The Cuban Clinic Model

I was reading an article in the Miami Herald today on the implementation of Cuban-style clinics for senior citizens. This model is the model all of health care should be implementing and has great growth potential for hospitals.

These clinics involve free exercise classes, free lunches, and access to primary care physicians. Hospitals can integrate this model into their business plan as a means of keeping the community healthy and driving business through primary care physicians.

Place these wellness centers in locations that are convenient to the public such as shopping centers and business parks. Bring people in with these free services and staff a primary care physician or nurse practitioner on site. Finally, negotiate into your managed care contracts a payment for each of these patients that use the facility. The going rate goes about $1,000 per patient according to the Miami Herald.

If you would like to read the full article:
http://www.miamiherald.com/154/story/38715.html

Walter Reed Is Just the Beginning

One seismic shift in the layers of the Earth is the impetus of a tidal wave. That seismic shift has occured at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

"This is going to be comprehensive; it's going to be vigorous," said Donna Shalala, who is in charge of investigating the care at Walter Reed. The American public is outraged at the conditions soldiers arriving back from Iraq and Afghanistan face in their hospital care. The public holds hospitals to a high standard in quality of their work. However, Walter Reed is having issues with taking care of the families of the poor patients, upkeep of the facility, cutting through bureaucracy to treat patients in a timely and sufficient manner.

They say that hundreds of miles out into the ocean one can't even see a tidal wave forming. The outrage on display now is nothing compared to the outrage to follow. If the Washington Post were to go to any hospital in the United States, what would they find? Would they find the perfectly managed facility that they expect? Hospitals need to prepare themselves to address issues in their facility that they would not want on the front page of their local newspaper.

The tidal wave is just on the horizon, better batten down the hatches.