Healthcare Management Consultants Predict "Top Ten Healthcare Trends" for the Decade Ahead
Applied Management Systems, Inc. (AMS), the Burlington, Massachusetts-based healthcare management consulting firm, has released its Top Ten Trends for Healthcare Management for 2010.
Boston, MA (PRWEB via PR Web Direct)
January 6, 2005 -- Applied Management Systems, Inc. (AMS), the Burlington,
Massachusetts-based healthcare management consulting firm, has released its Top
Ten Trends for Healthcare Management for 2010. The “Top Ten” report is a regular
prediction the firm provides its clients and industry leaders to provide a
forward-looking, big picture context for the industry.
"Our clients look
forward to our prognostications," said Alan Goldberg, president of AMS, "because
of our perspective on their industry. We are at the midpoint of the decade with
no name — the oughts. This is a good time to reflect and move forward. We were
established in 1967, but we worked at almost 200 hospitals and health systems in
the last two years. That gives us great comparative knowledge and the ability to
see common challenges and spot trends."
The Top Ten Trends for 2010
are:
1. Focus on patient safety
Hospitals will dedicate themselves to
preventing medical errors and improving patient safety at all levels of the
organization. Wireless will be an enabler — helping to merge and deliver
information to avoid errors.
2. Electronic medical records
arrive
Electronic medical records will become a reality. Transportable
“e-records” will help to support higher quality care, while protecting patient
privacy and cutting costs. Cell phones will become the “key” and only
communication device we will need.
3. Cost containment
As healthcare
costs continue to increase, driven by medical inflation and volume growth,
policymakers will consider limits on reimbursement rates for doctors and
hospitals as well as technologies to reduce costs in the long term.
Administrators will again be asked to do “more with less.”
4. Pay for
performance
Incentives to reward physicians and hospitals for quality care
and improved outcomes will take hold. Modeled after the Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services’ voluntary quality-indicator reporting system, similar "pay
for performance" incentives will help improve the quality of patient
care.
5. Information technology gets respect
As information technology
is recognized as a vital part of hospital operations, consuming a higher
percentage of the organization’s budget, IT management will become an integral
part of the clinical management process and member of the management team.
6. Consolidation of insurers
Insurers will continue to consolidate
creating additional leverage in contract negotiations. Similar to company
pension plans, our health insurance will become defined contribution not defined
benefit. 401K-style health plans arrive.
7. Nurse staffing
Following
California’s legislation that sets mandatory staffing levels in reaction to
nursing shortages, more states will consider similar legislation, prompting a
deep fissure within the industry over whether such laws are necessary or harmful
to staff and patients. The laws themselves will cause more shortages.
8.
Healthcare professional shortage
As demand outpaces supply, the industry will
increase compensation and develop pro-active recruitment programs to help
promote healthcare careers at higher education institutions.
9. Here come
the baby boomers!
The aging “baby boom” generation presents a major public
policy concern for long-term care due to its size and anticipated use of
resources, as well as boomers’ “high maintenance” reputation compared to their
predecessors.
10. The uninsured
The large uninsured and underinsured
population will continue to present the system with a grave dilemma. Due to
economic pressures the many working poor and young workers in their 20s will
choose to be uninsured.
To obtain a document comparing the Top Ten Trends
Today and the Top Ten Trends for the Future, visit their web site at http://www.aboutams.com.
Applied Management Systems
provides healthcare management services in three divisions: Systems Engineering,
Accounts Receivable Management and Health Information Services. Utilizing their
extensive knowledge and proprietary database, AMS consultants provide the
healthcare industry with effective operational consulting in benchmarking,
revenue cycle management, supply chain management, strategic planning, and
health information management. For a complete list of services and capabilities,
please see the AMS web site at http://www.aboutams.com.
Contacts:
Alan J. Goldberg,
President
3 New England Executive Park
Burlington, MA 01803
Tom
Webb, Partner
9175 Guilford Road, Suite 308
Columbia, MD
21046
800-462-1685
http://www.aboutams.com
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/1/prweb194999.htm