Examining the financial and quality performance effects of group purchasing organizations.

Background: Hospitals frequently enter into group purchasing organizations (GPOs) to manage supply costs, yet there is mixed evidence regarding the benefit for hospitals to participate in a GPO. However, the role of GPOs on hospital operations has expanded into dimensions of quality that have not been previously examined.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of hospital participation in a GPO, as well as GPO network characteristics, on both financial and quality performance outcomes.

What Is the Return on Investment for Implementation of a Crew Resource Management Program at an Academic Medical Center?

Crew Resource Management (CRM) training has been used successfully within hospital units to improve quality and safety. This article presents a description of a health system-wide implementation of CRM focusing on the return on investment (ROI). The costs included training, programmatic fixed costs, time away from work, and leadership time.

What Is the Return on Investment for Implementation of a Crew Resource Management Program at an Academic Medical Center?

Crew Resource Management (CRM) training has been used successfully within hospital units to improve quality and safety. This article presents a description of a health system-wide implementation of CRM focusing on the return on investment (ROI). The costs included training, programmatic fixed costs, time away from work, and leadership time.

Cost-effectiveness of treating hypertension, hyperglycemia, and hyperlipidemia in African Americans and the general population with type 2 diabetes.

Unlabelled: Disparate access to health care makes African Americans especially susceptible to diabetes and associated risk factors. This study analyzes the cost-effectiveness of aggressive treatment of hypertension, hyperglycemia, and hyperlipidemia in an adult population of African Americans and general population with type 2 diabetes.

Methods: A Markov model was developed to simulate the progression of cardiovascular disease among a cohort of African Americans and general population with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes.

Community health center integration: experience in the State of Ohio.

In the face of severe financial challenges and demands to improve quality and service to patients, many community health centers (CHCs) have aligned or integrated with other CHCs, physician groups, or hospitals. Yet the nature of and rationale for these organizational decisions are not well understood. Our research applied an organizational theoretical framework to test whether strategic adaptation theory or institutional theory best describes the integration activity of CHCs in Ohio.

Opportunities for outreach: Medicaid participation among children in Ohio.

This research seeks to determine individual and household differences between children who enrolled in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and children who did not. In addition, the study investigates the specific reasons that families provided for not enrolling their children in Medicaid/CHIP. Data from the 1998 Ohio Family Health Survey were used to determine individual and household differences between children who were enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP and children who were not.

The financial performance of community health centers, 1996-1999.

This paper presents recent financial health trends of community health centers (CHCs) between 1996 and 1999, a time characterized by fiscal and operating challenges. Results show that many individual CHCs have been subject to large changes in payer-mix among uninsured and Medicaid users. Troubling is the finding that more than half of all CHCs reported operating deficits in 1997, 1998 and 1999.