A new cost allocation method for hospital-based clinical laboratories and transfusion services: implications for transfusion medicine.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Blood Banks↗
Biomedical subjects
Timothy Rotarius
Publications and source records attributed to Timothy Rotarius.
Strategies for advancing transfusion medicine and cellular therapies: taking control of our future.
This special edition of TRANSFUSION is dedicated to those colleagues in the transfusion medicine and cellular therapy field who have wondered about what the future holds for their chosen professions. Each of the six peer-reviewed Think Tank articles included in this special edition focuses on an administrative issue that is critical to the survivability and enhancement of the industry. Each issue is examined from two perspectives: Where are we now? And where are we heading?
Blood Banks↗
How physical therapists perceive physicians: a stakeholder analysis.
Physicians and physical therapy service units are facing a different health care climate than 5 to 10 years ago. Managed care, changes in Medicare reimbursement, and other financing issues are causing turbulence for the industry. This article reports on more than 1,300 physical therapy service unit managers of hospitals, long-term care facilities, outpatient clinics, and home health agencies who determined the most important stakeholderoftheir physical therapy service unit and the perceived degree of power the various stakeholders had over the physical therapy service area. This study indicates that historical roles and alliances in health care are undergoing major alterations.
Allied Health Personnel↗
Uncompensated care and emergency department utilization: a local study having national implications.
This article provides a comprehensive picture of the manner in which uncompensated care patients utilize the emergency departments (EDs) of two Central Florida hospitals. Specifically, this study assesses the impact of treating uncompensated and primary care patients in ED settings on scarce hospital and community resources. Recommendations are being offered to manage a troubling situation that is occurring with alarming frequency in today's health care system throughout the United States. Special emphasis is placed on recommendations addressing alternative triage and financing models that are considered to be both socially responsible and economically viable. The results of this study suggest strongly that health care organizations must find an alternative to the current trend in ED utilization, in order to meet the primary care needs of patients and not compromise the care provided to those with emergent conditions. The recommendations emanating from this study outline a mechanism that can improve the timeliness of emergency care to those in need, while at the same time, making available primary care resources to those seeking services through an emergency department.
Adolescent↗
The Emergency Room Medical Group: improving hospital efficiency.
With national health care expenditures in the United States consuming 14 percent of the gross domestic product, the U.S. health care industry faces a turbulent environment. Adding to this situation, health care executives are having a difficult time developing strategies for dealing with patients who use the emergency room for primary care. Hospital executives may consider forming an Emergency Room Medical Group (ERMG). ERMGs are defined (as well as their alternative health care alliances), and each is illustrated in a model called the Physician Alliance Continuum.
Efficiency, Organizational↗
Medical group affiliations: interorganizational relationships and organizational performance.
The hyperturbulent health care environment is causing health care organizations to create interorganizational relationships (IORs). This article reports on a study of 686 medical groups that assessed how 11 types of IORs affected 7 dimensions of organizational performance. Organizational performance was ascertained through self-reported questions about performance relative to local market competitors. Respondents believed that, to varying degrees, all IORs lead to a competitive advantage over local competitors in all seven performance categories. There was no consistent pattern for either loose or tight linkages to be associated with superior performance. Consequently, loose linkages may be preferable to tighter linkages (i.e., membership in a fully integrated delivery system) that require higher levels of resource commitment.
Economic Competition↗
The economic impact of several hospitals on their community.
This study quantifies the value that several hospitals in a hospital system have on their local communities. Also included is an analysis of the types of value-added services and resources offered by the hospitals. The hospitals are assessed in 3 arenas: as an employer, as a major provider of healthcare services, and as a contributor to the quality of life of the region through the involvement of its employees in community services activities. The results indicate that the hospital system contributes almost dollars 1.7 billion (or 6.6%) toward the dollars 25 billion local economy.
Catchment Area, Health↗
The comprehensive organizational plan: how a COP can protect and serve your health care organization.
In today's hyperturbulent and competitive health care environment, health care organizations must improve operating efficiency, reduce duplication, and compete effectively in the health care market to survive. The comprehensive organizational plan is a 5-stage development tool for health care organizations that is intended to protect and serve the health care organization in its survival efforts. Through its 5 planning stages-competitive, facilities, financial, human resources, and marketing-the comprehensive organizational plan assists the organization in optimizing the goals of cost containment, quality preservation, and universal access.
Cost Control↗
Incorporating ethics into your comprehensive organizational plan.
Today's health care executives find their organizations facing internal and external environments that are behaving in chaotic and unpredictable ways. From inadequate staffing and an increase in clinical errors to outdated risk management procedures and increased competition for scare reimbursements, these health care managers find themselves making decisions without being fully informed of the ethical ramifications of these decisions. A 6-part Comprehensive Organizational Plan is presented that helps the health care decision maker better understand the key success factors for the organization. The Comprehensive Organizational Plan is an overall plan that is intended to protect and serve your organization. The 6 plans in the Comprehensive Organizational Plan cover the following areas: competition, facilities, finances, human resources, information management, and marketing. The comprehensive organizational plan includes an overlay of the ethical considerations for each part of the plan.
Decision Making, Organizational↗
Hospital design and staff perceptions: an exploratory analysis.
The movement in the health care design field to focus on "patient-centered care" and "healing environments" is often reflected in the health care facilities' incorporation of features meant to mitigate the stressful nature of serious illness. These features may range from a resource center (to allow patients and families to properly educate themselves about their illness) to providing space in rooms so family members can remain with patients, to more ambient features such as soft lighting, water features, or healing gardens. Research has shown that such features can in fact have positive effects for patients and may reduce stress and speed physical healing. What is not as well understood is how (if at all) the medical staff uses these types of features. Good health care cannot be administered without health care professionals, but factors such as job stress and burnout can impair both the physical and psychological health of the staff. A supportive organizational environment is imperative, but this article will set out to show that a supportive physical environment can be just as necessary in influencing how the staff views their workplace as well as how they might fare with regard to their own health. This article will examine a subset of results from a recent employee satisfaction survey given at a medical center. Exploratory analysis and interpretation will begin to shed light on whether or not building design can have an impact (positive or negative) on staff satisfaction. This can potentially act as a springboard to guide future empirical research in the area of health care design and its impact on staff satisfaction and well-being. By analyzing findings from a recent employee satisfaction survey, we can begin to understand how the hospital staff perceives the design of their building and begin to determine if these perceptions might impact health outcomes among the employees.
Florida↗
Not-for-profit versus for-profit health care providers-Part I: comparing and contrasting their records.
The debate over which health care providers are most capably meeting their responsibilities in serving the public's interest continues unabated, and the comparisons of not-for-profit (NFP) versus for-profit (FP) hospitals remain at the epicenter of the discussion. From the perspective of available factual information, which of the two sides to this debate is correct? This article is part I of a 2-part series on comparing and contrasting the performance records of NFP health care providers with their FP counterparts. Although it is demonstrated that both NFP and FP providers perform virtuous and selfless feats on behalf of America's public, it is also shown that both camps are involved in potentially willful clinical and administrative missteps. Part I contains the background information (eg, legal differences, perspectives on social responsibility, and types of questionable and fraudulent behavior) that is necessary to adequately understand the scope of the comparison issue. Part II offers actual comparisons of the 2 organizational structures using several disparate factors such as specific organizational behaviors, approach to the health care priorities of cost and quality, and business-focused goals of profits, efficiency, and community benefit.
Efficiency, Organizational↗
Not-for-profit versus for-profit health care providers--Part II: Comparing and contrasting their records.
The debate over which health care providers are most capably meeting their responsibilities in serving the public's interest continues unabated, and the comparisons of not-for-profit (NFP) versus for-profit (FP) hospitals remain at the epicenter of the discussion. From the perspective of available factual information, which of the two sides to this debate is correct? This article is part II of a 2-part series on comparing and contrasting the performance records of NFP health care providers with their FP counterparts. Although it is demonstrated that both NFP and FP providers perform virtuous and selfless feats on behalf of America's public, it is also shown that both camps have been accused of being involved in potentially willful clinical and administrative missteps. Part I provided the background information (eg, legal differences, perspectives on social responsibility, and types of questionable and fraudulent behavior) required to adequately understand the scope of the comparison issue. Part II offers actual comparisons of the 2 organizational structures using several disparate factors such as specific organizational behaviors, approach to the health care priorities of cost and quality, and business-focused goals of profits, efficiency, and community benefit.
Efficiency, Organizational↗