Archive for July, 2009
Healthcare Crackdown on Fraud
John Commins over at HealthLeaders recently wrote about the ever-rising focus on fraud in the healthcare. In his article, Culture of Compliance Preempts Whistleblower Suits, he makes the point that the potential gains to the whistleblower in a difficult economy could easily increase the number of whistleblower suits. He continues that creating a culture of compliance, with appropriate reporting pathways, is the best way to prevent these suits.
The aphorism is true: Prevention is the best medicine.
Cultures are typically created informally and unintentionally. Action by action. Decision by decision. Until there is a consistency in viewpoint and behavior. I’ll build on John’s recommendation that now is the time to conciously create a culture of compliance by adding that culture has to be applied consistently across staff, contractors, and vendors.
Add comment July 30, 2009
Bankruptcy, Part II
Back in October, we posted the BPM or Bankruptcy Page Metric, which was just a count of the pages of Chapter 11 filings in the US Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware. From a base of 3 pages of filing in January, 2008, the number of pages in the filings jumped to 16 pages in August, 2008.
Now, we see this statistic from the Washington Business Journal
More than 14,000 businesses filed for bankruptcy protection in the first quarter of 2009, a 64 percent increase over the same period a year earlier.
Nearly 10,000 of the business filings in the first quarter were Chapter 7 liquidations. Chapter 11 reorganizations accounted for 3,421 filings.
Chapter 7, as you know, means the doors are closed. No continuing operations ala Chrysler, GM, etc.
Every buyer and materials manager needs to have contingency plans in place to respond to a bankruptcy. Start with monitoring the credit scores and status of your vendors through your vendor program. Then have direct and frank conversations with your suppliers to understand their current situation and how you can work with them to keep the worst from happening.
Add comment July 10, 2009
Vendor Program Audits: From Homeroom to First Period
Back on the topic of vendor program audits, this week is about auditing the hospital’s own participation in the vendor program. I’ve made my middle-school son the stand-in for vendor representatives, so let’s turn the table and make his teachers the analogy for hospital staff.
Our school system has a set of guidelines for teachers. But not surprisingly each teacher approaches the task at hand differently. And that’s good. The teachers’ training and experience should be respected.
But at the same time, that variety can make it difficult for the administration to manage the less glamorous parts of running a school and for the students to figure out what to do.
It’s the same with hospitals. Each department wants to do what it believes is best and with its own style. But that grass-roots level initiative can make it difficult for administration to be confident standards are being met across departments and for vendors to figure out what to do.
The key is balance. Standardize the routine so that flexibility is possible when needed.
From a vendor program standpoint, sign in and badge status reports by department are the teacher’s pets, telling which departments aren’t toeing the line.
Here’s what many of our customers do.
First, run a report of all vendor rep sign-ins for some period — say a week or a month. Sort it by department. Which departments have the highest visitor traffic? Is it the ones you expect? If patient care areas like the cath lab aren’t at the top of the list, you know that something is off. On the flip side, if no one is signing in for pediatrics, that’s another problem.
Now sort the list by badge status within department. Do you see a department with a lot of non-compliant vendors? Stop by and find out why that department isn’t collecting the required documents. Maybe that document isn’t really relevant and that requirement should be dropped. Maybe that department doesn’t understand that your vendor program is about getting the mundane paperwork out of the way, so that the staff can focus on care delivery, not risk management.
Add comment July 1, 2009
