by Steve Berkowitz | Feb 26, 2016 | Uncategorized
Several years ago it was indeed disturbing to find out that the national 30-day readmission rate for patients discharged with diseases such as heart failure, heart attack and pneumonia was almost 25%. Fortunately, since becoming a publicly reported measure and a...
by Steve Berkowitz | Feb 18, 2016 | Health care reform, Physician Leadership, Quality
It has long been known that incentives drive behavior. One of the biggest game changers in health care today is the sharp increase in consumer health care deductibles. This has been largely driven by health care costs increasing at a rate higher than can be...
by Steve Berkowitz | Feb 14, 2016 | Uncategorized
Every health care provider I know, as a part of their core curriculum during training, studied the pioneering work of Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. In her 1969 book “On Death and Dying” she described five stages that patients experience during these difficult...
by Steve Berkowitz | Feb 3, 2016 | Uncategorized
When I speak to health care executives at conferences, I enjoy posing two situations to the attendees: Looking at the administrators, I say “If a physician tells you I have done it this way for twenty years, I hope it scares the heck out of you”. I then...
by Steve Berkowitz | Jan 28, 2016 | Uncategorized
I don’t know about you, but during this election year I am sure getting tired of the opinion polls. A day does not go by when the media doesn’t report some survey results. Americans have to be the most polled people in the world. (Although interestingly...
