A hospital that spends more upfront on evidence-based design will soon reap the payback in better outcomes. It was some doctor show on cable: Nurse McCarthy bustles into the hospital room, says “Good morning!” brightly, and crosses the brilliantly polished linoleum...
In 1980, health care in the United States took no more of a bite out of the economy than it did in any other developed country. Then we instituted cost controls. By 2000, U.S. health care cost twice as much as everyone else’s. By 2020 or 2025, we may be back to...
[This article first appeared in H&HN (Hospitals and Health Networks) Daily, January 24, 2012] 2012 and 2013 present a unique and compelling opportunity for health care executives to produce significant change. If we hope to be, as Buckminster Fuller said,...
[From Hospitals & Health Networks Daily, September 20, 2011] There is fire in the valley and smoke in the mountains. A plague is on the land and danger is afoot. That may be — maybe — the good news. Health care is more unstable than it has been at any time in...
Cutting costs does not cut costs. If we hope to steer health care toward a better cheaper future, we have to wrap our minds around this conundrum: Slashing spending does not necessarily improve the bottom line. Governments in Ireland and the United Kingdom have come...
A reader writes to ask: What about personal responsibility? “I see no movement afoot to require the public to accept or meet norms of behavior that would reduce the need for medical treatment—smoking, excess drinking, use of drugs, over weight, etc. What ever happened...
