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The Business of Health Care Report
Our subject today is the challenge of managing businesses that are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Americans are a demanding group, wanting what they need when they need it. Nowadays we take for granted 24-hour superstores, gas stations on every corner and the ability to order merchandise on the Internet at any time of the day or night. Hospitals are like that. Whenever you need them, they’re standing by 24/7. But unlike many other businesses, it’s considerably more expensive and takes significantly more expertise to keep a hospital running all day, every day – including holidays. For example, diagnostic tests and surgeries now extend into the night and weekends. When emergency cases arise, extra personnel must be summoned: physician specialists are brought in to diagnose the case; technicians arrive to operate equipment for the diagnostic tests; anesthesiologists, skilled surgeons and a surgical team prep for operations; and perhaps extra nursing staff is required. Because it is the unexpected that hospitals must deal with around the clock, some patients can be inconvenienced along the way – with tests, surgery and deliveries postponed, a backup in the emergency department or having to wait for an inpatient bed. These situations are frustrating for patients and the hospital, but when CareFlite delivers a critical patient from an outlying area, an ambulance brings in a nursing home resident, or a woman with a stroke presents in the emergency department, schedules will be affected. Hospitals are always busy, sometimes without sufficient rooms for
patients who need to be there, sometimes treating double the capacity of their emergency departments because so many need care. Yet they stand ready to help every hour and every day of the year – many times saving lives because they are standing by for you. For Texas Health Resources
and its family of hospitals - Harris Methodist Hospitals, Presbyterian
Healthcare System and Arlington Memorial Hospital - I'm CEO
Doug Hawthorne
with "The Business of Health Care Report" on NewsRadio 1080 KRLD.
©
2004 Texas Health Resources |
I'm Doug Hawthorne, President and CEO of Texas Health Resources, with
"The Business of Health Care Report" on 