Given the increasing market and technological uncertainty of capital investments, healthcare financial executives need to incorporate flexibility into their decision making. Traditional capital budgeting techniques do not take into consideration the need for flexibility, changes in the environment, or actions by management. In response, practitioners from various industries have adopted ...

Though most traditional HR performance metrics don't predict organizational performance, alternatives simply have not existed--until now. During the past ten years, researchers Laurie Bassi and Daniel McMurrer have worked to develop a system that allows executives to assess human capital management (HCM) and to use those metrics both to predict ...

The aims of the study were to determine: (1) which components managers of Flemish not-for-profit healthcare organizations chose to incorporate in their mission statement, (2) how satisfied managers of Flemish not-for-profit healthcare organizations are with the formulation of various mission statement components and (3) if the managers of Flemish not-for-profit ...

Whether it's playing chess or planning for retirement, we all have strategies for different situations in our lives. So why not apply, strategies in our practice ? Companies such as Dell, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot have depended on strategic plans to generatel millions of dollars and guide their organizations into ...

Senior executives have long been frustrated by the disconnection between the plans and strategies they devise and the actual behavior of the managers throughout the company. This article approaches the problem from the ground up, recognizing that every time a manager allocates resources, that decision moves the company either into ...

The balanced scorecard is a strategic management system that impels managers to focus on the performance metrics that drive success. It measures the business process and links a management method for process improvement to strategic goals. A medical practice can use a balanced scorecard to improve operational performance and quality ...

One of the goals contained in the ASHRM Strategic Plan for 2007-2009 is to develop the risk management professional in a changing healthcare environment. The goal is tremendously important to all of us.

All these technology solutions enhance practice profitability and staff efficiency and are reasonably priced. If your office is not taking advantage of these tools, put them on your list of discussion points for the next partner meeting. Keep in mind, however, that tools on their own cannot solve reimbursement issues--financial ...

Finance managers can play a leading role in determining the success of physician employment by addressing physicians' financial concerns. Physicians can benefit from financial managers' help in clarifying how practice decisions affect financial outcomes, and making the entire process transparent. Communication should include validation of data integrity, development of targeted ...

The idea of establishing a market for organs is now the subject of unusual controversy. Proponents emphasize the concept of autonomy; opponents invoke fairness and justice. The controversy, however, has given sparse attention to what it would mean to society and medicine to establish a market in organs and to ...

In the 1990s, the turbulent environment continued to exert pressure on the management of cost, access, and quality of healthcare provision. To strengthen financial and market positions, mergers and acquisitions became popular strategies along with the reengineering of internal structures. Since this trend of restructuring and reengineering, an understanding of ...

AIM: To identify the experiences of primary care trust employees, the dental teams and other key individuals of the planning, implementation and management of a Personal Dental Services scheme. METHOD: A thematic analysis of a series of qualitative interviews with 29 individuals who were involved in the planning, implementation and ...

Does management talent transfer from one company to another? The market certainly seems to think so. Stock prices spike when companies announce new CEOs from a talent generator like General Electric. But how do these executives perform over the long term? The authors studied the careers of 20 former GE ...

To realize the goals of successive health strategies, managers in the Irish Health Sector will have to proactively facilitate optimal employee performance in line with policy objectives. Along with developing employee and teams' capabilities, these managers have begun to implement performance management to achieve the latter. However, there typically are ...

When employees believe they are being treated fairly-when they feel heard, when they understand how and why important decisions are made, and when they believe they are respected-their companies will benefit. Research shows that practicing process fairness reduces legal costs from wrongful-termination suits, lowers employee turnover, helps generate support for ...

In more than 30 essays for Harvard Business Review, Peter Drucker (1909-2005) urged readers to take on the hard work of thinking--always combined, he insisted, with decisive action. He closely analyzed the phenomenon of knowledge work--the growing call for employees who use their minds rather than their hands--and explained how ...

Management information systems (MIS) and decision support systems (DSS), used as part of broader healthcare technology management, are considered to be health technologies. As such, they should meet the criteria of affordability, appropriateness, cost-effectiveness, ease of use and sustainability if they are to be implementable and have a lasting impact ...

The purpose of this descriptive and cross-sectional study is to explore the relationships between managers' leadership styles and employees' job satisfaction in Isfahan University Hospitals, Isfahan, Iran, 2004. The data were collected through the distribution of two questionnaires among the 814 employees, first line, middle and senior managers of these ...

Medical science has made revolutionary changes in the past few decades. Contemporaneously, however, healthcare has made incremental changes at best. One area within healthcare that best exemplifies this is the operating room (OR). The growing discrepancy between the revolutionary changes in medicine and the minimal changes in healthcare processes leads ...

This article describes the performance appraisal process in terms of its three fundamental steps. defining job performance, measuring actual job performance, and providing job performance feedback. Given that most practice managers wear many hats and do not have extensive experience or staff support in human resources, the purpose of this ...

The purpose of this article is to report on case study research conducted in a German hospital and describe the implications that the "Management by walking about" approach had on healthcare employees. "Management by walking about" is widely seen as one of the favoured procedures for increasing employee commitment and ...

Widespread cooperation between domain experts and front-line clinicians is a key component of any successful clinical knowledge management framework. Peer review is an established form of cooperation that promotes the dissemination of new knowledge. The authors describe three peer collaboration scenarios that have been implemented using the knowledge management infrastructure ...

Many healthcare professionals question whether the industry's hospitals and multi-site systems are implementing the necessary executive development and succession planning systems to ensure that high potential managers are prepared and aptly selected to assume key executive roles. Survey data, case studies, and cross-industry comparisons suggest that healthcare organizations may face ...

This study compares the requirements of three forest certification systems, the Sustainable Forestry Institute (SFI), the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), with the 2005 McDonald-Dunn Forest Plan Revision. The analysis was done with a series of matrices comparing the requirements of SFI and FSC ...

Artificial organs and regenerative medicine are the subjects of very active research and development (R&D) in Japan and various artificial organs are widely used in patients. Results of the R&D are presented at the annual conference of the Japanese Society for Artificial Organs (JSAO). Progress in the fields of artificial ...

Making mistakes when dealing with staff in the myriad HR issues that EMS managers confront on a daily basis can lead to significant liability. HR mistakes can also have long-term impact on the health of the organization when staff members lose respect for their leaders and morale is decreased. Establishing ...

Managers often tend to behave as though they are responsive to different motivating forces than their employees. However, employees at all levels are much alike in terms of what they wish to obtain from their work. There are drives that vary in intensity from person to person, but the basic ...

The results of the present longitudinal study demonstrate the importance of implicit leadership theories (ILTs) for the quality of leader-member exchanges (LMX) and employees' organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and well-being. Results based on a sample of 439 employees who completed the study questionnaires at 2 time points showed that the ...

Strategic supply chain management differs from traditional supply chain management in that it leaves nothing to chance: It takes into account physician preference in product selection and pricing. It does not allow vendors to bypass supply chain leaders. Its leaders require a broad understanding of strategic, financial, and clinical issues. ...

One of the most resource intensive areas in many hospitals is the OR, which often accounts for more than 50% of a hospital's materials management budget. Surgical services managers often have no formal training in materials and financial management, but they are held accountable for one of the most costly ...

The success of the NICU depends in large part on the manager's ability to continuously identify the high, middle, and low performers on the unit. To retain top performers, the manager must ensure a challenging work environment paired with zero tolerance for substandard performance. Middle performers need positive recognition and ...

This study's purpose was to assess the agreement between management and employee ratings of organizational policies and practices (OPP) involved in the return to work process following carpal tunnel surgery. As a part of the prospective community-based Maine Carpal Tunnel II Study, 65 manager and employee pairs completed a questionnaire ...

A basic knowledge of financial accounting can help radiologists analyze business opportunities and examine the potential impacts of new technology or predict the adverse consequences of new competitors entering their service area. The income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement are the three basic financial statements that document the ...

Forest certification has been promoted to encourage sustainable use of natural forests. While its use in industrial plantation forests has not always been welcomed (World Rainforest Movement 2002), forest certification offers great opportunities in the tropics. This paper assesses the profitability of forest certification of an industrial hardwood plantation in ...

This chapter examines some of the key issues surrounding the incorporation of the Knowledge Management (KM) paradigm for personalised healthcare. We discuss the complex nature of KM, some essential concepts necessary to make personalised healthcare a reality and introduce a schematic which illustrates the efficacy of KM for personalised health.

Along with the boom in information technology and vast development in genomic and proteomic discoveries, the pharmaceutical and biotech industries have been provided the means and tools to create a new page in medicinal history. They are now able to alter the classic ways to cure complex diseases thanks to ...

OBJECTIVES: Most resident physicians accrue significant financial debt throughout their medical and graduate medical education. The objective of this study was to analyze emergency medicine resident debt status, financial planning actions, and educational experiences for financial planning and debt management. METHODS: A 22-item questionnaire was sent to all 123 Accreditation ...

The notion of incorporating knowledge management (KM) in the healthcare sector has recently witnessed a lot of interest, both from healthcare practitioners and scholars. Because KM for healthcare has just started to appear on the radar of healthcare stakeholders, there exists very limited research (particularly empirical data) to guide healthcare ...

Conflict is inevitable and can be both positive and negative. Although it is impossible, and probably not wise, to eliminate conflict, it is prudent for healthcare organizations to provide direct instruction in conflict-management training. In this study, 23 supervisors and managers in a local healthcare organization participated in two 3-hour ...

INTRODUCTION: Employee perceptions of management commitment to safety are known to influence important safety-related outcomes. However, little work has been conducted to explore non-safety-related outcomes resulting from a commitment to safety. METHOD: Employee-level outcomes critical to the effective functioning of an organization, including attitudes such as job satisfaction and commitment ...

Operational inefficiencies, sub-optimal patient care, financial losses and missing or ineffective sanctions for non-compliance are all potential outcomes that can stem from passive policy and procedure management. Automation can help solve these problems and provide strategic, operational and financial benefits to health care organizations and their professionals.The implementation and use ...

Supply-chain management--the art of getting the most at the least cost from the products and services purchased by an organization--has transformed industries such as manufacturing and retailing, and can potentially do the same for healthcare. VHA is committed to keeping its members educated on current thinking and best practices in ...

When organizations merge, the role of the middle manager as an agent of change is to make sense of, unite, and transmit the organization's culture. This process is complicated because the manager must get deep inside a new organization's culture and come to know its needs processes, and people in ...

How does customer loyalty grow? Through good customer experiences. Yet some organizations seem to genuinely fail to understand that they can keep or lose a customer in the proverbial blink of an eye. And in this era of increasing customer demands across all industries, it's important that healthcare financial managers ...

The provisions of SFAS Nos. 145,146, and 132 (revised), which all became effective before June 30, 2004, should provide important guidelines for many types of healthcare organizations that engage in certain debt refinancing, sale-leaseback transactions, and exit and disposal activities, as well as those that offer pension and postretirement employee ...

Performance management consists of significantly more than periodic evaluation of performance. It is the art and science of dealing with employees in a manner intended to positively influence their thinking and behavior to achieve a desired level of performance. It is essential for the manager to always model positive behavior ...

Each person who works in your medical practice is unique and has different goals, values, dreams, and perceptions. This uniqueness means that you can't make assumptions about what your employees want. By learning what makes the people working in your practice tick, you will be able to develop meaningful rewards ...

Partnering with healthcare real estate managers and investors is one way to generate capital, improve cash flow, and minimize the management costs of developing and operating outpatient properties without sacrificing control of strategic locations or facilities. Eight simple steps can help you identify and select viable strategic healthcare real estate ...

Financial performance measures are essential to improve the fiscal management of academic nurse-managed centers (ANMCs). Measures are compared among six ANMCs in a consortium and against an external, self-sustainable, profitable ANMC and national data for family practice physicians. Performance measures help identify a center's strengths and weaknesses facilitating the development ...

Practices must concentrate on optimizing their financial performance regardless of what economic conditions prevail. Even with signs of an economic turnaround, the 4 areas of your practice highlighted in this article demand your focus. Levin Group is seeing a nationwide breakdown in many of these 4 areas. Proper planning and ...