Aiding you with decision support capabilities

In 1987, hospitals confirmed the importance of information systems by spending $3.6 billion on processing capabilities and $146 million on consulting. In this money well spent? Can you benchmark your expenditures and the capabilities of your HIS?

Product line management: financial incentives mean healthier patients

For the past few years, The Washington Hospital Center has had a prepaid obstetric clinic program for uninsured patients. Although the program was satisfactory, some deficiencies had developed. For example, research had shown a high correlation between a mother's lack of prenatal care and high healthcare expenditures. By implementing a new program that included financial incentives for various prenatal care programs, the hospital was able to financially break even with the old program, have a more predictable financial performance evaluation, and have healthier mothers and babies.

An analysis of revenues and expenses in a hospital-based ambulatory pediatric practice

We developed a method of analyzing revenues and expenses in a hospital-based ambulatory pediatric practice. Results of an analysis of the Children's Medical Group (CMG) at the University of Chicago Medical Center demonstrate how changes in collection rates, practice expenses, and hospital underwriting contribute to the financial outcome of the practice. In this analysis, certain programmatic goals of the CMG are achieved at a level of just under 12,000 patient visits per year. At this activity level, pediatric residency program needs are met and income to the CMG physicians is maximized. An ethical problem from the physician's perspective is created by seeking profit maximization. To accomplish this end, the CMG physicians would have to restrict their personal services to only the better-paying patients. This study serves to underscore the importance of hospital-based physicians and hospital administrators structuring fiscal incentives for physicians that mutually meet the institutional goals for the hospital and its physicians.