WaterCooler Collaboration

Collaborative Congress: Post 85

I believe that this Congress of the American College of  Healthcare Executives was the best educational forum that I have ever attended.  Imagine Congress passing major healthcare legislation the same week that over 4,000 healthcare executives met in Chicago to discuss implications of healthcare reform.  I felt that I was part of the present, especially [...]

A Massachusetts Surgeon Weighs in on the Meaning of Scott Brown’s Senate Victory: Post 81

Warning to readers: This post, like a previous post, Gotcha: A surgeon dissects patient-centered care, contains more rant than reason.  Those who feel passionately that Congress is doing a great job dealing with the people’s healthcare should look elsewhere for confirmation of their views. In An Interview with Stuart Altman, this distinguished healthcare economist mentioned Altman’s Law, that  [...]

Collaboration to Prevent Sabotage: Post 79

I join with thousands of others decrying the violence that took the lives of our troops at Fort Hood yesterday.  My heart goes out to their friends and families.  I pray that something will come of this event that will prevent a similar crisis from ever happening again. The parallel with healthcare is what compels me [...]

Collaborative Guilds: Post 72

I don’t see why we should need to resort to degrading, immature tactics to get doctors to do what everyone knows they should do in the first place. This comment, from a VP at a midwestern hospital during a discussion of healthy competition at a recent ACHE seminar that I taught, surprised me.  He was the first [...]

Collaborative Hardwiring: Post 71

For readers accustomed to weekly posts, I apologize that this summer, I will be cutting back to twice monthly because of a heavy clinical load performing locum tenens coverage in Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire, where I maintain licenses.  Summer tends to be a busy time for me, as surgeons seek time away from work [...]

Collaborative Disruption

 I am responding to feedback from a seminar participant who asked for summaries of books relating to healthcare. Through Executive Book Summaries to which I subscribe, I came across a provocative recently published book, The Innovator’s Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care, by Clayton Christensen, Jerome Grossman, and Jason Hwang.  Although I do not [...]

Collaborative Mother’s Day

This may be a controversial post on my favorite holiday, where we celebrate nurturing, sacrifice, and unconditional love; one day is insufficient. I admit that in previous posts( Gotcha and Uncollaborative Insurance ) I have complained about what I felt were arbitrary regulations on physical therapy for cancer survivors like me who sustained spine injuries and back [...]

Collaborative Passover

I apologize to my readers who feel that I have not been giving my blog  the attention that it deserves.  The last month has been a sprint: I was in Chicago last month attending the ACHE Congress, where I received the Dean Conley Award for the best article appearing in a healthcare management publication; that article, “The Tectonic [...]

Uncollaborative Insurance

For those accustomed to data-driven posts, I apologize.  This post is 99% personal experience.  It represents my ongoing battle with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care to obtain coverage that I need at a price that I can afford. This episode began when I received a notice dated 2/11/09 notifying me that the cost of my family [...]

An Interview with Stuart H. Altman

Bio:Stuart H. Altman is the Sol C. Chaikin Professor of National Health Policy at Brandeis University. From 2000-2002 he was Co-Chair for the Legislative Health Care Task Force for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He is Chair of The Council on Health Care Economics and Policy, a private non-partisan group whose mission is to analyze important [...]

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