Physician-owned groups: the best strategy for success.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to A D Bender.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Debates over health reform in the United States are hampered by a poorly informed public and misunderstandings about the concepts of quality, cost containment and their relationship to each other. This paper explores the nature and persistence of barriers to an informed public discussion of reform proposals. Those barriers are: (1) multiple definitions of quality, cost and cost containment, (2) the impact of the media on those definitions, (3) a false assumption that cost containment automatically results in diminished quality, and (4) the perceived impact of managed care and for-profit health firms on that assumption. We suggest a framework for building the understanding and knowledge base necessary to a reform of the nation's health care system.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Medical practices historically have not been examined in terms of their organizational structures and of the appropriateness of their structures for survival as business entities. In this paper, we propose a model for the typical medical practice and discuss its fit with current organizational theory. It is apparent that the medical practice organization does not fit with the demands of a rapidly changing and complex environment. To survive and grow, the medical practice organization must align itself with others that have an interest and stake in the health care system, develop teamwork among physicians, bridge the gap between physicians and others in the organization, and recognize that the work done in the organization depends on other components of the organization.
The attention devoted to quality in health care has focused primarily on hospitals. With the shift in care from hospitals to outpatient clinics and physicians' offices, there has emerged a need to consider how quality should be approached in these settings. This article explores the structural barriers in the typical medical practice that must be removed in order to improve the many dimensions of quality. The typical practice must concentrate on enhancing clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction, and practice productivity. One effective strategy is to form teams of physicians and other staff to work on relevant issues. Another is to focus on how the practice can be defined to better meet the needs of patients.
Experience in dealing with the application of total quality management (TQM) to the medical practice environment suggests some generic lessons that can be helpful in applying TQM in other health care settings. These lessons focus on the need to address the motivation for TQM and its potential value; understanding the barriers created by the organizational and industry culture; identifying the structural barriers within the organization; clearly stating the guiding principles of the TQM effort; implementing the correct management tools for implementation; and allowing users of TQM to create new ideas for the application of TQM in their organizations.
TQM has a place in the medical practice. While it will require that the practice deal with the many barriers to change in the practice, the results can be significant. Increased patient satisfaction, lower costs, improved quality of work life, and increased productivity can enhance the working of a practice at a time when there are significant pressures on the practice and physicians. TQM may indeed be a way for a practice to take more control of this changing environment rather than being controlled by it.
The strategic planning process requires many tools in determining and acting on the issues that will influence a hospital's future. To efficiently and effectively launch a strategic plan, administrators must begin by prioritizing problems and opportunities so that they are proactive rather than reactive. In the following article, the author suggests a matrix system that will aid in that effort.
A medical practice can enhance its planning by developing a budgetary model to test effects of planning assumptions on its profitability and cash requirements. A model focusing on patient visits, payment mix, patient mix, and fee and payment schedules can help assess effects of proposed decisions. A planning model is not a substitute for planning but should complement a plan that includes mission, goals, values, strategic issues, and different outcomes.
With increasing competition among hospitals, primary care referral development and management programs offer an opportunity for hospitals to increase their admissions. Such programs require careful development, the commitment of the hospital staff to the strategy, an integration of hospital activities, and an understanding of medical practice management.
Strategic business planning is a two-step process--(1) formulation and (2) implementation. While much effort has been placed on how to formulate strategies that are consistent with internal and external environmental pressures, the key lies in making strategies work. Management cannot stop with formulation but must concern itself equally with the implementation process. This means paying attention to the change process and its management.
Having a strategic vision for a hospital is of no use unless it is supported by a focused plan and a management ready to make it work. But, there are generic factors that impede the success of strategic change, barriers that can be lessened, if not eliminated, with structure. In the following article, the author describes the ingredients necessary to turn strategic vision into practice.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The intent of this study was to determine what influence, if any, increasing age has on the binding of drugs by plasma proteins. Plasma from healthy subjects ranging in age from 21 to 94 years was used. The binding of phenytoin (diphenylhydantoin) (acid), penicillin G potassium (benzylpenicillin potassium), and phenobarbituric acid was determined by equilibrium dialysis of 14C-labeled compounds. No differences were found in total protein concentration; however, albumin was reduced in subjects over 50 years of age. Plasma binding of each drug studied was not related to age; this finding suggests that age per se is not a factor in the binding of drugs by plasma proteins.
In the search for prostaglandin-like structures capable of exerting specific and desirable biological properties, a variety of simple heterocyclic homoprostanoidal derivatives was synthesized from readily available stearic acid derivatives. Compounds 5b and 5e were found to be more than 100 times as potent as PGE1 and PGE2 in a tracheal chain bioassay and, like 6, 9, and 12, inhibited PGE2-induced diarrhea. Derivatives 6 and 7a showed significant PG-synthetase inhibitor activity.
Reverse phase high speed liquid chromatographic methods are presented for the separation and detection of cephalosporins, penicillins, tetracyclines and other miscellaneous antibiotics. The reverse phase approach is superior to ion-exchange liquid chromatography and spectrophotometric, chemical and microbiological procedures currently in use. In addition to being simple and easy to control, the technique is rapid, convenient and precise and provides the basis for the direct analysis of pure compounds, stability samples, complex mixtures and dosage forms of all types. Preparative chromatography has been used in our laboratory for the separation and isolation of up to 500 mg of antibiotics. Using this approach, we have separated and isolated small impurities as well as pure feference compounds. The methodology reported here can be extensively applied to the separation, quantitation and isolation of both naturally occurring and synthetically produced antibiotics in a variety of media including physiological fluids.