Emanuel Medical Center (EMC) is having an enormous amount of issues, financially. Even the CEO, Robert Moen, knows they are experiencing a number of challenges and it cannot be fixed overnight. One of the main challenges EMC are facing is the federal regulation change(s). They are playing a big role in the financial struggle with lower reimbursement rates for federal insurance programs, implementation of EMTALA laws, development of services offered by other local competing hospitals, changes in service area demographics, which have all contributed to five sequential negative operating margins for EMC.
EMTALA impacts Emanuel Medical Center because it will require mandatory treatment for emergency room visits by hospitals regardless of their ability to pay. EMC was established in 1917, which makes it an old, but bigger facility that can withstand a bigger capacity, sixteen thousand patients, of emergency visits per year. With the passing of this regulation, EMC emergency department treats forty-five thousand patients every year, and because the ED is small and greatly understaffed, it causes longer waiting periods for patients. The frustrations of patients who are sick or not feeling themselves and all have some sort of emergency, have to wait long periods constantly, results in a bad reputation for the medical center. This will affect services, and also a loss of market share due to potential customers traveling to a competing hospital or clinic to receive care.
Medicare and Medi-Cal insures about fifty percent of patients EMC treats in the ED and because of that large number of patients it exposes the hospital to low-reimbursement rates the hospital receives back from those programs for providing care. Federally funded programs r...
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...ived charity donations, and because of this EMC have survived with effective investment returns. In order for EMC to remain open, they will need to search for the best loan opportunities to generate more revenue, since they are in a good standing to be eligible for a loan. With competition quickly making leeway, Emanuel Medical Center cannot continue to survive with donations alone. EMC needs to generate more revenue to stop spending its profits on prior investments. The negative operating margins have basically left the hospital in a very bad financial situation, and it will not and cannot improve until different services are offered.
All in all, for EMC to survive in a competitive environment the administrative staff at the hospital will need to re-evaluate the services they want to offer and what population demographics it will serve to better their organization.
One of Dr. Burditt arguments was that he was technically not ‘under contract’ with DeTar hospital, even though the opposite is true. On-call physicians must be made to realize that they are representing the hospital, not their private practice, therefore the hospital can be jointly liable for their actions. The procedure of providing follow up care for patients with an EMC also seem to be an issue due to its non -existence or inadequate knowledge on the part the ED staff in general and On-call doctors in particular. I recommend that:
They should also have more support staff available to assist with patients moving from surgery to post-anesthesia care. They should also offer additional training to the doctors from the community that use EMHU, although some of these physician are familiar with a CPOE type system more training would help stave off any additional problems with new users in the system.
In addition to this business plan, we must also address the financial issues plaguing this organization. To illustrate some of these issues lets look at some of the trends here at OCB and within our Industry: For example, OCB’s clinic operations profitability in 1990 was 60%, and now in 1996 our profitability is only 37%, which is down 23 percentage points! We can blame some of this on rising costs of overhead, consumables, etc, however this is happening as the industry as a whole is growing 5% annually, and as our customer base, largely senior citizens, population is growing at almost 1% as year. We should be capitalizing on these industry trends, however, as you all know, not all the trends work in our favor. For example, our lifeblood, the Insurance company’s managed care organizations, and government healthcare reimbursement programs shows a downward trend of allowable payments for our services (DRGs) For example in 1995 the DRG price of ...
There are pros and cons. Some medical people believe that the EMTALA legislation creates some problems for hospitals. Knowing that hospitals must take care of every person, people may use the ED for routine doctor visit situations. These people believe this contributes to the sometime overcrowding of ED’s. Another problem is that EMTALA legislation mandates caring for everyone no matter what. The hospital therefore, may not get paid. “According to the American College of Emergency Physicians, 55 percent of emergency care goes
There has been a shortage of physicians, lack of inpatient beds, problems with ambulatory services, as well as not having proper methods of dealing with patient overflow, all in the past 10 years (Cummings & francescutti, 2006, p.101). The area of concern that have been worse...
After an intensive investigation, it was discovered that Rosemont’s financial problems were greater than what the CEO reported. The facility lacked sufficient patient volume to generate the needed revenue. An emergency board meeting was called to brainstorm to see what could be done to salvage the financial situation. A consultant was contacted to help get Rosemont back on its feet.
The goal of ONC is to guarantee that health care clinicians and hospitals purchase a system that meets certain standards and criteria to perform those tasks. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), introduce the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs that offers financial incentives to eligible providers, hospitals and critical access facilities. To qualify for these benefits, providers, hospitals and critical access must show “meaning full” use of the EMR (Tripathi, 2012).
Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act of 1998 (EMTALA), health providers by law are supposed to follow the federal guidelines and the EMTALA when you work in an emergency medical care at certain hospitals (facilities that participate in Medicare-includes 98% of hospitals in the United States (U.S.)). This also means that any part of the hospital that can perform an evaluation and treatment of EMC is considered an ED., for example, a women's hospital that delivers babies is subject to EMTALA. As a health care professional under this law, you have to make sure that every person entering a hospital in need or requesting receives a medical screening examination (MSE), and an emergency medical condition (EMC) evaluation to determine
The federal government has encouraged EHR use in hopes that it will significantly improve patient care. There is the intent that electronic health records will allow any provider access to important patient health information no matter where the patient is, while “creating a comprehensive national electronic health information network that leads to a reduction in the duplication of tests, an improvement in the cost-effectiveness of interventions, and the ability to compile a comprehensive patient history” (McBride, Delaney, Tietze, 2012). While the implementation of EHR’s has good intent, an important question is, “How are the implementation of EHRs having an effect on emergency nursing and patient care?”
The emergency department (ED) is an essential component of the health care system, and its potential impact continues to grow as more individuals seek care and are admitted to the hospital through the ED. Invasive procedures such as central lines are placed with increased frequency
...and his vision in successfully transforming the medical center to a tertiary care facility. However, in 2008 under Ron Henderson, the medical center expenses began to skyrocket and revenues failed to keep up. Also, a hospital census indicated that, on average, Medicare patients consisted of 58% and Medicaid patients consisted of 18% which caused the medical center to suffer from reductions in reimbursements. Although noted by solid evidence that utilization was experiencing a steep decline, Mr. Henderson added 127 new positions to the medical center. In 2009, Mr. Henderson was fired after the board of trustees realized that this financial bind of an $8.6 million deficit was caused by Mr. Henderson. In order for the new CEO, Richard Reynolds, to succeed at his new job title, he must create a benchmarking process adopting certain goals to remain a worthy competitor.
EMTALA is a federal statute for Medicare participating hospitals that requires that hospitals emergency departments provide treatment to anyone regardless whether the patient has insurance or s able to pay. If a pregnant patient is having contractions or if transferring the patient poses a threat to the woman and/or her unborn child, then EMTALA dictates that the emergency department must deliver both the baby and the placenta. EMTALA hospitals must provide a medical screening examination (MSE) to any patient that comes to the hospital requesting care to determine whether there is an emergency medical condition. If there is found to be an EMC than the patient must be stabilized and treated to the extent of the hospitals abilities. If the hospital is unable to provide the treatment need that the patient must be safely transferred to a hospital that is capable of providing the necessary treatment. Transfers must be performed out of medical necessity. EMTALA also covers specialized units such as a burn unit. Specialized units must accept transferred patients in need of their specialized
...he operating margin, cash on hand, and days in accounts receivable as these have been major factors. The new system being put in place for the materials management system should be closely monitored, as it will determine the adaptability of the department. The reformation of the Governing Board can be justified through the successes or failures it creates while going through the restructuring process. It will be important to get feedback from employees and the CEO to see if conflicts arise. The new physical therapy center will continue to be monitored to see if revenues are as high as thought with the expansion of this facility. Overall, it will continue to be a process of monitoring, reevaluating, and gathering appropriate data to determine if the strategic plan being implemented is continuously seeking the values, mission, and vision of the Coastal Medical Center.
...mplications that allow for opportunities of change. One of the presumptions is for training and staffing (Shi & Singh, 2012). With the utilization of health care improvements, the staff will need additional instructions on the performance of equipment and how to efficiently achieve the desired results. Managers or supervisors recognize the need for supplemental staffing and training to optimize patient satisfaction and quality of care. The health care administrator must also focus on changes in insurance policies and rules governing the provision of medical assistance (Shi & Singh, 2012).
Just like communities, BCFS EMD has to remain prepared at all times. As a non-profit partner of federal, state and local government and private industries, our team of responders are always updating and refining their skills and knowledge just in case they have to spring into response. Our training and exercises provide tailored preparation to any state, jurisdiction or health care entity's needs. By implementing hands-on workshops and exercises, BCFS EMD helps strengthen the knowledge of communities and organizations seeking further response