March 4, 2010

President Barack Obama yesterday renewed his call for Congress to enact real health reform this year. I hope the members of Congress heed his challenge.

America’s seniors should hope so, too. The health care proposal under consideration would increase funding for the Medicare drug benefit, create more options for seniors who rely on home and community-based care and strengthen the safety net for those who require long-term services and supports. These initiatives would benefit seniors enormously.

read Larry Minnix’s entire post

March 2010- fastcompany.com ( Cisco Systems #17 )

On November 9 of last year, Cisco Systems introduced an unheard-of 61 new technologies, all focused on collaboration. Tony Bates, the SVP behind them, says collaboration is a $34 billion market, and “by far the most exciting thing we’re working on. The world is bigger than an office and a bunch of cubes.” Among the new offerings: a social video system called Cisco Show and Share (YouTube for your office); Collaboration in Motion (WebEx for your iPhone); and, coming next year, the Cisco Enterprise Collaboration Platform (Facebook/Twitter meets WebEx for your business), which will help far-flung employees share a chat window, videos, wikis, docs, even a company-wide news feed. No longer content to be a plumber, Cisco is focusing on the network as the basis for innovation, which is bringing the company into closer competition with the likes of Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Tune in next year to see how that’s going.–end

1. Telemedicine- physicians consulting patients using secure video/web cam capabilities, physicians can see more patients.

2. Electronic Medical Records- integrated between acute and post acute settings (A Kissito currrent project)

3. Chat, video, wikis – nationwide access between facilities to assist in a diagnoses, patient/customer service recovery, archiving of best practices, etc…

4. Smart phone monitoring- physicians using smart phones to monitor vitals in real-time.

These are just a few off the top of my head. What are the possible collaborations you envision?

Leave us some comments.

The Obama administration’s budget proposal for the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2011 is seeking $250 million to strengthen access to health care for 3.2 million Veterans enrolled in VA’s medical system who live in rural areas. This push for rural outreach includes expanded use of home-based primary care and mental health through the department’s “telehealth” program.  The system links patients and health care providers by telephones and includes telephone-based data transmission, enabling daily monitoring of patients with chronic problems.  The budget provides an increase of $42 million for VA’s home “telehealth” program.  The effort already cares for 35,000 patients and is the largest program of its kind in the world.

“Our budget proposal provides the resources necessary to continue our aggressive pursuit of President Obama’s two over-arching goals for Veterans,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “First, the requested budget will help transform VA into a 21^st century organization.  And second, it will ensure that we approach Veterans’ care as a lifetime initiative, from the day they take their oaths until the day they are laid to rest.”

This is a video that was submitted in a contest by a 20-year old. The contest was titled “u @ 50″ by AARP. This video won second place. When they showed it, everyone in the room was awe-struck and broke into spontaneous applause. So simple and yet so brilliant. Take a minute and watch it. Then apply the concept to healthcare reform? Enjoy!

The United States spends more on medical care per person than any country, yet life expectancy is shorter than in most other developed nations and many developing ones. Lack of health insurance is a factor in life span and contributes to an estimated 45,000 deaths a year. Why the high cost? The U.S. has a fee-for-service system—paying medical providers piecemeal for appointments, surgery, and the like. That can lead to unneeded treatment that doesn’t reliably improve a patient’s health. Says Gerard Anderson, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who studies health insurance worldwide, “More care does not necessarily mean better care.”  —Michelle Andrews

Graphic source: National Geographic

As Washington hastens to wrap up the particulars of health care reform, let’s stop to reflect on the potential consequences. Our national health expenditure as reported for 2007 by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services was $2.2 Trillion or 16.2 percent of GDP. The percent jumps to 17.5 based on the 2009 forecasted expenditure of $2.5 Trillion and third-quarter annualized GDP.

Fast forwarding to 2015 the U.S. population is projected to increase from 307 to 324 Million with those ages 65 and older increasing from 39.0 to 45.6 Million. Health expenditures are forecasted to increase to $3.5 Trillion by 2015, before expanding coverage under the proposed health care reform legislation. Let’s consider carefully the implications of rapid health expenditure growth in a recovering economy. The minutes of the Federal Reserve System FOMC of November 3-4, 2009, suggest long term GDP growth rates in the 2.5 to 2.8 percent ranges, moderately higher than the IMF which suggests the U.S. GDP growth rate will be below 2 percent “for a considerable time”. Assuming a 2 percent growth rate from 2009 forward our national health expenditure will reach 22.0 percent of GDP in 2015, before expanding insurance coverage.

While the Congressional Budget Office has scored the Senate plan at a cost of $147 Billion (2016 maximum insured population) before excise taxes and penalties…this analysis fails to recognize the additional consumer or employer cost. There is no reason to believe those uninsured today will consume less health care services than those presently insured. It fact, there may be a case for suggesting the uninsured have built-up health care needs. Unlike the sophisticated forecast of CBO, we derived our cost estimates from the actual experience of the 2007 national health expenditure.

On average, people covered by Medicare expend $10,975 and the insured population spends $8,433 per person. Applying this experience to the estimated 32 Million uninsured people to be covered under the Senate plan, health care expenditures have the potential to increase by $269.9 Billion (in 2007 dollars) or $316.2 Billion annually by 2015, assuming a 2 percent inflation rate. By 2015 the combined effects of population changes, the proposed expansion of coverage, utilization growth rates, and inflation have the potential of increasing our national health expenditure to an astonishing 24.0 percent of GDP.

As health care marches to higher levels of GDP it places economic recovery, Federal deficit reduction, and the American way of life at great danger. As Americans, we can all agree the health care system needs to be reformed, but to expand coverage without simultaneously reforming the delivery system is beyond rational economic comprehension.

Kimberly has worked for some of the nation’s oldest and largest healthcare corporations and rehabilitation providers on both the contract and customer side. She is a nationally recognized healthcare consultant, having worked with many organizations, private equity firms, and others teaching and training on risk analysis, providing excellent clinical care, survey readiness, running effective, efficient, and profitable Medicare facilities.

At Kissito Healthcare, Kimberly will take an active role at the facility level ensuring Kissito’s I.P.E.R. (Integrity. Passion. Excellence. Respect.) philosophy is being lived each and every day. She will focus on the MDS systems, auditing, training, accuracy, and finding lost revenue opportunities. Kimberly will also oversee Kissito’s rehabilitation services to maximize and track clinical outcomes, ensure clinical excellence and supportive documentations and revenue opportunities. Kimberly states, “I am excited to be a member of such a progressive team and I absolutely believe that we can change this industry. I truly believe that ‘Discovery consists of seeing what everybody has seen, and thinking what nobody has thought.’ –Albert von Szent-Gyorgyi. Kissito is discovering the new way to take care of patients and I am proud to be a part of that discovery.”

Kissito Healthcare is a not-for-profit healthcare provider comitted to growing through the continued development of their proprietary Collaborative Patient Care Model™ . This patient-centered approach emphasizes collaboration, coordination and partnership among patients, hospital caregivers and post acute healthcare teams to produce smoother care transitions, improved outcomes and reduced costs.

As the Vice President of Marketing and Business Development, Josh sits on the Executive Leadership and Management Team of the company and plays an integral role in insuring the success of the company’s future. He and his team develop marketing strategies and business partnerships that drive measurable results at all nine of the company’s facilities.

When asked about his new role at Kissito, Josh states, “This is very exciting work. Everyday I am challenged to learn something new about our healthcare system. This is one of the most forward thinking companies I have ever worked for, and I am ecstatic that I am able to part a part of such a sharp group of minds dedicated to making a difference in people’s lives.”

Prior to joining the Kissito team, Josh owned and operated an integrated advertising agency in Virginia where he built a wide array of brands into consistent leadership positions. He owned and managed a real estate firm, and he has represented various marketing service based firms on both a national and international basis in a business development capacity. It’s this knowledge, drive and passion that led the Blue Ridge Business Journal to feature Josh as one of the Top 20 Under the Age of 40 in 2004 at the age of 28.

Kissito Healthcare is a not-for-profit healthcare provider comitted to growing through the continued development of their proprietary Collaborative Patient Care Model™ . This patient-centered approach emphasizes collaboration, coordination and partnership among patients, hospital caregivers and post acute healthcare teams to produce smoother care transitions, improved outcomes and reduced costs.

@kissitocareers tweets an average of 22 times per day with various positions open both in the corporate office headquartered in Roanoke, Virginia as well as at its nine facilities located in Virginia, Texas and Arizona. Tweets promote the careers section of their website in general in addition to specific job openings from director of nursing to accountants.

Since conception of @kissitocareers , the company’s follower count is just shy of 1,000. But the network of “tweeters” that Kissito Healthcare has built gets the message in front of over 15,000 people when retweeted. It is through Twitter that the company’s messages are truly viral and reaching those who are looking for a job or for a career change.

Social media is not a new concept for Kissito Healthcare. Prior to creating their recruiting account on Twitter, Kissito Healthcare recruited several team members through the use of social networking.

@kissitocareers is managed for Kissito Healthcare by Patsy Stewart of Optimized Strategies, a Roanoke-based firm focusing on integrating online and social media with traditional advertising.