Hospitals In Focus

The ACA is starting a new era with President Biden at the helm of a new administration. We wanted to hear about what happens when a state not only fully embraces the ACA but keeps harmful regulations at bay that hurt marketplaces and patients. Chip is joined by the Executive Director of Covered California Peter Lee on the newest episode of Hospitals In Focus. The two discuss the basic tenets of th...

Two health policy experts joined Chip to discuss the new Biden administration’s approach to developing and implementing health policy. With COVID-19 raging across the country, Chris Jennings and Doug Badger touch on Biden’s first 100 days in office and how they expect Biden’s health teams to tackle the health and economic fallout from COVID in contrast to the Trump administration. Importantly, the...

The ACA is once again in front of the Supreme Court and a decision on its future will be likely handed down in June 2021. In the meantime, Larry Levitt joined Chip to discuss the ACA’s impact on hospitals and providers over the past decade. The EVP of Health Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation shared his views on what we could expect from the Supreme Court and if the ACA is settled law once and...

How are America’s health care providers building trust with Black patients after years of historic racism? With time, says Dr. Thomas LaVeist. The Dean of the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine joined Chip to discuss dispelling health care myths around Covid-19, how we can ensure vaccines are fairly allocated, and what we can learn for the next health emergency. These things are...

Community health workers play a vital role in helping end racial disparities in our health care system. They break down barriers by fostering better relationships between the community and their health care providers. Dr. Chidinma A. Ibe is the Assistant Professor of General Internal Medicine and Health, Behavior and Society at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She joined Chip to discus...

In our online world having access to the internet is crucial for a healthy life. Michael Crawford is Howard University’s Associate Dean for Strategy, Outreach and Innovation and Founder of 1867 Health Innovations Project. He joined Chip to discuss how the Project is battling chronic diseases - like diabetes - with technology and data from sources such as remote monitoring. The two also examined ho...

Reporters are more important than ever. The 24/7 news cycle around the Coronavirus pandemic, economic recession and racial inequality can be overwhelming for the public, but the same can be said for those covering the news. Editor of Modern Healthcare Aurora Aguilar joins Chip to discuss the challenges of reporting in the era of “fake news” and how journalism is changing to keep up with unpreceden...

Women in the United States suffer the worst maternal mortality rates in the developed world. Congresswoman Lauren Underwood is trying to change that with her package of legislation appropriately titled the Momnibus. In this episode she discusses with Chip the social determinants of health that are leading to poor health outcomes for Black and minority mothers, how COVID-19 has advanced patient car...

America is reckoning with its public health on two fronts: COVID-19 and social determinants of health. Dr. Georges Benjamin is the Executive Director of the American Public Health Association and has spent his career working to achieve health equity for Americans. He joined Chip on our inaugural episode of our series Hospitals In Focus: Achieving Health Equity to discuss how COVID-19 has exposed a...

The Great Influenza and Rising Tide author and historian John M. Barry knows a thing or two about disasters and society. The Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine professor joined Chip to discuss not just the ramifications of great crises on society and politics, but also how we get there. What are the policy decisions that make or in some cases break the public response? And what c...

Initially, Israel had one of the lowest rates of COVID-19 infection in the world, but after the nation’s lockdown was lifted things changed drastically. Chip talks to Dr. Eyal Zimlichman of the Sheba Medical Center about how Israel contained the virus in the beginning and how it is coping with an increased outbreak now. From protecting the elderly to re-opening schools – Chip and Dr. Zimlichman ta...

Italy was the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the US is now facing the highest number of cases in the world. Professor Martin McKee of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine joined Chip to compare US and Europe’s response through the lens of a public health expert. They discussed the lessons to be learned from both responses, the potential vaccine light at the end of the...

The health care supply chain wraps around the entire world, so when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, people were worried. News articles about providing front line workers PPE and giving patients needed ventilators were everywhere. What did we learn from the initial onslaught? And how is the supply chain changing to meet the needs of the future? John Pritchard, President & CEO of Share Moving Media j...

Health finance expert J.B. Silvers joined Chip to discuss his recent nationally published op-ed in which he compared the situation hospitals and health systems are facing due to COVID-19 to that of banks during the 2008 financial crisis. JB, who is a professor of banking and finance at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University, says the health care system may look muc...

COVID-19 has changed graduate medical education, perhaps permanently. The option of early graduations at some medical schools has allowed new doctors to join in the fight to defeat COVID-19. Dr. Alison Whelan, the Chief Medical Education Officer at the Association of American Medical Colleges joins Chip to discuss how new and current residents are helping on the front lines, the changing training...

Right now the health care system is laser focused on defeating COVID-19 and as a result routine diagnostic and treatment patient care, sometimes referred to as elective, has been postponed. Postponing this care was the right choice at the beginning of the pandemic in order to ensure there was enough capacity in the system to care for COVID-19 patients. As the curve continues to flatten, we are slo...

In this episode of Hospitals In Focus, we head to the front lines of COVID-19 fight with Dr. James Phillips. He is battling this pandemic daily in his roles as an emergency medicine physician at the George Washington University Hospital in Washington, D.C. and Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the GW school of Medicine and Health Sciences. Chip talks with Dr. Phillips about how coronavi...

Returning guest Dr. Jon Perlin, CMO and President of Clinical Services at HCA Healthcare, joins Chip to discuss how the Coronavirus is impacting hospitals across the country. They take a deep dive into what makes the coronavirus different from previous epidemics, how hospitals are preparing for this unprecedented challenge and what Congress can do to support hospitals and protect patients.

Thanks to advances in health care, people are living longer, healthier and happier lives than ever before. And that means patients are spending time recovering at post-acute care settings. In this episode, Chip speaks with Al Dobson, one of the foremost health economists and an expert in post-acute care. They took a deep dive into the different kinds of care settings including Inpatient Rehabilita...

How is AI being used in hospitals? Are robots doing surgery? Is my doctor still providing my care? Chip speaks with Dr. Jim Jirjis, Chief Health Information Officer at HCA Healthcare, to answers these questions and more! Hear Dr. Jirjis explain how the “nudge” provided by AI is helping providers save lives by making sure  patients are receiving the right care at the right time.

Innovation in health care isn’t just high-tech, at LifePoint Health, it’s also “high-touch”. David Dill, President and CEO, spoke with Chip about how the company became a leader in high quality health care by establishing a culture of quality care in its hospitals. David discusses their new dyad leadership model which breaks down organization silos and enhances collaboration and coordination.

People are drawn to rural America for different reasons. For some, it’s the slower pace of life, while others crave the sense of community; in some cases, people are drawn by the lower cost of living. But access to health care services for the 60 million who live in these areas is an ever-growing burden. Chip speaks with CEO of the National Rural Health Association Alan Morgan about how health car...

On this episode, Chip sits down with Bill McInturff to discuss the results of his demonstration he did with Micah Roberts that focused on recasting and improving the HCAHPS (the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) patient experience survey. The report, concluded that even though the HCAHPS is a well-designed, well-administered survey, it could be strengthened to add i...

A patient’s health care experience at a hospital is considered one indicator of quality of care. Since 2008, those experiences have been captured and publicly reported at a national level via the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. However, it hasn’t been reviewed since its creation more than a decade ago. We were hearing anecdotally that response rate...

Continued rising drug prices, as well as shortages for many critical medications, are impacting patient care and putting strains on hospital budgets and operations. That’s why hospitals and health systems have gathered to create Civica Rx, a not-for-profit generic drug company that is disrupting the pharmaceutical market. Chip spoke with Martin VanTrieste, Civica’s President & CEO about why an...