Care Coordination

Rush University Medical Center, based in Chicago, temporarily diverted ambulances and canceled surgeries July 28 after a malfunction knocked out the air conditioning in the hospital’s main tower during a heat wave.  A chilled water line disabled the building’s HVAC…

As the new chief medical officer of St. Vincent Regional Hospital in Billings, Mont., Christopher Strear, MD, looks to employ a tried-and-true management framework to tackle capacity strain.  The theory of constraints, a decades-old management methodology focused on identifying and…

A July 24 executive order to reduce homelessness in the U.S. instructs federal agencies to end “housing first” policies in favor of involuntary commitments, or force admissions, at hospitals.  President Donald Trump’s order, “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets,”…

Hospital leaders are familiar with emergency department boarding, but a different capacity challenge is growing in EDs as more people arrive needing not medical care, but a safe place to stay.  Although not a new issue, these so-called social holds…

Older adults with serious illness before undergoing elective surgery use nearly twice as many healthcare resources as their healthier counterparts, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons.  The study found these patients…

UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital in Aurora is postponing some elective surgery cases amid staffing issues within its sterile processing department.  The department is currently operating at reduced capacity, a UCHealth spokesperson said in a statement shared with Becker’s.  “Until…

Across seven states, at least 25% of hospitals reported they no longer provided obstetric services by 2022, and more than a two-thirds of rural hospitals in eight states were without obstetric services, a recent study found. The study, published in…

Funding cuts, immigration crackdowns, an executive order declaring English the nation’s official language and a lack of clarification from HHS on medical interpretation requirements have left medical interpretation services in limbo, KFF Health News reported July 16. Here is what…

HealthPartners, an eight-hospital system based in Bloomington, Minn., has reported early results from a care coordination clinic for patients with complex healthcare needs. The system’s Advanced Care Primary Care Clinic is designed to reduce costly emergency department visits and hospital…

Healthcare access is not just about wait time, according to Baligh Yehia, MD, president of Jefferson Health. The 32-hospital Philadelphia-based system, views the issue of access as a multidirectional problem. More than 3 in 5 Americans cannot access affordable, quality…