpatient surgery and other ambulatory procedures is on a slower track.

Ambulatory Surgical Procedures

Hawaii's health care plan stirs Capitol Hill debate over access.

Even as officials in Hawaii prepare to market to congressional legislators their universal access health care plan as a model for the nation, small-business owners on the mainland are battling against mandates in place in the state's unique health care program. Meanwhile, Hawaiian officials continue to make ongoing improvements in their system.

Cost Control

Comprehensive vs. incremental reform: the debate intensifies.

President Bush's health care reform proposal has intensified the current debate over whether the U.S. health care system requires incremental or comprehensive reform. But some analysts say that those terms are merely political instruments in a much broader debate on U.S. social policy.

Financing, Government

Clinical quality initiatives: the search for meaningful--and accurate--measures.

At times, it seems as though every hospital, hospital association, philanthropic foundation and major corporation in the United States is involved in the quality movement in health care. The explosion of quality measurement initiatives that began in the 1980s is continuing apace, with earlier programs being expanded, enhanced, modified and replicated throughout the country in a variety of settings. This cover story looks at the broad efforts to develop clinical quality measurement tools from four different perspectives. First, we provide an update on the Maryland Quality Indicator Project and its ongoing use as a role model for many of the newer clinical indicator projects now being developed. Part two looks at the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and its Agenda for Change project, as well as other large-scale quality measurement programs under way in the private sector that are attempting to determine what indicators are meaningful to use. Part three examines the growing role of corporate payers in pushing hospital-comparison and other assessment programs forward. And in the final section, we look at the federal government's role in developing practice guidelines and outcomes research.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.