By Rachel Regan and John Toussaint, MD, as posted at Pharmacy Times Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are groups of doctors, hospitals, and other health care providers, such as pharmacists, who come together voluntarily to give coordinated high-quality care to their Medicare patients. The goal of coordinated care is to ensure that patients, especially the chronically […]
By Laura Landro, as posted in the Wall Street Journal Hospitals are transforming the traditional way nurses change shifts to reduce the chance of errors and oversights in the transfer of information. A critical side effect: patients feel safe, included and satisfied. Studies show that so-called bedside shift reports, with both nurses meeting in the presence […]
By John Toussaint, MD as posted in Harvard Business Review In all of the loud and necessary debates over how to reform health care in the United States before it bankrupts the country, there is one element that has been continually overlooked: the management systems employed by hospitals. Leaders at good hospitals around the country […]
The Wisconsin Health Information Organization (WHIO) is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary. WHIO is Wisconsin’s all payer claims data base (apcd) which was founded as a private-public partnership. Most states have state run apcds but Wisconsin was able to bring many stakeholders to the table to create something very unique. Dr. John Toussaint acted as the […]
In this article published in the September/October 2015 issue of the Journal of Healthcare Management Dr. Toussaint outlines the core elements of a management system which equips organizations for the future. In this roller coaster ride of environmental change in healthcare the one requirement is flexibility. Most healthcare management is autocratic and inflexible. It’s time […]
Pejsa named director of HVN and Hartman, executive coach Appleton, Wis. (Oct. 8, 2015) – The ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value welcomes Paul Pejsa and Thomas Hartman to its growing team. Pejsa is the new director for the Center’s Healthcare Value Network, a peer-to-peer learning group which helps member organizations across North America learn, […]
Four years of nation-wide testing by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has now proven that the current shared savings payment models do not work effectively for low-cost Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). High-cost ACOs have more room to improve and therefore more opportunity for savings. In this Health Affairs blog, David Krueger, M.D., […]
A hospital’s staff discovers improving efficiency isn’t easy by Sabriya Rice CHICAGO ON A WEDNESDAY MORNING early last month, a dozen nurses, housekeepers, surgical technicians and surgical assistants at Presence Health’s Sts. Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center are running behind in their hunt for ways to save time on the hospital’s busy surgical floor. […]
While researching healthcare organizations worldwide, John Toussaint, MD has observed that the most successful transformations occur when model cells are used to experiment with ideas and embrace failure as a path for learning. In a recent article in Becker’s Hospital Review, Dr. Toussaint identified five guidelines to follow that will also help to define the […]
We lost a giant this week. A pioneer, a true leader, a patient advocate, a dear friend. Michel was a unique man. An emergency physician who decided he could make an even bigger difference by leading a hospital. Then also deciding that being a CEO wasn’t quite enough, he pioneered the transformation of St. Boniface. […]
