Partners’ quest for South Shore Hospital fueled a backlash and debate over how big is too big
Robert Weisman and Scott Allen for The Boston Globe
“Partners Healthcare desire to expand in Massachusetts has hit strong headwinds as competitors and payers join together to fight the deal. Demonstrates that as more hospital entities try to monopolize specific markets, they will end up facing greater resistance.” – John

Medical Records: Top Secret
Elizabeth Rosenthal for The New York Times
“Elizabeth Rosenthal’s drumbeat on a broken patient experience continues in this piece in which she presents the oft-maligned process of a patient getting their own health information. 5 years after e-Patient Dave famously called for his “damn data,” little progress seems evident. We are hopeful at Chilmark Research that the attention brought to such pervasive digital incompetence in healthcare by the New York Times’ spotlight will help accelerate progress.” – Naveen

Trust Trumps Privacy In Battle For Patient Health Data
Dan Munro for Forbes
“Dan hits the nail on the head in his latest blog post about the disconnect between the patient’s right to privacy and the patient’s right to their own data. The question of data ownership is over a decade old, yet as we move towards systems that are using troves of patient data as a foundation (for research, generating intelligence, and ultimately for revenue), a patient’s basic ability to see their own data hasn’t improved much in all this time.” – Naveen

Program for needy (duals) patients struggles
Kay Lazar for The Boston Globe
“Duals are seen as a big opportunity but as this article clearly shows, it may be more of a minefield for those seeking to address this most challenging market.” – John

Changes in Medical Errors after Implementation of a Handoff Program
Amy Starmer, et. al. in The New England Journal of Medicine
“Care coordination within hospitals can be every bit as challenging as it is out in the community. This study of handoffs between residents shows that a care protocol can make a difference in reducing medical errors and preventable adverse events and not impact workflow. In this case the protocol was the implementation of a structured approach to handoffs based on the I-PASS Handoff Bundle from Boston Children’s Hospital.” – Brian

Does Prime scavenge dying hospitals?
Anne Zieger for Healthcare Dive
“More insidious forms of profiteering from for-profit health systems are emerging. Prime Healthcare Service has been on an acquisition spree, like many other big ownership groups. But they’ve shown a tendency to target struggling hospitals, cancel major insurance contracts, and then collect higher out-of-network and out-of-pocket payments. Looking at their track record of fraud allegations, it’s a wonder they haven’t been censured or penalized yet.” – Naveen

How One Extra Day in the Hospital Could Move the Needle on Readmissions
Rajiv Leventhal for Healthcare Informatics
“Is the answer to reducing preventable readmissions keeping patients in the hospital for one more day? This study from Columbia Business School says so. It asks a question you don’t hear often from folks in the healthcare world. Which works better: one extra day of inpatient care or one day of outpatient care delivered sooner. These are the kinds of question that hospitals need to be asking since most are getting financially dinged by CMS.” – Brian

Patient Engagenent is a Strategy, not a Tool
Leonard Kish for HL7
“We’re not usually a fan of theory without results, but Leonard Kish has done a nice job of zooming out on the issue of patient engagement in this piece. Our biggest takeaway is the disconnect between current “engagement solutions” and the complex, non-technology-driven gears that make us tick as people – the social, the personal, and everything in between. For the short on time, skip to section 8 for some take-away bullets on strategy. Strongly recommended for anyone designing a new engagement product right now.” – Naveen