Tag Archives: health care system

Health Care Crisis

Posted on June 16, 2006 by John Hunter

Probe finds nation’s emergency care system at ‘breaking point’ (the San Jose Mercury News broke the link so I removed it – poor usabilty on their part) by Lauran Neegaard: It’s a sobering symptom of how the nation’s emergency-care system is overcrowded and overwhelmed, “at its breaking point,” concludes an investigation by the Institute of Medicine. The spate of similar articles reminded me of the recent post by Mark Graban: Stop calling it “ER Congestion”. He states: “It’s not an … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Lean thinking, Management, Public Sector, Systems thinking | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Lean Hospitals

Posted on November 7, 2005 by John Hunter

Hospitals Turning Into Lean Machines by Megan Myers (broken link removed): The push toward adopting more efficient strategies in health care largely stems from a crucial need to reduce health care costs. In 2002, health care expenditures in the United States were $1.6 trillion, or 14.9 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product. Meanwhile, studies have estimated between 30 percent and 60 percent of the costs of providing health care services is waste. To cut that waste, hospitals are looking … Continue reading →

Posted in Health care, Lean thinking | Tagged

Healthcare Costs Spike Again

Posted on September 14, 2005 by John Hunter

Healthcare Costs Spike Again [the broken link was removed] by Jeanne Sahadi, CNN/Money: The premium growth rate this year – 9.2 percent – outpaced by miles both the growth in wages (2.7 percent) and inflation (3.5 percent) … since 2000 premiums for family coverage have gone up 73 percent. During the same period, wages rose just 15 percent. This is not sustainable. I feel like Brad Setser talking about the USA trade deficiets (by the way if you have any … Continue reading →

Posted in Deming, Economics, Health care, Systems thinking | Tagged | 2 Comments

Price Discrimination in the Internet Age

Posted on January 18, 2005 by John Hunter

Re: Boing Boing post – Why HP’s region coding excuse is bogus There is a simple method for large multi-national companies to use to protect against currency fluctuation. They can use foreign exchange futures to do so. Companies do this all the time (some also chose not to for their own business reasons). “Foreign Exchange is the largest of the global financial markets. Daily trading volume in the currency markets is estimated to be 1.1 US trillion dollars.” – Smith … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer focus, Economics, Management | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

USA Health Care Costs reach 15.3% of GDP – the highest percentage ever

Posted on January 11, 2005 by John Hunter

re: Health Care Spending In The United States Slows For The First Time In Seven Years The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services) issued a report (the press release states that report will appear in the Jan/Feb edition of Health Affairs but does not provide a link so the link is my guess of where the report will appear) and a news release putting a positive spin on the … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics, Health care, Popular, quote | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments