healthy4u: generic management

To Die in Texas - Dr Mahmood's Apparently Fatal Stealth Hospital System Collapses Nearly Anechoically

I would bet that most people in the US still think our health care system is highly regulated.  Some may thus conclude that the system is basically safe, because, for example, drugs have to be proven safe and effective to be approved by the government, and hospitals must be licensed and run by competent people who are thoroughly vetted.  Of course, some people still think that the US has, or had until recently, the best health care system in the world (look <a href="http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-care/best-health-care-system-really-john-boehner-f2D11598594">here</a>). Furthermore, the view that less regulation is always better is no quite popular in the US and elsewhere.  For example, after the chemical spill threatened water supplies in the capitol of West Virginia, the Dallas News <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/news/west-explosion/headlines/20131221-despite-crises-from-salmonella-outbreak-to-west-blast-rick-perry-s-pushed-freer-rein-for-business.ece">reviewed</a> Texas Governor Rick Perry's consistent attacks on government regulation.    <blockquote class="tr_bq">'American business in general, and American agriculture specifically, have had enough of bureaucracy at both the federal and state levels, but especially bureaucracy out of Washington,' Perry said at a congressional hearing. 'The men and women who feed and clothe this nation are suffocating under the weight of mounting federal regulations.' That was back in 1993, when Perry was Texas’ agriculture commissioner. Now Texas’ longest-serving governor, Perry has remained steadfast in his opposition to government regulations. </blockquote> Some who take such a neoliberal stance may say the health care system is over-regulated, and thus is inefficient and not innovative, leading to our high costs and poor access. However, an amazing case out of Governor Perry's Texas that was made public last year, and I regret I just heard about recently, suggests how little health care may be regulated, and how unregulated health care, whether or not it is efficient, may be deadly. As <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/investigations/patient-safety/headlines/20130713-patients-died-amid-federal-state-regulatory-inaction.ece">reported</a> in the Dallas News, July, 2013, in the last few years there seems to have been an epidemic of quality problems in a number of seemingly unrelated small rural Texas hospitals.  The report focused first on one hospital, Renaissance Hospital Terrell After for-profit hospital corporation Renaissance Healthcare declared bankruptcy in 2008 (look <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/stories/2008/09/08/story6.html">here</a>), it sold its hospital in Terrell, Texas to RH Terrell Management LLC owned by one Dr Tariq Mahmood.  Almost immediately, however, there was trouble.  First Edwina Henry, the quality director, spied a doctor making questionable entries in patients' charts: <blockquote class="tr_bq">from her office, she had a clear view of doctors’ foot traffic through the medical records department. When she saw [Dr Tariq] Mahmood jotting in patient charts, she knew he wasn’t seeing patients. Mahmood himself had not been credentialed to treat patients — a process in which management vets backgrounds and competencies of doctors. Part of Henry’s job was tracking such evaluations. She also knew it was a breach of privacy laws to review patients’ medical records. 'I immediately questioned some of the clerks and [insurance billing] coders,' she said. They were deeply concerned, saying he was altering the patients’ records to help boost reimbursements for insurance claims, Henry said.</blockquote> When Ms Henry complained, things did not go well, <blockquote class="tr_bq">Henry made her confidential call to the bankruptcy court in early November 2008, alleging potential fraud and threats to patient care that were eluding government notice [Ed - note that the hospital was going through bankruptcy proceedings and had just been acquired by a new owner]. The court forwarded her complaint to the U.S. Justice Department, the Texas attorney general’s office and the state health department, officials confirmed. Later that month, the state health department sent an inspector to the hospital. However, the visit was brief, Henry said, and the inspector didn’t interview her or seek her help in obtaining records. Williams, the health department spokeswoman, told The News her agency’s records show the inspector was unable to substantiate violations at the time. Henry was terminated from Renaissance as part of a 'restructuring'.... </blockquote>Then the hospital was cited for turning patients away from the emergency department, <blockquote class="tr_bq">At Renaissance, two women in labor, one bleeding, were refused treatment. The inspection reports don’t reveal whether the women suffered complications because of the delays. A Renaissance employee told one of the women that if she 'could stand there and have a conversation with them then (she) wasn’t about to have a baby,' reports say.</blockquote> Then there were problems with infection control, <blockquote class="tr_bq">At Renaissance, no supervision over infection control could be found. For three months in the summer of 2010, no one was in charge of tracking infectious diseases or preventing their spread.</blockquote> The next year, the problem was blood transfusions <blockquote class="tr_bq">Inspectors returned to Renaissance in September 2011 to investigate a botched blood transfusion procedure. They found that a registered nurse had not supervised the patient’s care. In another case, an inspector witnessed an unsupervised vocational nurse administering blood to a patient, despite no evidence that she was competent to do so — another violation.</blockquote> In 2012, <blockquote class="tr_bq">During the summer, the Texas secretary of state had revoked Renaissance’s business charter for failure to pay franchise taxes. That office didn’t share the information with the health department; it isn’t required to do so. In September, state health regulators notified Renaissance that they were proposing a $35,050 fine for 13 violations, including the nursing supervision failures, dating as far back as 2010. Williams, the health department spokeswoman, could not explain why the fine process took nearly two years since the first violation. </blockquote> Finally, in 2013, patients started to die, <blockquote class="tr_bq">In January of this year, when state inspectors returned to Renaissance, they found nursing supervision failures yet again. This time, the failures had led to three deaths: All ER patients. All with severe breathing difficulties. All receiving little to no intervention as their conditions worsened.</blockquote> In particular, <blockquote class="tr_bq">[Eve] McCallum sought her own care after complaining of shortness of breath during a family dinner. McCallum had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. When she was admitted, nurses were ordered to monitor her vital signs and oxygen levels. Her breathing soon improved, said her niece, Lou Ann Sims. 'We were fully expecting to pick her up the next morning,' Sims said. Instead, they watched helplessly as her condition deteriorated. On Christmas Day, a physician explained to McCallum’s family that she had to be transferred to the intensive care unit. Later, Sims witnessed a scene she can’t let go of: Her aunt lay connected to a ventilator while a nurse stood smoking a cigarette just outside the door. The nurse had propped open the door with an IV pole. The family immediately sought to have McCallum transferred to another hospital. But hospital officials told them 'this would be a lateral move and was not allowed,' according to a transcript of an interview the family later conducted with state officials. McCallum died two days later. Inspectors wrote that a licensed vocational nurse had been left in charge of her treatment, without a registered nurse’s oversight. There was no evidence an RN had assessed her condition on admission or was watching over her in the ICU. They could find no doctor orders to place her on oxygen, no order for medications administered to her, 'nor evidence of communication with the M.D.' Suspecting more than just care breakdowns at Renaissance, McCallum’s family reported her death to the Texas attorney general’s fraud-control unit.</blockquote> So partially in response to this egregious case, <blockquote class="tr_bq">By February, the state health department had moved to revoke Renaissance’s operating license, and CMS had ordered its federal funding terminated — only the ninth time nationally in the last three years CMS had taken such a step.</blockquote> Even those steps could not shut down the hospital, but city officials took that last step due to the failure to pay taxes. Other Hospitals Dallas News reporter Miles Moffeit found several other cases of severe problems at small hospitals owned by Dr Mahmood, with at least one patient death apparently resulting, . Shelby Regional Medical Center This hospital was owned by Tenet Healthcare, but was sold to another of Dr Mahmood's companies, Shelby Medical Holdings, in 2007 (look <a href="http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-management-administration/shelby-regional-medical-center-in-texas-closes-its-doors.html">here</a>).  In 2009, this hospital was also cited for providing insufficient treatment in the emergency department. In 2012, things were really falling apart, <blockquote class="tr_bq">In October 2012, inspectors were at Shelby chronicling dirty, clogged air-conditioners and failures to prevent ceiling plaster 'from falling into the patient food service line and contaminating food.' Those problems put patients’ safety in 'immediate jeopardy,' they wrote. As inspectors roamed Shelby’s halls in December, the power suddenly went out in four buildings, though not in the main hospital facility itself. The electric bill hadn’t been paid. They found other debts stacking up, too — as much as $190,442 owed to as many as 79 service providers. Signs of neglect were everywhere. Only three of 20 patient rooms inspected were 'fully functional for patient care,' they wrote. They found holes in walls, dirty and tattered curtains, and patients complaining of heat pouring from the faulty A/C system.</blockquote> Finally, in 2013, another patient died, <blockquote class="tr_bq">On Wednesday, CMS cut off federal funding to ... Shelby Regional Medical Center in Center in East Texas after regulators said a patient rushed there by ambulance never received treatment from a doctor. The ER physician wouldn’t leave his 'sleep room,' the inspection report said, resulting in the patient’s death. Regulators also cited the hospital for failing to vet backgrounds of doctors and nurses. </blockquote>Apparently soon thereafter Dr Mahmood shut the hospital down due to "legal issues that ... [he] is facing," <a href="http://lightandchampion.com/article/003856-mahmood-closes-shelby-regional-medical-center-staff-volunteers-time-until-doors-shut">per</a> the Shelby Light and Champion. Lake Whitney Medical Center Dr Mahmood apparently purchased this hospital from a struggling local hospital authority in 2007.   In 2009, it was cited for inadequate care in the emergency department, <blockquote class="tr_bq">At Lake Whitney, a nurse acknowledged to inspectors that she had shredded records of a patient who was denied care following a fall, according to a report. The 'patient wasn’t going to pay anyway,' the nurse was quoted as saying in the document.</blockquote> In 2010, there was evidence of major infrastructure problems, <blockquote class="tr_bq">At Lake Whitney, patients were served food on rusty 'over-the-bed tables that were a source of possible infections for open wounds.' Bulging ceiling tiles exposed pipes. Pavement outside a main hospital door was 'cracked and unlevel,' putting patients at risk of injury. </blockquote>As Dr Mahmood's legal troubles mounted, the hospital was sold to Frontier Hospitals Inc (look <a href="http://watchdogblog.dallasnews.com/2013/08/florida-company-takes-over-lake-whitney-medical-center-effectively-dissolving-embattled-owners-troubled-chain.html/">here</a>). Cozby-Germany Hospital  I have been unable to discover when Dr Mahmood purchased this hospital.  In 2010, it became apparent that the hospital was not properly licensed, <blockquote class="tr_bq">'The administrator reported the new owner had not notified (CMS) … and has not applied for hospital licensure with the state licensing agency,' a report said. [The owner] ... also was found to have appointed his own employees to the hospital’s governing board of directors, instead of independent outsiders.</blockquote> And there were more severe problems with credentialing, <blockquote class="tr_bq">At Cozby-Germany hospital, hospital inspectors discovered that the chief of staff and another doctor had expired medical licenses. There were no 'functional' nurse and doctor credentialing processes, and clinical policies had not been updated since 2008, they said. The hospital pledged reforms.</blockquote> But in May 2011, records show, Cozby hired one of Texas’ most notorious doctors, Rolando Arafiles. <blockquote class="tr_bq">At the time, Arafiles had been placed on probation by the medical board for allegations of harming nine patients, overbilling and improper coding at a Winkler, Texas, facility, according the board. He also was disciplined for intimidating the Winkler nurses who blew the whistle on his practices. In November, Arafiles would be convicted of two felonies linked to the retaliation and would surrender his license.</blockquote> In 2013, two local doctors purchased the hospital. The Vanishing Owner What made this series of cases all the more amazing is that it was really one interlinked case.  All these hospitals, plus a few more, had the same owner.  Yet no one, especially  no one in state or federal government knew that until 2013 when the facts were uncovered by Mr Moffeit. <blockquote class="tr_bq">[Dr Tariq] Mahmood, a Pakistan-trained doctor, obtained his Texas medical license in 1978. Since 2008, he has practiced medicine only at his Central Texas Hospital in Cameron, south of Waco, records with the Texas Medical Board show. Older documentation is not available. Over the last two decades, he has purchased at least six hospital companies and two home-health care agencies, according to filings with the Texas secretary of state. He also has invested his money outside health care, acquiring the historic Hotel Lawrence in downtown Dallas, property records show. In addition to Renaissance, Shelby and Central Texas Hospital, Mahmood owns the Lake Whitney Medical Center in Whitney and Cozby-Germany Hospital in Grand Saline. He sold Community General Hospital in Dilley around the time of his arrest in April. The hospitals have no common corporate identity and little or no website presence, making it difficult for anyone to know they are owned by Mahmood or are part of a chain.</blockquote> However, much bout Dr Mahmood was mysterious, and the deliberate cultivation of mystery might have slowed the response to this case. <blockquote class="tr_bq">Mahmood is rarely seen in the communities where his hospitals are located, say business associates and city officials. Sometimes they catch a glimpse of him passing by in a chauffeur-driven car. 'He’s almost impossible to track down' to discuss business matters, said Tom Elliott, a director for a nonprofit company that owns the hospital building in Grand Saline. 'He lets his people do the talking.' Mahmood is a mystery to many of his own employees. He works almost entirely behind the scenes, they say, focusing largely on the business side of his operations. He often is traveling or spending time at his 10,000-square-foot gated estate in Cedar Hill, they say. 'We see him maybe once a year,' said one of his hospital physicians. 'The employees say he doesn’t like confrontation. I say he just doesn’t like to communicate. He seems to live in a different world.'</blockquote> Aftermath  At some point, the shadowy Dr Mahmood may have to answer for all this, at least to some extent, <blockquote class="tr_bq">In April, federal authorities charged the 62-year-old Cedar Hill resident with defrauding Medicare and Medicaid programs through $1.1 million in false billings. Mahmood is accused of directing employees at his Central Texas Hospital in Cameron to alter underlying information in insurance claims from his other hospitals. 'In many cases,' the indictment alleges, these were 'for patients he had never seen.' Mahmood pleaded not guilty, and his attorney said he denies all charges. He has declined repeated interview requests from The Dallas Morning News. </blockquote> Note, however, that these are charges of financial fraud.  They do not obviously have to do with poor quality care, risks to patients' safety, or the deaths of at least three patients as discussed above. This case was so bad that even the current Governor of Texas, Rick Perry, a politician known for taking a small government, minimal regulation stance, at least said he was going to take some action, as <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/investigations/patient-safety/headlines/20130719-perry-orders-investigation-into-oversight-of-troubled-rural-hospital-chain.ece">reported</a> again in the Dallas News, <blockquote class="tr_bq">The governor’s office has ordered a 'deep and comprehensive look' at health care facilities owned by Dr. Tariq Mahmood, whose chain of rural Texas hospitals avoided serious regulatory action despite years of endangering patients. The inspector general for the state Health and Human Services Commission and one of the agencies it oversees, the state health department, will conduct separate investigations, officials said Friday.</blockquote> And in February, 2014, the Dallas News <a href="http://www.dallasnews.com/investigations/20140206-texas-hospitals-chief-faces-fraud-charges-over-use-of-stimulus-grants.ece">reported</a> that the chief financial officer of the Dr Mahmood's stealth hospital chain was also in hot water, <blockquote class="tr_bq">The top administrator of a chain of hospitals that collapsed under the ownership of a North Texas physician faces charges that he defrauded the federal government of nearly $800,000 in stimulus funds. Joe White of Cameron rose from maintenance man to head administrator and chief financial officer over hospitals once owned by Dr. Tariq Mahmood. Now he joins Mahmood in facing the possibility of prison time. Like Mahmood, who pleaded not guilty, White is accused of identify theft and bilking the federal government of health care dollars. White has yet to enter a plea.</blockquote> Note that the CFO and apparently COO was not even a professional generic manager.  He was a former maintenance man  and operator of a Radio Shack store..  Dr Mahmood has not yet come to trial.  Many questions about the case remain unanswered:  -  Did Mahmood the only person besides his CFO cum maintenance man in charge of all this, or did he have other backers,  cronies, associates? -  What happened to the rigorous state investigation promised by Rick Perry? -  Given that what went on harmed patients, and hence was not just financial manipulation, are there any civil lawsuits pending?  Are there any other criminal investigations?\ Furthermore, despite its egregious nature, this case was amazingly <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/anechoic%20effect">anechoic</a>  The only national recognition I could find was i<a href="http://runningahospital.blogspot.com/2013/07/hospital-slumlord.html">n Paul Levy's Not Running a Hospital blog.</a>  Seven months later, I could find nothing in the national media, nothing in medical and health care literature.  Despite the amazingly poor quality of care in evidence, despite the fact that patients died, I could find no cries of outrage from those who proclaim to support quality health care or patient safety.  Summary Dr Mahmood and his chief operating and financial officer collectively displayed leadership that was ill-informed (the COO/ CFO was a former maintenance man), incompetent (see the egregious health quality problems listed above), self-interested (note the size of Dr Mahmood's mansion versus how little was obviously spent on his hospitals), opaque and dishonest (note how Dr Mahmood's ownership of the hospitals was obscured), and allegedly criminal.  This leadership persisted over at least eight years until it culminated in cases of apparently needless patient deaths.   The amazing case of the stealth for-profit hospital system run by Dr Mahmood, and how its combined problems failed for so long to get systemic regulatory notice hardly suggest that our health care system is heavily regulated, or that current regulation can be relied upon to reassure patients that all is well and that the system is safe. In fact, in the case of Dr Mahmood, government regulators did not seem to even want to know too much about hospital ownership, <blockquote class="tr_bq">Top health regulators weren’t even aware Mahmood owned several hospitals until The News sought information about them earlier this year. Regulatory agencies aren’t set up to track problem hospital owners or hold them accountable. Nor do they look for patterns of care breakdowns inside hospital chains. 'We just don’t have that authority,' said David Wright, deputy regional administrator for CMS. The federal agency oversees the state health department’s inspections of federally funded hospitals. 'We can only address problems in stand-alone facilities.'</blockquote> Furthermore, it appears that modern regulators have decided to become hospital managers' and owners' best friends, <blockquote class="tr_bq">The process allows hospitals to avoid sanctions if they cooperate. Hospitals submit “corrective action plans” to remedy failures. It can take months for state regulators to bring penalties such as fines against a facility. In the case of Renaissance, it took years. 'We want to do what’s in the best interest of the patients, and our regulatory philosophy is to get hospitals into compliance,' said Carrie Williams, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services. 'We’re not in the business of shutting down hospitals. We will give them some leeway and work with them.'</blockquote> Of course, this minimalist, light touch regulatory methodology may have made some sense in an earlier era when nearly all hospitals were small community not-for-profit organizations, non-profit academic institutions, or were run by local governments.  It seems quaint, and hopelessly out of date in an era when most hospitals are part of <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/hospital%20systems">ever larger systems,</a> now often owned for-profit corporations, and when hospital system CEOs who are professional, and thus <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/generic%20managers">generic managers</a>, not health care professionals, in an era of <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/financialization">financialization</a> and "maximizing shareholder value," that is, making short-term revenue the most important outcome. Instead, the current minimalist regulatory system seems insufficient to prevent patients from dying of poor care allowed by poor leadership of health care organizations.  Much of the content of this blog has been about bad health care leadership, i.e., leadership that is <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/ill-informed%20management">ill-informed</a>, incompetent, unsympathetic or <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/mission-hostile%20management">hostile to health care professionals' values</a>, self-interested, <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/conflicts%20of%20interest">conflicted</a>, dishonest, or even <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/health%20care%20corruption">corrupt</a>.  In my humble opinion, health care regulation ought to be sufficient to promote competent, caring, unconflicted, honest leadership that is accountable for putting patients' interests ahead of self-interest.  Regulation needs to be more intense, and much smarter, geared to the reality of a health care system that is now largely for-profit in an era when management dogma puts revenue ahead of all other concerns. Maybe the deaths of some patients in Dr Mahmood's Texas hospital will finally let the air out of the mindlessly anti-regulatory bubble, and start some discussion of intelligent regulation to improve patient safety. However, that cannot happen if this case remains anechoic.  I regret it took me so long to find it, but now I have done my part to start some echoes.  But where are the media, where are the journal editors, and where are those who so loudly proclaim their interest in patient safety and health care quality? In particular, there are several prominent organizations that claim to promote health care quality and patient safety.  These organizations make these claims- <a href="http://www.jointcommission.org/topics/patient_safety.aspx">Joint Commission</a> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> For more than 60 years, The Joint Commission has been a champion of patient safety by helping health care organizations to improve the quality and safety of the care they provide. </blockquote> <a href="http://www.leapfroggroup.org/about_leapfrog">Leapfrog Group</a> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> The Leapfrog Group is a voluntary program aimed at mobilizing employer purchasing power to alert America’s health industry that big leaps in health care safety, quality and customer value will be recognized and rewarded.</blockquote> <a href="http://www.qualityforum.org/who_we_are.aspx">National Quality Forum</a> <blockquote class="tr_bq"> Transforming our healthcare system to be safe, equitable, and of the highest value will take time and the work of many, but the potential rewards are great. The National Quality Forum (NQF) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, public service organization committed to this transformation. </blockquote> <a href="http://www.rwjf.org/en/about-rwjf/our-mission.html">Robert Wood Johnson Foundation</a> <blockquote class="tr_bq">Our efforts focus on improving both the health of everyone in America and their health care—how it's delivered, how it's paid for, and how well it does for patients and their families. </blockquote> These  organizations should the ones to start the conversation about improving rather than forever shrinking regulation.   I have not heard anything from them about the deadly hospitals of Dr Mahmood.  Are they listening now?  Will we ever hear from them?  Time will tell....   Note: the entire Dallas News series on the Mahmood hospitals can be found <a href="http://res.dallasnews.com/interactives/collapseofcare/">here</a>.

To Die in Texas - Dr Mahmood's Apparently Fatal Stealth Hospital System Collapses Nearly Anechoically

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18 Feb 2014

Putting Finance Executives in Charge of Health Care? - What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

A US News and World Report <a href="http://health.usnews.com/health-news/hospital-of-tomorrow/articles/2014/01/28/wanted-hospital-ceos-without-health-care-experience">article</a> affirms what we have <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/12/health-care-experience-hospital-ceos.html">previously written</a>, that those charged with the stewardship of US hospitals are even more inclined now to hire top managers with little or no health care experience or credentials.  Putting Finance Managers in Charge They particularly seem to favor executives drawn from the world of finance. Just to make it really clear, the exposition started with the article title, <blockquote class="tr_bq">Wanted: Hospital CEOs Without Health Care Experience </blockquote> The article drew on some of the figures about executive hiring which we <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/12/health-care-experience-hospital-ceos.html">discussed</a> in December, 2013, <blockquote class="tr_bq">It’s expected that two-thirds of hospital CEOs hired this year will have little to no health care experience, according to Black Book Rankings, which last year conducted a poll of 1,404 human resource officers and board members of health care organizations</blockquote> However, the new article profiled some examples, <blockquote class="tr_bq">.When Carlos Migoya was hired in May 2011 to run Jackson Health System, Miami-Dade County’s safety net hospital system, he had no health care experience. A career banker, Migoya took over.....</blockquote> Also, <blockquote class="tr_bq">Mike Keating, CEO of Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, previously was an investment banker.;Robert Meyer, president and CEO of Phoenix Children's Hospital, came from the consulting world;... </blockquote> The article stressed that hospital boards think a background in finance is particularly valuable. <blockquote class="tr_bq">Hospital board and HR directors are looking for non-industry productivity, business development and financial management experts with heavy technological expertise. </blockquote> Also, <blockquote class="tr_bq">[executive vice president and managing principle at Cejka Executive Search. Paul]  Esselman  notes that boards increasingly 'are looking at leaders from managed care, the payer side or from finance or banking.'</blockquote> Why Hospital Boards Favor Finance Executives <blockquote class="tr_bq">banking, like health care, is heavily regulated and that two decades ago banking went through significant consolidation, which hospitals today face.</blockquote> So, <blockquote class="tr_bq">[ managing partner of Black Book Rankings Doug] Brown says leaders that come from productivity-focused fields and sectors that have endured consolidation are particularly suited for running hospitals today. Those in financial services may prove useful in today’s climate, as 'there are a lot of troubled hospitals,' he says.</blockquote> As we <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/12/health-care-experience-hospital-ceos.html">noted before</a>, the article suggested that those who hire hospital executives think their most important challenges s included  - <blockquote class="tr_bq">'Communication is now more important than ever,; says Paul Esselman</blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq">the opportunities come in delivering its service or business lines to ever-expanding distribution channels.</blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq">says [former investment banker Mike] Keating. 'The key in health care is how you go about executing and executing well.'</blockquote> <blockquote class="tr_bq">[former banker Carlos] Migoya put in place operational reforms, including bringing in 'a lot of people with for-profit experience' to maintain expense controls, monitor operations, collect payments more quickly and pay its own bills sooner to gain prompt-payment discounts. Then, 'we realigned procurement,' he says, adding 'we motivate our procurement department with incentives,' which 'dramatically improved' Jackson Health’s process, time and costs. Meanwhile, the system outsourced pharmaceutical management, saving $15 million a year.... </blockquote> Note that these examples are all about management process and financial outcomes, NOT about clinical processes, quality of care, or patient outcomes.  (The only mention of anything close to clinical management was a plan to outsource same.) Left unsaid is that the boards charged with the stewardship of hospitals are now mainly composed of business executives, often heavily weighted with those in finance.  Summary - What Could Go Wrong? Of course, former bankers, and others from the world of <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/finance">finance </a>may not really know much about clinical work, quality of care, or patient outcomes.  They may not have been picked because they care about such issues, nor socialized with the "patient first" mantra which health professionals are supposed to support.  Worse, it seems that those who choose hospital executives may not be thinking about the recent history of finance.  True, it shares with health care the presence of regulation and increasing consolidation.  However, as we all started to realize in 2008, the leaders of finance helped bring on the worst financial crisis since the great depression.  More than five years since the beginning of this new great recession, US median income is dropping adjusted for inflation, while income inequality has tremendously increased.  Finance executives have been prime proponents of <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/financialization">financialization</a>, the theory that increasing shareholder value, which really seems to translate into increasing organizational short term income and increasing executive compensation are more important than any other outcomes.  Thus seems to correspond to the discussion above about financial and management objectives sans any notion of what is good for patients. Even more disturbing is all the anecdotal evidence that business management, particularly in finance, has been gripped by overarching greed.  Pope Francis called it the "idolatry of money."  (look <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/pope-francis-denounces-trickle-down-economic-theories-in-critique-of-inequality/2013/11/26/e17ffe4e-56b6-11e3-8304-caf30787c0a9_story.html">here</a>). In his graphic <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/19/opinion/sunday/for-the-love-of-money.html">memoir</a> of his days as a successful Wall Street trader, Sam Polk called it wealth addiction, .  <blockquote class="tr_bq">I noticed the vitriol that traders directed at the government for limiting bonuses after the crash. I heard the fury in their voices at the mention of higher taxes. These traders despised anything or anyone that threatened their bonuses. Ever see what a drug addict is like when he’s used up his junk? He’ll do anything — walk 20 miles in the snow, rob a grandma — to get a fix. Wall Street was like that. In the months before bonuses were handed out, the trading floor started to feel like a neighborhood in 'The Wire' when the heroin runs out.</blockquote> He was not the first to describe wealth addiction: <blockquote class="tr_bq"> Wealth addiction was described by the late sociologist and playwright Philip Slater in a 1980 book, but addiction researchers have paid the concept little attention. Like alcoholics driving drunk, wealth addiction imperils everyone. Wealth addicts are, more than anybody, specifically responsible for the ever widening rift that is tearing apart our once great country. Wealth addicts are responsible for the vast and toxic disparity between the rich and the poor and the annihilation of the middle class. Only a wealth addict would feel justified in receiving $14 million in compensation — including an $8.5 million bonus — as the McDonald’s C.E.O., Don Thompson, did in 2012, while his company then published a brochure for its work force on how to survive on their low wages. Only a wealth addict would earn hundreds of millions as a hedge-fund manager, and then lobby to maintain a tax loophole that gave him a lower tax rate than his secretary.</blockquote> Physicians swear oaths to put patient care ahead of all else.  While we may be far from perfect in our adherence to these oaths, I would like to think that when health care organizations were lead by health professionals, many tried to put patient care first  Yet professional managers, not health care professionals now lead health care. .In 1988, Alain Enthoven advocated in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0444703594/102-6581115-0444916?n=283155">Theory and Practice of Managed Competition in Health Care Finance</a>, a book published in the Netherlands, that to decrease health care costs it would be necessary to break up the "physicians' guild" and replace leadership by clinicians with leadership by managers (see 2006 post <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2006/03/consequences-of-breaking-physicians.html">here</a>). Thus from 1983 to 2000, the number of managers working in the US health care system grew 726%, while the number of physicians grew 39%, so the manager/physician ratio went from roughly one to six to one to one (see 2005 post <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/04/growing-proliferation-of-managers.html">here</a>). As we noted <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-plague-of-bureaucrats-now-10-per.html">here</a>, the growth continued, so there are now 10 managers for every US physician. The managers who first took over health care may have had some health care background.  Now it seems that health care managers are decreasingly likely to have any health care background, and increasingly likely to be from the world of finance.  Can anyone seriously believe that finance managers taught to put short-term revenue first, and who may often be wealth addicts who practice the idolatry of money in charge of health care is going to improve anything other than those same managers' wealth? As I have said before,  true health care reform would put in place leadership that understands the health care context, upholds health care professionals' values, and puts patients' and the public's health ahead of extraneous, particularly short-term financial concerns. We need health care governance that holds health care leaders accountable, and ensures their transparency, integrity and honesty. But this sort of reform would challenge the interests of managers who are getting very rich off the current system.  So I am afraid the US may end up going far down this final common pathway before enough people manifest enough strength to make real changes.

Putting Finance Executives in Charge of Health Care? - What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

A US News and World Report article affirms what we have previously written, that those charged with the stewardship of US hospitals are even more inclined now to hire top managers with little or no he…

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30 Jan 2014

Health Care Experience? - Hospital CEOs Don't Need No Stinkin' Health Care Experience

It looks like the complete takeover of health care by generic managers is nigh.  Who Are Now Candidates to be Hospital CEOs? On PRWeb is a <a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/12/prweb11421983.htm">summary</a> of data about what sort of CEO candidates hospitals' boards of trustees are seeking: <blockquote class="tr_bq">A Black Book Rankings poll of 1,404 healthcare provider organizations’ human resources officers and board members revealed the developing trend affecting the way headhunters will seek candidates. Black Book estimates that two-thirds of CEOs hired in 2014 will have little to no healthcare sector experience, in favor of non-industry productivity, business development and financial management experts with heavy technological expertise. </blockquote> From where are the new CEOs coming? <blockquote class="tr_bq"> Among survey respondents, the most intriguing new hospital CEO candidates are emerging from the Venture Capital, Private Equity industry (idealized by 42% of survey participants), Finance and Accounting (40%), Banking (32%), Technology (22%), Marketing and Sales (19%), Not-for-Profits ( 14%), and Pharma/Biotech (12%).</blockquote> Note that the CEO candidates did not seem particularly intimidated by running a hospital without any relevant experience, knowledge, or possibly values. <blockquote class="tr_bq"> 94% of new CEOs without extensive hospital backgrounds indicate they do not believe healthcare expertise is required for replacing other senior leadership team members after a management overhaul.</blockquote> Why Are Health Care Naive CEOs Increasingly Common? What is causing the attractiveness of candidates without background in, knowledge of, to particular agreement with the values of health care? <blockquote class="tr_bq">'An outside hire will not have developed hospital management skills from within or understand an organization's unwritten rules at first, but that’s not a bad thing either as more hospitals face fresh ideas to avoid bankruptcy, expedite smoother consolidations, conquer payment reform, and productivity issues,' said Doug Brown, Managing Partner of Black Book™.</blockquote> In addition, <blockquote class="tr_bq">A new CEO’s first decisions are often distruptive to a hospital’s staff, particularly the incumbent management team. 'An outsider's perspective on hospital operations will be controversial but often credited in several facility turnarounds for bolstering organizational financial stability, and ultimately profitability,' noted Brown.</blockquote> It is not just Mr Brown's opinion, <blockquote class="tr_bq">89% of board members hiring outsiders agree that broad business operational expertise and singular vision pays off with fresh perspectives on efficiencies, value, cost savings, and the goodwill to the community.</blockquote> What particular circumstances might prompt hospital boards to look for health care naive CEO candidates? <blockquote class="tr_bq"> 'Hospitals facing stalled growth or new competitive challenges need fresh thinking. Hiring internal candidates with the same norms and values as your current team will not meet the long term strategic growth needs of the hospital organization. Relevant outside thinking makes a valuable contribution, enhancing business vitality, longevity and sustainability. Staying contemporary, revitalizing your brand, enhancing products and expanding into new markets all begin with the next person you interview and add to your senior leadership team,' added Brown.</blockquote> By the way, similar surveys suggest the same trend affecting other parts of health care, <blockquote class="tr_bq">Payers, chains, ancillaries, ACOs, support firms, vendors, medical product manufacturers and pharmaceutical firms are tapping other business’ top talent, a major shift from the 'healthcare industry experience only' mindset for executive placement that has prevailed since the 1970’s, according to corresponding Black Book 2013 surveys.</blockquote> Discussion  In 1988, Alain Enthoven advocated in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0444703594/102-6581115-0444916?n=283155">Theory and Practice of Managed Competition in Health Care Finance</a>, a book published in the Netherlands, that to decrease health care costs it would be necessary to break up the "physicians' guild" and replace leadership by clinicians with leadership by managers (see 2006 post <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2006/03/consequences-of-breaking-physicians.html">here</a>). Thus from 1983 to 2000, the number of managers working in the US health care system grew 726%, while the number of physicians grew 39%, so the manager/physician ratio went from roughly one to six to one to one (see 2005 post <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/04/growing-proliferation-of-managers.html">here</a>). As we noted <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-plague-of-bureaucrats-now-10-per.html">here</a>, the growth continued, so there are now 10 managers for every US physician. Health care went from being controlled by clinicians to controlled by a growing volume of managers.  Most of these managers were <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/generic%20managers">generic</a>, in that they had little if any knowledge of, experience in, or sympathy to the values of health care. These generic managers have used the same techniques advocated for the management of supermarkets or automobile manufacturers to manage health care organizations, despite all the obvious differences in context, goals, values, and people involved.  They also have been trained in theory of <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2012/04/health-care-dysfunction-explained-by.html">maximizing shareholder value</a> (even though non-profit health care organizations have no shareholders), which actually means maximizing short-term revenue (<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/financialization">financialization</a>), and then using that revenue as an excuse to <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/executive%20compensation">plutocratic pay packages for management</a>. The survey results above say the takeover is nearly complete.  The majority of top hospital management recruits are now generic.  It appears that the majority of top management recruits  in health insurance, medical device, pharmaceutical, and other health care corporations are also now generic  The reasons for their recruitment suggest that those exerting stewardship over hospitals are completely abandoning interest in improving health care, patients' outcomes, clinical practice, or anything related.  Instead, look at the wording (highlighted in color thus above) reflecting their concerns. This is all about <blockquote class="tr_bq"> productivity issues long term strategic growth business vitality revitalizing your brand efficiencies  cost saving profitablity</blockquote> Nobody is talking about quality of care, improving practice, patients' outcomes, public health, or about honesty, integrity, and particularly not about putting patients first. Instead, it is now going to be all about the money.  So of course the US has the most expensive health care (non) system in the world, and that system manages to at best be mediocre by nearly every measure of health outcomes.  I say once again that true health care reform would put in place leadership that understands the health care context, upholds health care professionals' values, and puts patients' and the public's health ahead of extraneous, particularly short-term financial concerns. We need health care governance that holds health care leaders accountable, and ensures their transparency, integrity and honesty. But this sort of reform would challenge the interests of the generic managers who are getting very rich off the current system.  So I am afraid the US may end up going far down this final common pathway before enough people manifest enough strength to make real changes.

Health Care Experience? - Hospital CEOs Don't Need No Stinkin' Health Care Experience

It looks like the complete takeover of health care by generic managers is nigh. Who Are Now Candidates to be Hospital CEOs? On PRWeb is a summary of data about what sort of CEO candidates hospitals' b…

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20 Dec 2013

A Plague of Bureaucrats - Now 10 Per Physician in US Health Care

There seems to be a reasonable argument that the US health care system is more dependent on the private sector, and in particular the for-profit private sector, than systems in other developed countries.  Advocates of private, for-profit health care often tout the private sector as more efficient and less bureaucratic than government.   However, a <a href="http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/09/the-downside-of-health-care-job-growth/">post by Robert Kocher in the Harvard Business Review blog</a>, of all places, noted that US health care is increasingly inflicted by a proliferation - perhaps a plague - of bureaucrats. Dr Kocher looked at employment of physicians, other health care professionals and clinical workers, and bureaucrats in a more recent time frame, 1990-2012.  The key findings were: <blockquote class="tr_bq"> Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and the American Medical Association, my colleagues and I found that from 1990 to 2012, the number of workers in the U.S. health system grew by nearly 75%. Nearly 95% of this growth was in non-doctor workers, and the ratio of doctors to non-doctor workers shifted from 1:14 to 1:16.</blockquote> Furthermore, <blockquote class="tr_bq"> Today, for every doctor, only 6 of the 16 non-doctor workers have clinical roles, including registered nurses, allied health professionals, aides, care coordinators, and medical assistants. Surprisingly, 10 of the 16 non-doctor workers are purely administrative and management staff, receptionists and information clerks, and office clerks. </blockquote> So, in summary, for every doctor, there are 6 clinical workers (nurses, aides, etc) and 10 bureaucrats (including managers). Note that this data appears compatible with 1983-2000 employment data we <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/04/growing-proliferation-of-managers.html">summarized</a> in 2005. During that period, the ranks of health care managers grew much faster than the ranks of physicians or nurses.  The growth rates from 1983 to 2000 were 1.39x (39%) for physicians, 1.54x (54%) for nurses, and a whopping 8.26x (726%) for managers. Another way to look at it is, in 1983 there was 1 manager for every 5.7 physicians and every 15.1 nurses. In 2000, there was 1 manager for every 0.96 physicians and every 2.9 nurses. Again, by 2000, the number of health care managers exceeded the number of physicians. There were more managers than any other species of health care worker other than nurses. So, by 2000, there was one manager per doctor.  By 2012, there were 10 bureaucrats, including managers, per doctor.  We have discussed the increasing power of managers, administrators and executives over health care.  Management gurus, such as Alain Enthoven, had advocated breaking the power of the supposed "physicians' guild" to reduce health care costs, and replacing physician leaders with managers (look <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2006/03/consequences-of-breaking-physicians.html">here</a>).  We have discussed the growing role of <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/generic%20management">generic managers,</a> that is leaders trained only to manage, but not experienced in , and often not sympathetic to the values of health care.  Now there is increasing evidence that managers and bureaucrats are increasingly numerous in health care, the former somewhat and the latter greatly out-numbering physicians. We cannot scientifically prove that this plague of bureaucrats is responsible for US health care's mediocre quality and access, despite higher costs per capita than in any other developed country.  However, it does appear to be a reasonable hypothesis that increasing the relative numbers of health care professionals versus bureaucrats might produce at least more health care per dollar, if not also better health care per dollar.    This suggests that true health care reform requires decreasing the influence of generic management.  Health care leaders ought to be those with some knowledge of health care and some sympathy for its values. Such health care leadership might be less concerned with increasing bureaucracy, and more concerned with more and better actual care of actual patients.  (But do not expect such reforms to be popular with the very <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/executive%20compensation">well-paid</a> generic managers who now run health care, and hence do not expect such reforms to be easy to implement.)

A Plague of Bureaucrats - Now 10 Per Physician in US Health Care

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24 Sep 2013

Guest Post: Incompetent Management Breeds Demoralized Physicians

Health Care Renewal presents a guest post by <a href="http://imh.utmb.edu/about-us/faculty/howard-brody">Dr Howard Brody,</a> John P McGovern Centennial Chair of Family Medicine, Director of the Institute for Medical Humanities at University of Texas - Medical Branch at Galveston, and blogger at <a href="http://brodyhooked.blogspot.com/">Hooked: Ethics, Medicine and Pharma</a>.  Danielle Ofri, a prominent internist/author at Bellevue in New York, started a recent <a href="http://danielleofri.com/an-epidemic-of-disillusioned-doctors/">op-ed</a> piece, “Last week I was ready to quit medicine."  <div class="MsoNormal">She described an encounter most physicians can relate to—a 15-minute appointment slot, a new patient who spoke only Bengali, a long and complicated problem list, a bag containing 18 different medicines, two forms that had to be filled out by the doctor on this day’s visit, and a computer that froze while she was trying to keep up with the electronic charting. She described how, 45 minutes into the supposedly 15-minute visit, she had a phone in one ear with the Bengali translator and tech support on hold in the other ear.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">Ofri’s plaint caught my attention because I had recently put up a <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/05/guest-post-physician-rebels-against.html">guest post on Health Care Renewal</a> about another highly skilled, caring physician who was seriously considering quitting practice. This led me to write a <a href="http://www.utmb.edu/newsroom/article8763.aspx">column</a> for some of our local newspapers about demoralized doctors</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div> <div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">In the space allowed in an op-ed column, you can’t go into great depth in analyzing a complicated situation. So here’s what I would have wanted to say.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">We can list all the management failures that this encounter represents. I won’t even start with the electronic record as that’s such a frequent theme in this blog. Who scheduled such a patient for a 15-minute visit? Where is the pharmacist who could have done a better job of going through all the lady’s medicines? Where is the staffer who could have filled out the forms for Dr. Ofri to sign? This is just to scratch the surface.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">There are two things worrisome about this long list of management failures. If the goal of the health care system is actually to take good care of patients, then it seems obvious that Dr. Ofri, who wanted to try to provide high-quality care, had roadblock after roadblock thrown in her way.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">Cynics will protest that this system obviously has no interest in quality patient care and seeks only to maximize revenue. If that’s so, is it really true that a board-certified MD is the most efficient labor source for keyboarding data into a computer, filling out paper forms, and doing all the other busy-work tasks that Dr. Ofri had to juggle? Can anyone really believe that this management structure supports either quality care orefficient resource use?</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div> If the management of U.S. hospitals was severely understaffed or underpaid, then we could perhaps forgive such lapses. But we know that while the growth of physicians in the U.S. has been slow, the number of administrators has grown by leaps and bounds [The number of health care managers increased by 726% from 1983-2000 while physician numbers increased by 39%, look <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2005/04/growing-proliferation-of-managers.html">here</a> - Ed]  . And we know that at least at the high end, these managers are paid <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/executive%20compensation">munificent sums</a>, and are lauded for their supposed genius (look <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2013/06/no-blues-but-lots-of-green-for-st-louis.html">here</a> for example).    <div class="MsoNormal">So we appear to have a system that is slowly (in some cases rapidly) driving the best doctors out of practice, and yet somehow imagines that everything is going all right and there’s no problem—or if there’s a problem, it’s those whining doctors.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">All us medical educators know that when we ask the first-year class how may of them have been told by practicing physicians that they’re making a big mistake coming to medical school, the majority will raise their hands. Yet the managers of America’s health systems apparently believe that they can go on demoralizing good practitioners and nothing bad will happen.</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">This may sound as if I am saying that health care managers are all evil people, but that’s an unfair characterization. These folks are simply trying to do what our society tells them. As I <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2012/03/golden-calf-explains-how-economism-lead.html">explained</a> some time ago, most of our popular and political discourse has been captured by a belief system that can be variously called neoliberalism, market fundamentalism, or <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/economism">economism</a>. The ideology can be summarized as a quasi-religious faith in the so-called “free market,” steadfast opposition to government regulation of the market, and opposition to just about any form of taxes (for more on the nature of economism, look <a href="http://theeconomismscam.blogspot.com/2012/09/economism-primer.html">here</a>.)</div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal"> Among other things, this ideology teaches us that everything important in our society can be accurately captured in objective measures of “productivity” and “efficiency.”  [This is akin to the "shareholder value" theory of management (look <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2012/04/health-care-dysfunction-explained-by.html">here</a>), or "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/financialization">financialization</a>." - Ed]  Once one has mastered the basic concepts taught in MBA school, there’s no need to learn anything about health care and what makes it a unique activity; there’s no basic difference between providing health care and flipping burgers at McDonalds or making widgets. [We have called this <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/generic%20management">generic management</a>. - Ed.]. And so we get the crazy style of management well documented on this blog, not because of personal nastiness or ill will, but due to the ideological Kool-Aid everyone has been drinking for several decades now. </div><div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">Today’s physicians seem to be like the proverbial frog being boiled in the pot of water because the heat was turned up so gradually the frog never figured out it needed to jump. [That is, they are suffering from "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/search/label/learned%20helplessness">learned helplessness</a>." - Ed] Dr. Ofri herself seems to represent a typical frog. Why? Perhaps it’s the style of the blog or op-ed writer to start off with a downer and then try to end on an upbeat note. Or perhaps it’s the natural physician’s tendency to stay away from policy questions. I’m not sure.</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"> </div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">After starting us off with this hard-hitting description of a dysfunctional system, Dr. Ofri ends by opining that things are going to be better in the future because more women are entering medicine and because today’s medical students are more tech savvy. She gives herself credit for managing to forge a bond with the patient because they sat together and faced this adversity. She cites an upbeat study, “when asked what was the most satisfying aspect of medical practice, the number one answer was relationships with patients. This is what keeps us going on even the most trying of days.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"> </div>Dr. Ofri gets full credit for remembering the importance of relationships, and feels that she bonded more firmly with her patient because they went through all this together. How about a word, though, about the people behind the curtain, who are responsible for all that she and her patient had to go through, and who don’t seem to have a clue how bad it is and what it all means?  <div class="MsoNormal"> </div><div class="MsoNormal">Dr Howard Brody </div>

Guest Post: Incompetent Management Breeds Demoralized Physicians

Health Care Renewal presents a guest post by Dr Howard Brody, John P McGovern Centennial Chair of Family Medicine, Director of the Institute for Medical Humanities at University of Texas - Medical Br…

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30 Jul 2013

To all physicians: Fools hiring amateurs, to control you and land you in court?

Health IT systems will be/are used to control you - a medical professional - in your treatment of patients, and could land you in court if they contribute to your making a medical mistake. They could also land you in a <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/10/sham-peer-review-could-this-bad-faith.html">sham peer review</a> for being a "disruptive" physician if you complain about a poor EHR. Here's an example of who gets hired to run such systems. Note the "Education" and "Qualifications Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Required" I bolded.This job description is not atypical of many "clinical informatics" job descriptions: <blockquote style="font-family:arial;">HCAClinical Informaticist(Job Number: 25388-35620)https://hca.taleo.net/careersection/0hca/jobdetail.ftl?lang=en&job=1112401&src=JB-11444 <div> <div>More About HCA.....</div> <ul><li>HCA has been Recognized in Computerworld Magazine's Top 100 Workplaces to work for Information Technology Professionals for the 3rd consecutive year, coming in this year at #32.</li><li>HCA has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute as one of the 2011 World's Most Ethical Companies.</li></ul> </div>Summary of Duties <blockquote>The Clinical Informaticist is accountable for driving successful adoption and clinical process optimization of clinical information systems. This is done through the application Clinical Adoption Methodology, incorporating best practice and evidence-based knowledge. Utilizes the knowledge and skills of clinical practice to determine clinical functions that are suitable for computer application and to ensure the information systems are consistent with professional standards of clinical practice. Acts on behalf of the Director of Applications in absence of said director.</blockquote> Duties Include But Are Not Limited To <ul><li>Facilitates knowledge of current state, desired state, and gap analysis of core clinical processes that are enabled by clinical information technology, being mindful of operational requirements/ constraints and conflicts. Works collaboratively with QA to evaluate outcomes, and opportunities for improvement.</li><li>Maintains a trusting and effective relationship with all customers. Assists clinical managers in identifying information systems needs and project management related to information systems.</li><li>Maintains membership or consultation to appropriate committees, work groups or task forces as needed to facilitate the ongoing process of the design, implementation, and revision of the automated and manual components of the clinical information system. Conducts meetings and presentations, effectively and professionally.</li><li>Maintains a current knowledge of a) trends and issues in health care, nursing practice, healthcare informatics, regulatory/accreditation requirements; b) organizational policies and procedures related to clinical practice and the legal implications of the clinical information system; c) structure and hierarchy of the organization.</li><li>Functionality expertise for clinical applications supporting core patient care processes and their relationship to other organizational information systems.</li><li>Works closely with counterparts in appropriate user organizations to ensure consistent and effective use of technology resources and optimization of installed applications and sustainability.</li><li>Adheres to Code of Conduct and Mission & Value Statement. Understands the personal obligation to report any activity that appears to violate applicable laws, rules regulations or the Code of Conduct itself. Maintains confidentiality, promotes system security to promote compliance.</li><li>As facility-care-area based position must learn and comply with System and facility safety policies and rules; must use appropriate safety equipment and procedures at all times; must immediately report all unsafe conditions to supervisors; must be familiar with all safety features of equipment, tools or materials encompassed by job duties; and must check with supervisors (prior to job performance) if there is a question as to the safe procedure to be used for any job function.</li><li>Participate in special projects as needed and performs other duties as assigned.</li></ul> Qualifications Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities Required <ul style="font-weight: bold;"><li>Membership in an appropriate organization is required (HIMSS, AMIA, for example) that is specifically targeted to informatics in healthcare</li><li>Working knowledge of Microsoft Office products (WORD, EXCEL, PowerPoint, Project Plan, and VISIO)</li><li>Strong oral, written, and interpersonal communication skills; strong analysis/problem solving and critical thinking; strong leadership, facilitation and coaching skills; current knowledge of patient care practices; clinical expertise; ability to work in multi-disciplinary teams.</li></ul> <blockquote style="font-weight: bold;">Preferred:</blockquote> <ul style="font-weight: bold;"><li>Knowledge and skill in selection, implementation, and training of clinical information systems</li><li>Project management skills</li><li>Previous experience utilizing Meditech documentation system</li><li>Previous experience with Quality Improvement initiatives and clinical process re-engineering</li></ul> Education <ul style="font-weight: bold;"><li>BSN or Bachelors degree in other Allied Health Professional degree from an accredited college</li><li>Current (10/08) department incumbents must achieve Bachelors requirement by 12/31/2012</li></ul></blockquote> Wow... BSN, allied health bachelors, or "must achieve Bachelor's by 12/31/12"? Some (at best) MBA-level fool wrote this 'description' for the hiring of some amateur with a BS - or no degree - to perform functions that will seriously affect how you, with 4 years college, four years med school, PGY internship, residency, perhaps fellowship or other post doctoral experience, perform your profession?Your kids may have more professional education and qualifications than your hospital's "health computing experts." Fantastic. I add this:Health IT cannot be made to work properly - ever - when being mismanaged by fools and amateurs.-- SS

To all physicians: Fools hiring amateurs, to control you and land you in court?

Health IT systems will be/are used to control you - a medical professional - in your treatment of patients, and could land you in court if they contribute to your making a medical mistake.They could…

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18 Mar 2012

Semi-Retirement of a Salesman - Weldon to Retire as Johnson and Johnson CEO

The extremely well compensated CEO and Chairman of Johnson and Johnson, the huge and recently hugely troubled US based pharmaceutical and device company, is going to retire, at least as CEO.  Reporting on this event may shed a little more light on the sorts of leadership problems that now commonly afflict health care organizations. The Credo Johnson and Johnson was once one of the US' most respected companies.  Its <a href="http://www.jnj.com/wps/wcm/connect/c7933f004f5563df9e22be1bb31559c7/jnj_ourcredo_english_us_8.5x11_cmyk.pdf?MOD=AJPERES">credo</a>, written in 1943 by Robert Wood Johnson, bravely begins: <blockquote>We believe our first responsibility is to doctors, nurses and patients, to mothers and fathers, and all others who use our products and services. In meeting their needs, everything we do must be of high quality. </blockquote>Dishonoring the Credo Yet in the last few years the company has not honored this credo. It seems to have lost the ability to manufacture high quality products. It has had to make 30 separate product recalls since 2009. The latest was Liquid Infant Tylenol. (The current WSJ Health Blog list of recalls can be found <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2012/02/17/jj-recall-watch-mcneil-pulls-liquid-infant-tylenol-on-dosing-system-concerns">here</a>.) Johnson and Johnson also has an amazing recent record of ethical lapses and guilty pleas, including: - Convictions in two different states in 2010 for misleading marketing of Risperdal - A guilty plea for misbranding Topamax in 2010 - Guilty pleas to bribery in Europe in 2011 by J+J's DePuy subsidiary - A guilty plea for marketing Risperdal for unapproved uses in 2011 (see <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/08/why-cultivate-weldons-confidence-ceo.html">this link</a> for all of the above) - Accusations that the company, which makes smoking cessation products, participated along with tobacco companies in efforts to lobby state legislators (see post <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/09/smart-alecs-strange-bedfellows.html">here</a>) - A guilty plea to misbranding Natrecor by J+J subsidiary Scios (see post <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/09/johnson-and-johnson-pleads-guilty.html">here</a>) -  Most recently, in 2012, testimony in a trial of allegations of unethical marketing of the drug Respirdal (risperidone) by the Janssen subsidiary revealed a systemic, deceptive stealth marketing campaign that fostered suppression of research whose results were unfavorable to the company, ghostwriting, the use of key opinion leaders as marketers in the guise of academics and professionals, and intimidation of whistleblowers.  After these revelations, the company abruptly settled the case (see post <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2012/02/texas-tmap-trials-as-illustration-of.html">here</a>). Disconnect Between Leadership Performance and Rewards Nonetheless, until very recently, the top leadership of the company continued to collect outrageous compensation, and to be regarded as a font of health care wisdom, even by the current US administration. In 2010, the company gave CEO and Chairman William Weldon over $29 million in compensation, saying he "met expectations," (see <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/03/despite-recalls-legal-settlements.html">this post</a>). In 2011, just days after the company pleaded guilty in the Risperdal marketing case (above), CEO and Chairman Weldon was invited to the White House to discuss health care (see <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/08/why-cultivate-weldons-confidence-ceo.html">this post</a>.) Just after his resignation was announced a few days ago, the Wall Street Journal <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203918304577243542528572590.html">reported</a> that Weldon would get an increased bonus for 2011 ($3.1 million, up from $1.98 million in 2010), and an increased base salary ($1.97 million up from $1.92 million.)  His total compensation for 2011 was not yet revealed.  Swapping One Salesman for Another A single New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/business/alex-gorsky-of-jj-emerged-from-its-sales-culture.html">article</a> suggested one reason why Weldon's reign was ultimately so unsuccessful, and perhaps why his successor may not do better. <blockquote>Alex Gorsky, the newly named chief executive of Johnson & Johnson, shares a crucial biographical detail with William C. Weldon, the man he is succeeding. Both got their starts as pharmaceutical sales representatives, a notoriously grueling job that — because it demands stamina, charisma and a near devotion to making the sale — has become a crucible for future drug company executives in recent years.</blockquote> Indeed, Mr Weldon's <a href="http://www.investor.jnj.com/governance/biodetail.cfm?bioid=3197">official biography </a>indicates he "served in several sales, marketing and international management positions." The <a href="http://www.investor.jnj.com/governance/managementdetail.cfm?bioid=23627">official biography </a>of CEO-to-be, Alex Gorsky, stated he "began his Johnson & Johnson career as a sales representative with Janssen Pharmaceutica in 1988. Over the next 15 years, he advanced through positions of increasing responsibility in sales, marketing, and management." Previously, he earned "a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and spent six years in the U.S. Army, finishing his military career with the rank of Captain. Alex earned a Master of Business Administration degree from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1996." Apparently neither current nor nominated CEO had any direct experience in patient care, nor in biomedical or clinical science, nor in chemistry, engineering or manufacturing. So both are generic managers, that is, health care leaders without any direct experience in health care, or in the science and technology underlying it. "Making the Numbers" Versus the Credo Moreover, they are both a particular type of generic manager, salespeople. As the Times reported: <blockquote>Mr. Gorsky, who is 51, fits the mold of someone who once 'carried the bag' — industry slang for working as a sales representative. He is known as a polished speaker and an intense yet likable manager who is a quick study when it comes to learning new topics.</blockquote> However, while sales people may be personable, they often have goals that have nothing to do with responsibilities "to doctors, nurses and patients, to mothers and fathers,...." As the Times article also noted, <blockquote>But the ethos of the sales representative may not be what Johnson & Johnson needs right now, said Erik Gordon, who teaches business at the University of Michigan. 'That culture was very much the Weldon culture writ large — we will make our numbers for the analysts, period,' he said. 'And if that means we have to cut costs on things that affect quality, then by God, we’re going to make those numbers.'</blockquote> So while Johnson and Johnson for years prided itself as a company that put the needs of patients and health professionals first, it hired leaders from the culture of sales where the impetus is to "make the numbers," to fulfill short term revenue goals, no matter what. This illustrates how generic management given perverse incentives in an era that honors greed and puts short-term economic goals ahead of all others had hollowed out health care. We wish Mr Gorsky well, but worry that if he too focuses just on making the numbers, the result will be only mischief. The Moral of the Story Health care organizations need leaders that uphold the core values of health care, and focus on and are accountable for the mission, not on secondary responsibilities that conflict with these values and their mission, and not on self-enrichment. Leaders ought to be rewarded reasonably, but not lavishly, for doing what ultimately improves patient care, or when applicable, good education and good research. On the other hand, those who authorize, direct and implement bad behavior ought to suffer negative consequences sufficient to deter future bad behavior. If we do not fix the severe problems affecting the leadership and governance of health care, and do not increase accountability, integrity and transparency of health care leadership and governance, we will be as much to blame as the leaders when the system collapses.

Semi-Retirement of a Salesman - Weldon to Retire as Johnson and Johnson CEO

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29 Feb 2012

Generic Leadership Fine for EHR Implementation in High Acuity, High Risk Areas Such as an Emergency Department?

At my Feb. 16, 2012 post "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2012/02/hospitals-and-doctors-use-health-it-at.html">Hospitals and Doctors Use Health IT at Their Own Risk - Even if 'Certified'</a>" I established that buyers and users of EHR systems do so at their own risk with regard to implementation problems or outright defects resulting in patient harm. As I've also written at my April 2011 post "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2011/04/fda-decides-regulating-implantable.html">FDA Decides Regulating Implantable Defibrillator Medical Devices a Political Hot Potato; Demurs</a>", FDA has admitted health IT is a medical device that they shy away from regulating because it's politically expedient not to do so. (The area is a "hot potato" per the Director of FDA's <a href="http://www.fda.gov/MedicalDevices/default.htm">CDRH</a>, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, so FDA stays away.) Yet FDA knows of the stakes. As I observed at my Aug. 2010 post "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/08/smoking-gun-internal-fda-memorandum-of.html">Internal FDA memorandum of Feb. 23, 2010 to Jeffrey Shuren on HIT risks</a>" and elsewhere, patient harm is occurring due to these devices and FDA is aware. Due to admitted impediments to information diffusion, however, even FDA, IOM, The Joint Commission (due to a "dearth of data" as in their 2008 <a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2008/12/joint-commission-sentinel-events-alert.html">Sentinel Events Alert On Healthcare IT</a>) and others do not know the true magnitude of the problem. From the FDA internal memo at the preceding FDA memorandum link: <blockquote> Limitations of the MAUDE [<a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfMAUDE/search.CFM">Manufacturer and User Facility Device Experience database</a>] search and final subset of Medical Device Reports (MDRs) include the following: 1. Not all H-IT safety issue MDRs can be captured due to limitations of reporting practices including ... (a) Vast number of H-IT systems that interface with multiple medical devices currently assigned to multiple procodes making it difficult to identify specific procodes for H-IT safety issues; ... (b) Procode assignments are also affected by the ability of the reporter/contractor to correctly identify the event as a H-IT safety issue; ... (c) Correct identification by the reporter of the suspect device brand name is challenged by difficulties discerning the actual H-IT system versus the device it supports. 2. Due to incomplete information in the MDRs, it is difficult to unduplicate similar reports, potentially resulting in a higher number of reports than actual events. 3. Reported death and injury events may only be associated with the reported device but not necessarily attributed to the device. 4 Correct identification by the reporter of the manufacturer name is convoluted by the inability to discern the manufacturer of the actual H-IT system versus the device it supports. 5 The volume of MDR reporting to MAUDE may be impacted by a lack of understanding the reportability of H-IT safety issues and enforcement of such reporting. ... The results of this data review suggest significant clinical implications and public safety issues surrounding Health Information Technology. The most commonly reported H-IT safety issues included wrong patient/wrong data, medication administration issues, clinical data loss/miscalculation, and unforeseen software design issues; all of which have varying impact on the patient’s clinical care and outcome, which included 6 death and 43 injuries. The absence of mandatory reporting enforcement of H-IT safety issues limits the number of relevant MDRs and impedes a more comprehensive understanding of the actual problems and implications. </blockquote> Finally, as I pointed out in my Dec. 2009 post "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2009/12/onc-defines-taxonomy-of-health-it.html">ONC Defines a Taxonomy of Robust Healthcare IT Leadership</a>", the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT at HHS (ONC) had published the following with regard to the qualification of those who could "lead the successful deployment and use of health IT to achieve transformational improvement in the quality, safety, outcomes, and thus in the value, of health services in the United States": <blockquote>Clinician/Public Health Leader: By combining formal clinical or public health training with training in health IT, individuals in this role will be able to lead the successful deployment and use of health IT to achieve transformational improvement in the quality, safety, outcomes, and thus in the value, of health services in the United States. In the health care provider settings, this role may be currently expressed through job titles such as Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO), Chief Nursing Informatics Officer (CNIO). In public health agencies, this role may be currently expressed through job titles such as Chief Information or Chief Informatics Officer. Training appropriate to this role will require at least one year of study leading to a university-issued certificate or master’s degree in health informatics or health IT, as a complement to the individual’s prior clinical or public health academic training. For this role, the entering trainees may be physicians or other clinical professionals (e.g. advanced-practice nurses, physician assistants) or hold a master’s or doctoral degree(s) in public health or related health field. Individuals could also enter this training while enrolled in programs leading directly to degrees qualifying them to practice as physicians or other clinical professionals, or to master’s or doctoral degrees in public health or related fields (such as epidemiology). Thus, individuals could be supported for training if they already hold or if they are currently enrolled in courses of study leading to physician, other clinical professional, or public-health professional degrees.</blockquote> Here, though, is a more typical reality in today's hospitals, the background of an EHR deployment leader in one of the most risk-prone and difficult environments in healthcare, the Emergency Department (ED) in a large hospital of which I am aware: <div dir="ltr"></div><blockquote><div style="font-weight: bold;" dir="ltr">Clinical Systems Analyst </div> <div style="font-weight: bold;" dir="ltr">January 2004 – Present</div> <div dir="ltr">Project manager for implementation of an ED EHR [vendor name redacted] Responsible for all aspects of implementation including build and process design, report build, testing, training, and go-live support. Extensive knowledge ADT processes, HL7, and CPOE. Manage software patches and upgrades. Experience in HTML, SQL and SAP. </div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> <div dir="ltr">Financial Systems Analyst November 2001 – January 2004 </div> <div dir="ltr">Project Team Lead for implementation of Patient Accounting system. Responsible for system development and system build, training, testing, and reporting. </div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> <div dir="ltr"> Education </div> <div dir="ltr"> [Regional university in the lower 50% of US News rankings in the region, name redacted] B.S., Management Information Systems 2000 – 2003 </div> <div dir="ltr"> </div> <div dir="ltr"> [Name redacted] Community College </div> <div dir="ltr">Associates Degree, Business Administration</div> </blockquote><div dir="ltr"></div> <div dir="ltr"> So, ED physicians (with many years of doctoral and post-doctoral training and experience, boards testing their competence, etc.) may be placing the lives of patients and their careers in the hands of: <ul><li> An experimental medical device, </li><li>unregulated by anyone, </li><li>in a field whose qualifications for leadership are unregulated by anyone, </li><li>devices known to be risky, </li><li>but without anyone knowing the magnitude of that risk, </li><li>whose implementation is led by a generic 'clinical' systems analyst "responsible for all aspects of implementation" with a Bachelor's degree in MIS from a second-tier institution, an Associates degree from a community college, and no medical or Medical Informatics education or experience whatsoever.</li></ul> Further, that project lead jumped from financial systems analyst to 'clinical' analyst/leader of an ED EHR implementation. One should also ask <ul><li>Who was the hiring manager who hired such a person and put them in the role?</li><li>On what credentials and experience was the decision based? </li><li>What were the hiring manager's own credentials? </li></ul> I leave it to the reader to decide if this is an appropriate arrangement, and if they would place their trust in an ED whose activities center around a cybernetic system implemented in this manner. -- SS Feb. 17, 2012 Addendum: At least in this case the person has degrees. Per several prominent healthcare IT recruiters in the past in the article "Who's Growing CIO's" in the journal Healthcare Informatics, as mentioned at my Sept. 2009 post "<a href="http://hcrenewal.blogspot.com/2008/09/correcting-historical-misinformation.html">Correcting historical information from the recruiter component of the Health IT Ecosystem</a>", the School of Hard Knocks was plenty good for health IT leadership roles: <blockquote>I don't think a degree gets you anything," says healthcare recruiter Lion Goodman, president of the Goodman Group in San Rafael, California about CIO's and other healthcare MIS staffers. Healthcare MIS recruiter Betsy Hersher of Hersher Associates, Northbrook, Illinois, agreed, stating "There's nothing like the school of hard knocks." In seeking out CIO talent, recruiter Lion Goodman "doesn't think clinical experience yields [hospital] IT people who have broad enough perspective. Physicians in particular make poor choices for CIOs. They don't think of the business issues at hand because they're consumed with patient care issues," according to Goodman.</blockquote> -- SS </div>

Generic Leadership Fine for EHR Implementation in High Acuity, High Risk Areas Such as an Emergency Department?

At my Feb. 16, 2012 post "Hospitals and Doctors Use Health IT at Their Own Risk - Even if 'Certified'" I established that buyers and users of EHR systems do so at their own risk with regard to impleme…

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17 Feb 2012

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