GE Posts Second Quarter Earnings
Profits at GE Healthcare rose 15% for the second quarter, driven by 16% growth in medical imaging orders.
in Waukesha, the former GE Medical Systems — reported revenue of $3.8
billion in the second quarter, up 12 percent compared with $3.4 billion
for the same period a year ago. Operating income grew to $672 million
from $584 million.
GE said total orders for GE Healthcare increased 11 percent in the
second quarter to $3.9 billion, compared with last year's second
quarter. Equipment orders rose 16 percent to $2.5 billion.
Equipment-order growth includes $400 million worth of computed
tomography orders, driven by the LightSpeed Volume CT scanner, GE said.
For the first six months of 2005, operating income was up 17 percent at
$1.1 billion, compared with $923 million a year ago. Revenue grew 21
percent to $7.1 billion from $5.9 billion.
Hill-Rom health unit reorganizing
Hillenbrand Industries is
reorganizing, a restructuring that will cost 250 to 300 salaried
employees their jobs. The job cuts will occur from Hillenbrand's
workforce of 6,100 people worldwide.Tthe company had not yet determined
where the cuts — roughly 4 to 5 percent of the total workforce –
would be made.
The company cut about 200 jobs in January of
2001 and about the same number two months later. Early this year
Hillenbrand announced it would trim another 100 jobs by closing a wood
casket manufacturing plant in Canada, making other cuts in the U.S. and
trimming its field service operations in Germany.
Hillenbrand officials said the reorganization will put more emphasis on Hill-Rom,
its fastest-growing business segment, clear the way for new
acquisitions and ventures and decentralize decision-making.The revised
Hill-Rom business structure includes a Care Environment Division, a
Service Division and an Americas & Asia Pacific Sales Division that
will be based in Batesville. The Clinical Division will be based in
Charleston, S.C., and the Europe, Middle East and Africa Division will
be headquartered in Paris.
Analyst William Burns of Johnson Rice
in New Orleans said he thought the new divisional structure is a sound
move. He said the restructuring signals that the company is ready
to make acquisitions and has turned its focus away from slower internal
growth in the casket and funeral planning businesses. The company
secured a $500 million line of credit last August and has another $140
million available to make acquisitions, Burns said.
HIPAA Administrative Simplification Enforcement
CMS is sponsoring a free teleconference on the HIPAA enforcement proposed rule. You may remember my previous post about the recent DOJ HIPAA assessment that caused a dust up.
SHARP (Southern Healthcare Administrative Regional Process) will host
the 1 hour teleconference on July 20, at 10:00 am Pacific Time.
[Hat tip: Health Data Management]
Patient Volume Variability and Better Patient Flow
Who is Eugene Litvak? Eugene Litvak, Ph.D. is a Professor of Health Care and Operations
Management and Director of the “Program for the Management of
Variability in Health Care Delivery”
at Boston University Health Policy
Institute. His primary research interest is, as the foregoing would
suggest, identifying and managing natural and artificial variability.
(Select publications here.)
Hospital care will never be a “just in time” operation. Patients and
their health are not a raw material to be scheduled and metered out at
a precisely controlled rate. In the overall delivery of care however,
variability comes in two flavors: “natural” variability which cannot be
controlled, and “artificial” variability which can be controlled. Queuing theory
can be used to manage natural variability. Artificial variability comes
from batching, blocking and other techniques that are commonly used to
manage workflow.
The following are some key papers on managing variability to improve patient flow:
Managing Unnecessary Variability in Patient Demand to Reduce Nursing Stress and Improve Patient Safety, Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, June 2005, vol. 31, no. 6, pp. 330-338(9) (full text $20)
Root Cause Analysis of Emergency Department Crowding and Ambulance Diversion in Massachusetts,
A report submitted by the Boston University Program for the Management
of Variability in Health Care Delivery under a grant from the
Massachusetts Department of Public Health, October, 2002 (full text)
Emergency Department Diversion: Causes and Solutions, Academic Emergency Medicine, November 2001, Volume 8, Number 11, pp. 1108-1110, (full text)
Hospital Emergency Departments: Crowded Conditions Vary among Hospitals and Communities, Report to the Ranking Minority Member, Committee on Finance, U.S. Senate, March 2003, GAO-03-460 (full text)
You can also view an archived webinar (slides and audio) at Urgent Matters titled “Maximizing Throughput: Smoothing the Elective Surgical Schedule”. This presentation describes how Boston Medical Center reduced artificial variability in their surgical schedule.
[Hat tip: Premier Safety Share]
