Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/112775
46 Sign up for the COMPLIMENTARY Becker's Hospital Review CEO Report & CFO Report E-Weeklies at www.BeckersHospitalReview.com or call (800) 417-2035 are very expensive to fix. This cache of donations might also go toward raising the salaries of pediatrics caregivers, who are at or near shortage because they are paid relatively little. Pediatricians have a starting salary of around $110,000, compared with $500,000 for orthopedic surgeons, and the average pediatric nurse at one children's hospital gets 40 to 50 times less than what its CEO gets, the book says. What kind of message does that send out? The solution is transparency The best way to tamp down all the greed and improve healthcare outcomes, Dr. Makary maintains, is to end the secrecy at U.S. hospitals. Rather than micromanaging with excessive regulations, the simple act of transparency would revolutionize our whole healthcare system. If hospitals had to prove their claims of superior outcomes with real data, they would have to be more serious about meeting higher standards, and the healthcare system would be well on its way to recovery. Dr. Makary wants hospitals to keep precise records on a variety of measures, including surgical outcomes, hospital-borne infections, readmission rates, payments to doctors, patient volume for each condition and clinicians' use of best practices. surgeon was bringing down its score, he was ordered to stop doing heart surgery. The Dr. Hodads were no longer protected. Dr. Makary is taking further steps toward transparency in his own practice. He has started asking patients to review the notes he took on them on their office visits. Patients began correcting important data that he had gotten wrong in the interview. He also recommends what is perhaps the ultimate form of transparency — recording medical procedures on videotape and playing them back for the surgical team to evaluate. He adds that installing cameras at hand-washing stations in North Shore University Hospital on Long Island improved hand-washing compliance by more than 90 percent. Signs of hope There are signs of hope that Dr. Makary's vision could yet become reality. The book says young physicians, medical schools and medical societies seem less willing to protect their poorly performing peers, and some hospitals have even taken a pledge of transparency. The message is simple: When hospitals have to provide solid outcomes data, their performance improves. The book notes that when New York State began requiring hospitals to disclose death rates from coronary artery bypass surgeries, the ones with high mortality rates suddenly felt the pressure to make improvements. Trust, integrity and forthrightness all go hand in hand, and they should be the basis to revive our great American healthcare system. Transparency "can restore the respect of the public in what many perceive has become a secretive, even arrogant industry," Dr. Makary writes. "With accountability, medicine can address the cost crisis, deliver safer care, and earn once more the trust of the communities we serve." n The results of the New York program are remarkable. Statewide deaths from heart surgery fell by 41 percent in the first four years of the program. When leadership at one hospital saw that the mortality rate of a particular Chuck Lauer (chuckspeaking@aol.com) was publisher of Modern Healthcare for 33 years. He is now an author, public speaker and career coach who is in demand for his motivational messages to top companies nationwide. Hospital & Health System Transactions Ardent Health Services, a for-profit health system based in Nashville, Tenn., and Amarillo, Texas-based Baptist Community Services finalized their purchase of Baptist St. Anthony's Health System, also in Amarillo. St. Louis-based Ascension Health and Los Altos, Calif.-based Daughters of Charity Health System signed a formal affiliation agreement, under which Daughters of Charity's six hospitals will operate under the largest Catholic health system in the country. West Chester, Pa.-based Chester County Hospital and Health System signed a non-binding letter of intent to join the University of Pennsylvania Health System in Philadelphia. Naperville, Ill.-based Edward Hospital & Health Services and Elmhurst (Ill.) Memorial Healthcare announced plans to merge, which would create one of the larger integrated health systems in the state. Atlanta Medical Center and South Fulton Medical Center in East Point, Ga., consolidated into one hospital on two campuses. Frederick (Md.) Regional Health System, Meritus Health in Hagerstown, Md., and Western Maryland Health System in Cumberland, Md., signed a memorandum of understanding to enter into strategic discussions for an affiliation. Audrain Medical Center in Mexico, Mo., entered into exclusive talks with St. Louis-based SSM Health Care for an alignment, which would include SSM Health Care operating and managing Audrain Medical Center. A new integrated health system was finalized in Minnesota, as HealthPartners in Bloomington, Minn., and Park Nicollet Health Services in St. Louis Park, Minn., completed their merger agreement. Care New England Health System in Providence, R.I., and Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island in Pawtucket reached a definitive agreement to establish Memorial Hospital as a partner in the CNE system. Henry Ford Health System in Detroit and Beaumont Health System in Royal Oak, Mich., formed a Merger Integration Task Force to lead the due diligence and integration process for the merger of the two systems. The New York State Department of Health approved the affiliation between Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital Medical Center in Plattsburgh, N.Y., Elizabethtown (N.Y.) Community Hospital and Fletcher Allen Partners in Burlington, Vt. Hillsboro (N.D.) Medical Center and Sanford Health, based in both Dakotas, finalized their merger agreement, and Hillsboro Medical Center is now known as Sanford Hillsboro Medical Center. Holy Cross Hospital joined Sinai Health System, both of which are based in Chicago. Integris Health announced it is the majority owner of Lakeside Women's Hospital, both of which are based in Oklahoma City. Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie, Wyo., is an affiliated hospital of the newly formed University of Colorado Health, based in Aurora. Jordan Health Systems in Plymouth, Mass., and Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center announced plans for JHSI to become part of BIDMC. Lake Charles (La.) Memorial Hospital, along with its partner West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital in Sulphur, La., entered into a partnership with W.O. Moss Regional Medical Center in Lake Charles. Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic announced that Billings (Mont.) Clinic has been selected to be a member of the Mayo Clinic Care Network. Mercy Health System of Maine in Portland and Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems in Brewer signed a definitive agreement to form a strategic alignment in which Mercy and all of its units will integrate into EMHS. A U.S. bankruptcy judge approved Bronx, N.Y.based Montefiore Medical Center's bid to acquire New York Westchester Square Medical Center in the Bronx.