The health care manager
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The health care manager · Dec 2002
The organizational huddle process--optimum results through collaboration.
The St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center in Paterson, New Jersey, initiated a methodology called The Organizational Huddle Process in the fall of 1999. This communication vehicle enhances operational performance through a fast, focused, and highly collaborative process. ⋯ Hundreds of problems have been resolved before escalating to crisis levels, with an increase in stakeholder satisfaction. This process is appropriate for all levels within an organization, is effective for both interdisciplinary and departmental groups, and has minimal associated implementation costs. This article reviews the rationale and benefits of The Organizational Huddle Process, a recommended implementation strategy, and a nurse manager's review on the application of this methodology.
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One of the major concerns of patients using hospital emergency rooms (ERs) for emergency medical procedures is the inevitable long wait to receive service. This article addresses why the wait is important to manage, how ER managers might manage the reality of the patient waits, and how they might manage patient perception of the wait. The article concludes with managerial guidelines for managing ER patient waits.
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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. ⋯ 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.
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Due to a few well-publicized stories about patient injury and death, office-based ambulatory surgery has recently been thrust upon the forefront of current discussions about clinical outcomes. This has stimulated interest among ambulatory surgery stakeholders, including physicians, patients, and elected officials. ⋯ The results did not definitively indicate a relationship between unaccredited medical offices and unacceptable surgical procedures. The paper concludes by offering fifteen medical office standards that can aid in developing office surgery oversight policies.
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The health care manager · Jun 2001
Being good and doing good: the culture of professionalism in the health professions.
The characteristics of being good and doing good are discussed in the current societal context of distrust, cynicism, and decreasing integrity and commitment. Health professionals choose being good and doing good as a career. Many reasons are given as to why professionalism has declined in the health professions: "the system," decreased individual rewards and personal satisfaction, and the loss of focus on the patient. The author suggests three levels of aggressive intervention--the professional organization, the organization one works for, and the individual--to revitalize good citizenship and professionalism.