Health System

The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) has welcomed 4 South Carolina hospitals to its system.

Between 2015 and 2017, drug spending increased by nearly 20% as drug shortages also increased, resulting in hospitals cutting staff and warning that patient safety is at risk.

In a national effort to improve healthcare and related social needs for the 1 in 5 Americans on Medicaid, 17 health systems have joined together to form the Medicaid Transformation Project.

Coverage of our peer-reviewed research and news reporting in the healthcare and mainstream press.

Since the formation of the nonprofit generic drug company in January, the company has grown to 7 health systems and has named its chief operating officer. Orignally announced as Project Rx, the company will now be named Civica Rx.

Is limiting or discontinuing opioid use in clinical care the answer to addressing the opioid epidemic?

Organizations are trying to think about how they can involve team-based care by incorporating individuals who have a certain skill set that can relieve the practicing clinician, physician, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant from some of the burden, explained Dennis P. Scanlon, PhD, professor, Health Policy and Administration, and director, Center for Health Care and Policy Research, Pennsylvania State University.

In June, Syapse—a company that works with health systems to implement precision medicine across its organizations—took the next step in leading the shift toward precision medicine by launching the Syapse Precision Medicine Council.

A new road map highlights how to overcome barriers to integrating person-centered care and evidence-based research at hospitals caring for vulnerable populations.

The purpose of Project Baseline is to map human health so we can convert from a reactive healthcare system to a proactive healthcare system, explained Adrian F. Hernandez, MD, MHS, vice dean, clinical research, Duke University School of Medicine

The endgame for both the health system and the payer is always the patient, so we try to focus on treating patients in the most cost-effective manner with the most clinically appropriate evidence-based approach, explained Ashley Pappas, PharmD, MHA, assistant director of pharmacy, University of North Carolina Hospitals.

The success of recommendations to improve screening often rests on the availability of efficacious therapies, coverage policies, and other factors that enable and justify screening.

Ninety-three percent of hospitals and health systems enable patients to access their health data, interact with health data, and obtain health services, according to a report from the American Hospital Association. In a nationwide poll from Ernst & Young, consumers and physicians indicated that they want more digital interaction in healthcare.

On Friday, a bipartisan group of governors unveiled a blueprint to reform the US health system in an effort to produce better health outcomes at a lower cost to governments, employers, and individuals. The plan focuses on aligning consumer and provider incentives, encouraging more competition and innovation, reforming insurance markets, expanding proven Medicaid innovations, and modernizing the state–federal relationsip.

On a humanitarian mission to Puerto Rico, Adam Sharp, MD, learned that to improve health, the essentials of food, housing, and water must be available and should be prioritized over medications, surgeries, and therapies.

Coverage of our peer-reviewed research and news reporting in the healthcare and mainstream press.

Health officials are warning of an unusually harsh flu season; Ascension and Providence St. Joseph Health are in talks about a possible merger; and heavy traffic is expected as the final week of ACA sign-ups begins.

After a year-long process, Shawnee Mission Health (SMH) is now a certified member of the MD Anderson Cancer Network, the top ranked cancer center in the US. The 2 will work together to raise the standard of cancer care in the Kansas City metropolitan community through patient-centered care.

At the National Comprehensive Cancer Network's Oncology Policy Summit, a physician administrator from the MD Anderson Cancer Center discussed weaving the patient focus into outcomes measurements.

An evaluation of the use of predictive modeling for primary care resource allocation demonstrated reduced spending and improved quality and patient experience for publicly insured adults.

The healthcare systems in Germany and the United Kingdom are examples of systems that are able to manage costs while improving access to medications; however, it is unlikely that the US will follow these models, explained Gerard Anderson, PhD, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

The authors draw on the experience of past and present payment reforms to suggest principles for successfully designing alternative payment models.

This article details strategies based on principles from psychology and economics that health systems may use to align with physicians.

Results in the current issue of The American Journal of Managed Care show that Texas Health Resources, in collaboration with Healthways, put a care transitions program into 14 hospitals that sharply reduced readmissions through collaborative discharge planning and follow-up.

Many things that need to be refined in order to build successful learning health systems, including an infrastructure that supports learning and research and a better exchange of data and computer information.

Hackers have accessed the personal information of 4.5 million people after the UCLA Health System became the victim of a cyberattack on May 5, 2015.

In a move that will create the largest healthcare system in New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Health System and Barnabas Health have signed a merger agreement that will create RWJ Barnabas Health. The merger is expected to be complete in 2016, but the agreement is subject to review by the New Jersey Attorney General.

Between November 2014 and January 2015, The Commonwealth Fund conducted an online survey of innovation centers affiliated with healthcare organizations to learn about their potential role in promoting health system transformation.

Awareness of chronic kidney disease remains low in the United States, yet the prevalence of the disease will rise over the next 15 years, according to a model developed by RTI.

Despite studies suggesting higher spending levels do not necessarily produce better health outcomes, a new paper to be published in the Journal of Political Economy found the opposite to be true with regard to emergency care.