Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Hospital Roundup: Preventing Avoidable Errors; Executive Incentives To Improve Quality
Stat: A Millionaire's Mission: Get Hospitals To Stop Killing Their Patients
Joe Kiani likes to point out that the most worn spot on most medical monitoring devices is the mute button. ... His tech fix — if widely implemented — could bring order to the cacophony of beeps, buzzes, and blaring alarms that can so overwhelm nurses and doctors that they push “mute” and miss true emergencies. It could make it easier for staff to monitor patients with complex needs. And it could flag, in advance, potentially fatal errors like incorrect dosing and drug allergies. (McFarling, 2/13)
Modern Healthcare: Paying For Population Health
Trinity Health system executives take home heftier paychecks when they keep patients healthy and out of the hospital. The annual incentive pay for each executive, including the 93-hospital system's CEO, is docked if Trinity's total patient population doesn't show reduced rates of obesity, smoking, readmissions and hospital-acquired conditions. Hitting financial targets, on the other hand, receives little weight in the incentive plan. Trinity's strategy is a sharp departure from the status quo of CEO pay packages where financial incentives have long dominated. But it is a surefire way to focus top leaders' attention on the health system's mission to deliver better outcomes and lower costs to patients in the 22 states where it operates. (Livingston, 2/11)
Nashville Tennessean: Dr. Ming Wang To Lead Chinese Eye Hospital Chain's U.S. Expansion
Fast-growing Chinese eye hospital chain Aier Eye Hospital plans to enter the U.S. market this year, with headquarters in Nashville and a long-term goal to open eye clinics across the country. Leading eye surgeon Dr. Ming Wang of Wang Vision Institute has been tapped as CEO of Aier-USA. The company established a holding company in the U.S., with a starting fund of $50 million. Wang’s association with Aier dates back 15 years, when the company was a small private eye hospital trying to gain a foothold in China’s health care market, where the vast majority of hospitals are controlled by the government. (Alfs, 2/10)
Cleveland Plain Dealer: Major Hospitals Join Together For A Trauma Care Network: Strong Points
Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth and University Hospitals have joined together to create a new Northern Ohio Trauma System (NOTS), which will provide coordinated trauma care to patients throughout Cuyahoga County and the seven-county Northeast Ohio region. As part of this enhanced trauma network, University Hospitals is adding its trauma expertise to NOTS. The NOTS network was originally formed in 2010 between MetroHealth and Cleveland Clinic, and NOTS assisted the City of Cleveland public safety forces to get the right patient to the right place at the right time for their care. (MacFarland, 2/10)
Orlando Sentinel: Florida Hospital Partners With Brazilian Company Livox
In the speech and language impairment world, Livox falls under the umbrella of augmentative and alternative communication, or AAC. The systems help people with disabilities and impaired communication express themselves despite conditions such as autism, stroke, cerebral palsy or even cancer. The devices can be sophisticated and expensive, such as the one Stephen Hawking uses. Or they can be much simpler apps with images, which produce sentences and phrases when pressed by the user. Livox is more user-friendly and easier to customize than other apps available on the market, according to families and speech therapists who use it. (Miller, 2/13)
