emergency department news from FierceHealthFinance
News
SPOTLIGHT: Harvard mobile van saves health system $20M
Harvard Medical School has run a "curbside clinic" van for 17 years, offering free tests and health counseling in low income neighborhoods. This, of course, is a great community service. What's... Read more...
HCA makes more than $75M with ED coding procedure
Coding is one of those dismal sciences that makes a big impact, but isn't exactly the sexiest part of a hospital's operations. This time around, however, the coding geeks had their day. Hospital... Read more...
Community clinics cutting services to undocumented immigrants
With the economy continuing to languish, community health clinics are beginning to look at cutting services to undocumented immigrants as a means of staying afloat financially. According to the Pew... Read more...
U of Chicago postpones ED diversion program
As we'd reported previously, the University of Chicago Medical Center recently set plans to begin diverting patients away from its emergency department who weren't acutely sick. The hospital intended... Read more...
SPOTLIGHT: FL health plans increase prices 25 percent
During the first three quarters of 2008, health insurers hiked up per-member, per-month costs for emergency department and out-of-area services a substantial 25 percent. Health plans in Florida say... Read more...
Weather extremes can increase hospital bad debt
When it gets blazing hot outside in the summertime, or freezing cold during the winter, most people don't think about these events as potential sources of bad debt. But that's a concern hospital... Read more...
Trend: ED 'super users' generating big expenses
Everyone in the hospital business knows about the emergency department's "frequent fliers"--folks who show up countless times, either because they're uninsured, fearful or maybe just lonely. While ED... Read more...
Hospitals working to avoid non-emergency ED care
As we've noted previously, hospitals are under more intense pressure than ever to avoid bad debt. One strategy, of course, is to collect vigorously after the bill has been incurred. Another,... Read more...
St. Louis hospitals dispute coalition's capacity numbers
The way the St. Louis Business Health Coalition tells it, the region's prosperous hospitals have been engaging in billion-dollar building projects--such as cancer centers, heart hospitals and patient... Read more...
SPOTLIGHT: Discharging inpatients pre-noon can improve ED flow
Hospitals across the U.S. are struggling to figure out how to get patients through the emergency department quickly, safely and efficiently. Now, a new study suggests that one way to do that is to... Read more...
