Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Hospitals Boost Patient Care To Improve Their Bottom Lines
Two years ago, Inova Health System recruited a top executive who was not a physician, had never worked in hospital administration and barely knew the difference between Medicare and Medicaid. What Paul Westbrook specialized in was customer service. His background is in the hotel business – Marriott and The Ritz-Carlton, to be precise. He is one of dozens of hospital executives around the country with a new charge. Called chief patient experience officers, their focus is on the service side of hospital care: improving communication with patients and making sure staff are attentive to their needs, whether that’s more face time with nurses or quieter hallways so they can sleep. (Rabin, 11/4)
The Obama administration’s $30 billion effort to encourage hospitals to digitize their health records and modernize the health care system seems to be failing--with half the participating health providers threatening to bail out of the program. (Ehley, 11/3)
