Care Coordination

The accountable care organization between Downers Grove, Ill.-based Advocate Health Care and BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois resulted in slower growth in the use of inpatient services in 2012, according to a Crain's Chicago Business report.

As CMS grows its partnerships with states to improve the value of healthcare, it has placed a particular focus on improving use of emergency care. In an informational bulletin, CMS discusses three key strategies to reduce inappropriate emergency department use:

Getting into accountable care is a challenge for any provider organization, but especially so for small, rural hospitals and physician groups. Many smaller organizations don't have as much access to capital as their urban counterparts, for instance, and are therefore…

Vanderbilt University Medical Center didn't seem to have enough beds. A recent evident bed shortage forced staff to place patients in any available bed space, including empty beds in the emergency department and intensive care unit. At one point, 30…

Swedish Covenant Hospital reaches out to the community to help the uninsured get coverage.

Nearly 2.2 million people had selected health plans through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act state-based and federal marketplaces by Dec. 28, according to an HHS report.

Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey added 300 physicians to its Patient-Centered Medical Home Program, bringing the total number of participating physicians to more than 1,300.

Patient-centered care is a cornerstone of any accountable care organization, but creating or joining one doesn't necessarily make patient engagement any easier. In the world of healthcare business, patient engagement may sound like a "soft" concept, but its difficulty is…

Here are a few important study and survey findings about accountable care organizations from the past couple of months.

On January 10th, TeleTracking held a webinar in conjunction with The Joint Commission discussing tactics for managing patient flow in hospitals.