Financial Systems

Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach, Fla., has used lean sigma disciplines as a basis of continuous improvement and to ensure sustainable business outcomes.

At a time when healthcare reform is making sweeping changes in the way providers and patients are viewing healthcare, some physicians have become open to business models that promise to make healthcare more efficient while improving care. One example of this is applying the franchise concept to orthopedic care, in a network of clinics that will be able to share and use information in ways that will drive down costs.

What happens when strategy, collaboration, and necessity all meet? Sometimes, one gets noteworthy innovation, along with unusual, yet very workable, organizational structures. That’s certainly what’s happened in south central New Jersey, where an initial collaboration of private-practice physicians has led to both a physician organization with a highly entrepreneurial culture, and a successful spinoff IT and administrative services organization.

All CIOs and health information management (HIM) directors are hearing the clarion call for the ICD-10 transition that must occur on Oct. 1, 2013 and are starting to lay the groundwork now. Because the transfer to ICD-10 codes touches almost all departments of a healthcare organization, many are finding it difficult to assign ownership of this tremendous task. One such organization, the 450-bed East Jefferson General Hospital in New Orleans, sought to fix this problem with outside help from a consulting firm, Aspen Advisors (Pittsburgh, Pa.). With help, the organization was able to assess the impact of this transition and to work out an implementation strategy, roadmap for compliance, and funding requirements.

After four years in a row of recognizing healthcare IT leadership teams through our Healthcare Informatics Innovator Awards program, some themes have become apparent.