Hospital-Physician Relations Thought Leader Dr. Kenneth H. Cohn Captures Field-Tested Strategies for Clinical and Financial Success in New Book

AMESBURY, Mass., June 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Americans could save approximately $640 billion per year if the rest of the healthcare industry delivered high-quality, cost-effective care that matched those of leading organizations, according to a report in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Did you know that:

• The most expensive device in many hospitals is neither the MRI nor the PET scanner, but the physician's pen.
• The "us versus them" relationships between physicians and hospital leaders can undermine healthcare quality, safety, and budgets.
• Avoidable waste and inefficiency threaten the viability of the healthcare non-system and make care unaffordable for millions of U.S. citizens.

Imagine hospitals where healthcare professionals work interdependently to improve clinical outcomes, increase revenues, and cut expenses.  

You don't need to imagine such a situation, because it exists. Dr. Kenneth H. Cohn, a Harvard-trained practicing surgeon and cancer survivor, has shown how to improve the healthcare outcomes in a new book, Getting It Done: Experienced Healthcare Leaders Reveal Field-Tested Strategies for Clinical and Financial Success, http://gettingitdonebook.com. This groundbreaking book is about hospital leaders and physicians who have worked together to tear down silos and improve care for their communities. This book is a must-read for healthcare leaders, physicians, Board members, health administration professors and their students, libraries, and healthcare think tanks.

Dr. Cohn features national experts, such as:

• Jeff Fried in California, who cut the death rate from sepsis (overwhelming bacterial infection) by over 50% without adding any new drugs, working with middle managers and nurses to redesign care pathways
• Stan Mandel and Susan Phillips in North Carolina, who turned around their moribund operating room culture in just 18 months to improve case volume, morale, revenues, on-time starts, and perioperative antibiotic compliance
• Anand Joshi in New York, who collaborated with cardiologists and supply procurement personnel to consolidate vendors and decrease clinical variability, saving his hospital system over $5 million in implant costs

"Regardless of the outcome of national healthcare legislation, pressure is mounting on healthcare professionals to provide more cost-effective, coordinated care. Getting It Done shares the hard-earned lessons of healthcare professionals who removed roadblocks to clinical and financial excellence. Each chapter describes a real-life dilemma, distills the lessons learned, and provides step-by-step guidance, so that you don't need to reinvent the wheel," said Dr. Cohn.

"The editors have compiled an impressive set of insightful chapters by leading experts throughout the nation. The [chapter] authors do an excellent job of making the theoretical practical and the practical implementable," C. Duane Dauner, FACHE, President, California Health Association, writes in the foreword.

"Twenty-first century healthcare leaders need to move beyond strategies and tactics that have worked in the past. They need to adapt to changes using new skills that include actively listening and learning from one another. Reading the stories in this book gives me hope that it will happen during my lifetime. These stories profile leaders who have adapted to create new and innovative models and structures," said Michele M. Molden, FACHE, Executive Vice President and Chief Transformation Officer, Piedmont Healthcare, Atlanta.

About the Co-Editors

Kenneth H. Cohn, MD, MBA, FACS, is the CEO of HealthcareCollaboration, which works with disgruntled doctors and hospital leaders to improve clinical and financial performance. Dr. Cohn is a seasoned media professional, featured in CNN and CBS News, who speaks in sound bites and offers same-day response to media inquiries. You may add him to your database as a media resource on:

• Healthcare reform, especially as it affects practicing physicians
• Hospital-physician relationships
• Healthcare costs
• Healthcare quality

Steven A. Fellows, FACHE, is the executive vice president and chief operating officer of Cottage Health System in Santa Barbara, California. He is also an adjunct instructor in the Health Services Administration Program at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. In his role as a thought leader in healthcare administration, he has evaluated programs in the United States, Vietnam, Armenia, and Nagorno Karabakh Republic.

Ordering Information

Please order the book at Amazon.com.

Published by Health Administration Press, June 2011, ISBN: 978-1-56793-414-4, approx. 240 pages, softbound, $78 plus shipping

Editors: Please send your request for a complimentary copy for a book review on letterhead to Danielle Hart, HAP, 1 N. Franklin St., Ste. 1700, Chicago, IL 60606; e-mail to [email protected]; or fax to (312) 424-0014.

Contact:

Dr. Kenneth H. Cohn
978-834-6089
[email protected]

SOURCE Dr. Kenneth H. Cohn