Close
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News

      Hospitals Put IT in Second Place

      By
      Stacy Lawrence
      -
      December 26, 2005
      Share
      Facebook
      Twitter
      Linkedin

        Nearly one-third of American hospitals arent profitable or are just breaking even. Thats consistent with the previous finding of a survey of hospital CEOs conducted two years ago by consulting firm Deloitte & Touche.

        And while that may not sound very upbeat, the good news for the industry is that it hasnt gotten any worse lately.

        But it does mean that most hospital CEOs are closely focused in on financial issues including addressing the needs of the uninsured, rather than the implementation of new information technology.

        Medicare is becoming an increasingly large source of revenue, up to 37 percent from 33 percent in the previous survey.

        This trend is expected to continue as the Medicare population grows. Hospital CEOs are concerned that increased dependence on Medicare revenues could create additional financial challenges for hospitals.

        Pay-for-performance systems, which are still largely experimental and rely heavily on IT to assess hospitals and doctors via a variety of quality indicators, are not yet fully in place.

        Hospital payments continue to be primarily based on discounted charges and fee-for-service payments.

        Only one-third of hospital CEOs believe that the potential measures for pay-for-performance—clinical/quality outcome data—should be made available on a mandatory basis. But almost all of them believe quality evaluations should be made available on a voluntary basis.

        Its difficult for many hospital CEOs to justify significant budgets for quality measurement and reporting.

        Two-thirds feel like they can only spend money to improve quality reporting if it will produce financial benefits like increased efficiencies or higher patient volumes.

        But measuring return on investment for IT has actually fallen slightly in importance for CEOs. Its increasingly viewed as an unattainable goal.

        “Some of the improvement in quality is going to be really hard to quantify into dollars,” said Tom Hochhausler, partner with Deloitte & Touches life sciences and health care practice. “How do you really effectively measure higher quality?”

        /zimages/5/28571.gifClick here to read more about hospitals that use RFID in their attempts to save money.

        Still, pay-for-performance is gaining traction. Almost all of the nations 4,200 general hospitals are providing Medicare with quality data in exchange for higher reimbursement rates.

        And there are almost 50 hospital sites that voluntarily report quality indicators to the public, according to a recent report from PricewaterhouseCoopers.

        /zimages/5/28571.gifRead the full story on CIOInsight.com: Hospitals Put IT in Second Place

        /zimages/5/28571.gifCheck out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, views and analysis of technologys impact on health care.

        Stacy Lawrence
        Stacy Lawrence is co-editor of CIOInsight.com's Health Care Center. Lawrence has covered IT and the life sciences for various publications, including Business 2.0, Red Herring, The Industry Standard and Nature Biotechnology. Before becoming a journalist, Lawrence attended New York University and continued on in the sociology doctoral program at UC Berkeley.
        Get the Free Newsletter!
        Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
        This email address is invalid.
        Get the Free Newsletter!
        Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis
        This email address is invalid.

        MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

        Latest News

        Zeus Kerravala on Networking: Multicloud, 5G, and...

        James Maguire - December 16, 2022 0
        I spoke with Zeus Kerravala, industry analyst at ZK Research, about the rapid changes in enterprise networking, as tech advances and digital transformation prompt...
        Read more
        Applications

        Datadog President Amit Agarwal on Trends in...

        James Maguire - November 11, 2022 0
        I spoke with Amit Agarwal, President of Datadog, about infrastructure observability, from current trends to key challenges to the future of this rapidly growing...
        Read more
        IT Management

        Intuit’s Nhung Ho on AI for the...

        James Maguire - May 13, 2022 0
        I spoke with Nhung Ho, Vice President of AI at Intuit, about adoption of AI in the small and medium-sized business market, and how...
        Read more
        Cloud

        IGEL CEO Jed Ayres on Edge and...

        James Maguire - June 14, 2022 0
        I spoke with Jed Ayres, CEO of IGEL, about the endpoint sector, and an open source OS for the cloud; we also spoke about...
        Read more
        Applications

        Kyndryl’s Nicolas Sekkaki on Handling AI and...

        James Maguire - November 9, 2022 0
        I spoke with Nicolas Sekkaki, Group Practice Leader for Applications, Data and AI at Kyndryl, about how companies can boost both their AI and...
        Read more
        Logo

        eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

        Facebook
        Linkedin
        RSS
        Twitter
        Youtube

        Advertisers

        Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

        Advertise with Us

        Menu

        • About eWeek
        • Subscribe to our Newsletter
        • Latest News

        Our Brands

        • Privacy Policy
        • Terms
        • About
        • Contact
        • Advertise
        • Sitemap
        • California – Do Not Sell My Information

        Property of TechnologyAdvice.
        © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

        Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

        ×