Quality improvement teams, super-users, and nurse champions: a recipe for meaningful use?

Objective This study assessed whether having an electronic health record (EHR) super-user, nurse champion for meaningful use (MU), and quality improvement (QI) team leading MU implementation is positively associated with MU Stage 1 demonstration

Trends in Asset Structure Between Not-for-Profit and Investor-Owned Hospitals

The delivery of health care is a capital intensive industry and thus hospital investment strategy continues to be an important area of interest for both health policy and research. Much attention has been given to hospitals’ capital investment policies with relatively little attention to investments in financial assets, which serve an important role in NFP hospitals. This study describes and analyzes trends in aggregate asset structure between NFP and IO hospitals during the post-capital based PPS implementation period, providing the first documentation of long-term trends in hospital investment. We find hospitals’ aggregate asset structure differs significantly based on ownership, size, and profitability. For both NFP and IO hospitals, financial securities have remained consistent over time, while fixed asset representation has declined in IO hospitals

Facing the Recession: How Did Safety-Net Hospitals Fare Financially Compared with Their Peers?

To examine the effect of the recession on the financial performance of safety-net versus non-safety-net hospitals

Why providers participate in clinical trials: Considering the National Cancer Institute's Community Clinical Oncology Program

The translation of research evidence into practice is facilitated by clinical trials such as those sponsored by the National Cancer Institute’s Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) that help disseminate cancer care innovations to community-based physicians and provider organizations. However, CCOP participation involves unsubsidized costs and organizational challenges that raise concerns about sustained provider participation in clinical trials

Minimum Nurse Staffing Legislation and the Financial Performance of California Hospitals

To estimate the effect of minimum nurse staffing ratios on California acute care hospitals’ financial performance

CEO Compensation and Hospital Financial Performance

Growing interest in pay-for-performance and the level of CEO pay raises questions about the link between performance and compensation in the health sector. This study compares the compensation of non-profit hospital Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in Ontario, Canada to the three longest reported and most used measures of hospital financial performance. Our sample consisted of 132 CEOs from 92 hospitals between 1999 and 2006. Unbalanced panel data were analyzed using fixed effects regression. Results suggest that CEO compensation was largely unrelated to hospital financial performance. Inflation-adjusted salaries appeared to increase over time independent of hospital performance, and hospital size was positively correlated with CEO compensation. The apparent upward trend in salary despite some declines in financial performance challenges the fundamental assumption underlying this paper, that is, financial performance is likely linked to CEO compensation in Ontario. Further research is needed to understand long-term performance related to compensation incentives

The Effect of Minimum Nurse Staffing Legislation on Uncompensated Care Provided by California Hospitals

This study assesses whether California’s minimum nurse staffing legislation affected the amount of uncompensated care provided by California hospitals. Using data from California’s Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, the American Hospital Association Annual Survey and InterStudy, we divide hospitals into quartiles based on pre-regulation staffing levels. Controlling for other factors, we estimate changes in the growth rate of uncompensated care in the three lowest staffing quartiles relative to the quartile of hospitals with the highest staffing level. Our sample includes short-term general hospitals over the period 1999 to 2006. We find that growth rates in uncompensated care are lower in the first three staffing quartiles as compared to the highest quartile; however, results are statistically significant only for county and for-profit hospitals in quartiles one and three. We conclude that minimum nurse staffing ratios may lead some hospitals to limit uncompensated care, likely due to increased financial pressure

California's Minimum Nurse Staffing Legislation: Results from a Natural Experiment

To determine whether, following implementation of California's minimum nurse staffing legislation, changes in acuity-adjusted nurse staffing and quality of care in California hospitals outpaced similar changes in hospitals in comparison states without such regulations

The business case for provider participation in clinical trials research: An application to the National Cancer Institute’s community clinical oncology program

Provider-based research networks (PBRNs) make clinical trials available in community-based practice settings, where most people receive their care, but provider participation requires both financial and in-kind contributions

Challenges and Facilitators of Community Clinical Oncology Program Participation: A Qualitative Study:

Successful participation in the National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Community Clinical Oncology Program (CCOP) can expand access to clinical trials and promote cancer treatment innovations for patients and communities otherwise removed from major cancer centers. Yet CCOP participation involves administrative, financial, and organizational challenges that can impact hospital and provider participants. This study was designed to improve our understanding of challenges associated with CCOP participation from the perspectives of involved providers, and to learn about opportunities to overcome these challenges