White Papers
Top 10 Healthcare Trends for 2012
By Doug Smith, MBA, MHA and Christine Ricci, BSN, MBA
Annually B. E. Smith surveys healthcare executives to reveal top-of-mind trends that will affect the industry in the coming year. The trends noted in this survey have been discussed in the board room for some time, but the pressure they're putting on providers will only intensify in 2012.
10 Questions for Comprehensive Succession Planning
By Kathy Noland, Ph.D
If you haven't yet begun succession planning within your healthcare organization, you're not alone. In fact, 70% of chief executives say there's no succession planning within their facilities, while more than 50% of CEOs report that it isn't done on a system level, according to a report published by the American College of Healthcare Executives.
Growing Tomorrow's Talent Today: Succession Planning a Critical Strategy in Healthcare
By Vicki Darnell, MSN, and Kathy Noland, Ph.D
The only constant in healthcare is change. Technological advances, agressive healthcare reform, and increasing reporting and regulatory demands are critical issues for every chief executive officer and his or her team. However, with nearly 75% of healthcare CEOs planning to retire in the next 10 years and 60% of CNOs anticipating changing jobs in the next four years, succession planning has moved to the forefront of strategic initiatives.
Top 10 Questions to Optimize Case Managment Performance
By Bobbi Baguhn, MA, BSN, RN, CNLC, CMAC
It's no secret that increasing regulatory demands and ever-shrinking reimbursements are putting pressue on today's healthcare organizations. The result is that many providers are trying to do more with less, leading to breakdowns in efficiency that eat away at revenue and degrade quality of care. It's time to ask some tough questions to ensure your case management function is positioned to sustain clinical excellence and a healthy bottom line.
Top 10 IT Questions: Staying Ahead of a Constantly Evolving Landscape
By Rich Miller, MBA, and Mike Supple
In today's fast-moving healthcare environment, your organization's ability to keep up with the latest information technology advances is a key ingredient to long-term success. With myriad IT demands on the horizon, achieving peak productivity and financial performance while seamlessly moving patients through the continuum of care is more critical - and difficult - than ever before. It's time to ask a few tough questions to ensure your organization is prepared to successfully address the challenges of a constantly evolving IT landscape.
10 Questions for Improving Financial Performance
By Jamie Townsend
The path to a healthy bottom line sounds simple: maximize volume a reimbursement while delivering care in the most cost effective and efficient manner, and reduce costs where possible. In practice, it's anything but simple. With ever-changing regulatory and reimbursement requirements, astute financial management is crucial to your organization's success, if not survival. You must ask some tough questions to steward your organization through these challenging times.
10 Questions for Your Inpatient Rehabilitation Leadership
By Rita Green, BAABS, MBA
Your inpatient rehabilitation unit (IRU) has always been a premier service for your organization. But with ever-tightening regulatory constraints, your IRU isn't the top performer it once was. Maybe census has dropped, your operating margin may be compromised and/or employee expense has increased. Perhaps you've noticed that case management refers to patients to your rehab competitors a bit too often. Why? It's time to ask some tough questions to gauge your organization's readiness to face the challenges of a changing business market.
Healthrcare Trends – 2011
by Doug Smith, MBA, MHA and Christine Ricci, RN, MBA
B. E. Smith’s annual survey of more than 200 healthcare executives provides insight into issues industry leaders expect to face in the coming year. The results of the most recent survey revealed a common theme.
Winning the War for Talent
by Katherine Welter, MHSA
When MaineGeneral Health (MGH) found itself in the unenviable position of needing to hire two emergency room directors simultaneously for its acute care facilities two years ago, Karen Dostie, MGH’s recruitment manager, saw almost immediately that her organization would need to rethink its salary guidelines.
Baby Boomer Healthcare Exodus
by Brian Krehbiel
Little noticed yet looming large, an impending mass exodus of baby boomer executives from healthcare might be the 800-pound gorilla in the hospital boardroom. Everyone sees it, but no one wants to talk about it.
Advancing your Leadership Career with an Executive Search Firm
by Kathy Noland, RN, PhD and Mike Myers, MBA, CSCS
During a career transition, many executives may view the search process as a sprint to the finish line prompted by the very quality that has set them apart—the drive to succeed. Yet, finding the right fit in a new position involves introspection and interaction, which is more of a paced marathon with intervals allowing time for relationship building, self-evaluation, and professional growth.
How to Survive Your Next Hospital Leadership Crisis
by Doug Smith, MBA, MHA
Hospitals have been struggling with staffing shortages for quite some time now. Even major media outlets have focused on this crisis in our healthcare system. At the same time, however, a related problem has been simmering that has not received the attention it deserves. The growing shortage of hospital leadership talent is an erupting crisis for our nation’s hospitals and will be a significant challenge for many years.
In Search of Top Leadership
by Kathy Noland, RN, PhD
Shrinking reimbursements, escalating costs, unparalleled staff shortages, consumer skepticism, regulatory scrutiny...the complex challenges impacting healthcare organizations show no signs of abating. Yet some healthcare organizations are thriving, leading the industry and achieving remarkable outcomes. What is their secret? The ability to attract and retain a high-performing leadership team.
Improve Your Financial Success - Focus on Your Physicians
by Willis Bultje, MBA, FACHE, CASC
It may seem counterintuitive, but consider that physicians are a hospital’s prime customers and salespeople. Perioperative services now account for 60 percent of hospital margins, on average, meaning that to improve financial performance, hospitals must improve volume and margin with physicians’ active participation.
Planning and Executing a Successful Candidate Site Visit
by Kathy Noland, RN, PhD
Virtually every healthcare organization conducts site visits for candidates, but do they really know why? Chances are, if your organization follows an intractable administrative hiring process, you understand the administrative process you strictly follow rather than the “why” of the visit.
Marketplace and Industry Equivalent Titles are Essential for Successful Recruitment
by Ilah Stolz, RN, MS
A title on a business card or a job description today is much more than just a label. Rather, it offers to the world a definition of the individual’s level of experience, stature within an organization, and decision-making authority.