Advisory group to hospitals: snap up physician practices

To protect long-term profitability, hospitals should acquire primary-care and specialty physician practices, according to the Health Care Advisory Board. Such a move guarantees hospitals control over where patients are sent for expensive procedures as well as the expenses physician-employees incur to care for their patients, something that's nearly impossible to do with independent practitioners.

Physician executive salaries outpace inflation but don't skyrocket--study

A new study compares the salaries of full-time physician executives between 1987 and 1990. It concludes that while the pay outpaced inflation, it didn't skyrocket. And it shows that perks are declining and formal contracts are more common.

Henry Ford derives profits from diversity

Henry Ford Health System has just one strategy: vertical integration. The Detroit system spent the 1980s collecting healthcare businesses to balance its full-service delivery system, and now it's filling in the gaps and streamlining operations.

Hospitals seek savings by cross-training caregivers

A program at a handful of hospitals is seeking to improve efficiency by cross-training skilled employees and staffing hospital positions according to location within the hospital instead of by specialization.

Waging war for nurses. Hospitals could become casualties as salaries escalate

There's a recruiting war going on, a pitched battle for nurses. The pitch includes lucrative sign-on and shift bonuses, which then must be matched by competing hospitals that need to keep their beds staffed. It's all leading to an explosive rise in nurse compensation, for bedside nurses and managers alike, according to the Hay-Modern Healthcare nurse compensation survey.

Hospitals are easily complying with immigration law changes

Complying with the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 was predicted to be a major headache, but hospitals have found the law easy to follow and the fallout limited--if some basic steps aren't overlooked.