We're especially glad to have you visit. We were at first puzzled, then pleased to have so many visitors from Canada, the UK, Japan, Australia, and 67 other countries! Our site was originally designed to get at some of the problems we have here in the States, but you have taught us that many of our issues are the same ones you face. We appreciate your visit today and all that your countrymen have shared with us. Thank you for coming.
Why a New American Hospital?
We coined the New American Hospital term to describe our country’s need for a new organization archetype, and the new approach to management necessary to run it. Due to the American healthcare cost reimbursement model that prevailed in the 1950s-1980s, there was a retardation of progress in healthcare management methods in this country. There was little focus on the patient as a customer, and productivity and quality improvement methods were not pursued since costs were largely reimbursed regardless of how inefficiently the organization was run. By the 1990’s this disincentive to change had largely faded. Out of control healthcare costs demanded greater pressure on both cost and quality, outcomes that old management approaches could not deliver. One study by the World Health Organization showed that the USA was spending more per capita than any other country for healthcare but was ranked 38th for key health statistics such as infant mortality and life expectancy. Our country was clearly not getting what it was paying for.
Associated with this country's history was a damaging schism between college programs that trained master’s degree candidates in hospital administration (MHA) and the business schools that trained business candidates (MBA). This split occurred in the 1930s when the Great Depression gave a bad name to American business—a scapegoating that served political interests at that time. Thus MHA programs, not wanting to be tainted by this earlier business image, developed on a separate track, away from the mainstream of business mangement research and development. This segregated isolation damaged US healthcare management as the state of the hospital management art fell further and further behind. Today, MHA and MBA programs are largely rejoined, but the effects of this separation live on in the cadre of professionals who at mid career are often not as well versed as they should be in the skills of true competition, six sigma, computerization and large scale system management. One estimate suggests that the healthcare management gap may be as much as 10 years behind where industrial management is in the US—a gap that is closing rapidly, but still present in many American healthcare institutions.
A New American Hospital is simply one that follows best practices in everything it does, both clinically and managerially. One could say that such a description is really appropriate in describing the New Hospital, no matter where it functions in the world. If anything at our site is helpful we would appreciate hearing about it along with suggestions for improvement. We extend our hand to you as fellow professionals in a common cause!
