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Highlights of Selected Current Engagements & Services
Industry "Watchlist"
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Highlights of Selected Current Engagements & Services

Strategies creating consumer-driven healthcare market product positioning.
Managed care strategic plan and internal and external environmental assessments
Academic medical center clinical faculty compensation disparity study and recommendation implementation
Hospital productivity assessment and systems, procedures, and policy implementation
EHR/EMR systems design and adoption
Improving the efficiency of systems applications and performance of IT quality assurance testing.
Operations improvement through multiple business diagnostics programs.
Improving profitability through clinical program level functional standards re-engineering and development, isolating operating performance issues, and implementing corrective actions.
Board education and strategic planning coordination/mediation.
Maximizing net operating revenues through design and development of market-driven rate management programs.
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This Months Key Industry "Watchlist"

IT Systems Planning & Organization

Unprecedented focus is being placed on the value and application of systems technology in healthcare. HHS is raising the bar again by recently awarding four contracts to advance the adoption of health IT to develop:

Not-for-profit standards processes
Criteria and evaluation processes for certifying EHR and health IT infrastructure and network components for data sharing purposes
Establishing the Health Information Security and Privacy Collaboration partnership throughout 40 states
Prototypes for a nationwide health IT network

Hospitals must seriously consider the effectiveness of existing long-range IT planning and self diagnostics on a number of important levels for this major support function which represents the information “backbone” through which an organization is operated.

Consumer-Driven Strategies

Consumer-driven health is far from being a myth today as it once was considered. Enrollment in consumer-driven plans has tripled since 2003 with much of this growth the result of increased number of covered employees by employer, which demonstrates confidence among employer groups that this was a favorable business decision and well accepted by the employee. With the increased pressures on the economy, we can be safely assured continued growth in this sector. Hospitals can be proactive, or become reactive in the face of this dramatic and growing shift in the healthcare industry. Our experience has shown the earlier an organization can adequately assess the impact within their own unique market, the greater the opportunity for significant long-term benefit.

Physician Relations & Marketing

There is a growing concern over physician shortages in the U.S. The lack of the necessary number of qualified clinicians in the necessary specialties and services projects a long shadow, impacting an organization directly and indirectly. Physician supply is affected by many factors including medical school enrollment, economics, geographic location, competition, and dynamic changes in market needs, to name a few. With a proper, consistent and comprehensive management plan focusing on current and long-term community needs, physician satisfaction, wide-range physician sources, and engaging physician recruitment practices, hospitals can minimize if not alleviate such serious events and their economic implications.

Net Operating Revenue Diagnostics

Too many hospitals rely on large expensive systems and inadequate manual interventions which purport to generate accurate net patient revenue. Our experience has identified millions of dollars in under reported net revenue subsequent to an effective review of contract terms, payment rules, and other basis terms which are not being properly recognized under existing processes. Hospitals with pressures on patient volume and operating costs cannot afford to give away large amounts of its bottom line while assuming present systems are working properly. Before any strategy or action of any kind is considered by the Hospitals management and Board to improve volume or reduce costs, they must have 100% confidence in its reported net patient revenue.

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