How Hospitals Are Changing

...The Affordable Care Act [ACA], cuts to Medicare, lack of Medicaid expansion in some states and hospital debts are contributing to transformations in hospitals. Payment models will increasingly reward for high-value care rather than the volume of services provided. "The goal is to keep people healthy so they are not admitted in the first place," Morris tweeted. Hospitals will have to reduce readmission rates in particular. "Now that a readmission is a trip to the penalty box instead of a bonus, hospitals are getting creative," Morris tweeted. "Hospitals will no longer be like hotels," he added. "The new goal with hospitals will be to keep the beds empty."

The government also is capping reimbursement rates for specific diagnoses and having hospitals pay to fix their own medical errors, including hospital-acquired infections. "Push for transparency, collaboration, coordination, safety and outcomes is driving change in hospitals," tweeted the Quality/Equality team at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The changes are part of an effort to drive efficiency in health care. "Changes coming to hospitals include consolidation, integration, team care, more price transparency," Cosgrove tweeted...

Telehealth has allowed the monitoring of chronic diseases from home, a less expensive setting than a hospital or sporadic visits to the doctor, Morris and Howard noted.

Electronic medical records also can save costs and help patients communicate with their doctors. "Our caregivers have a closer relationship with patients by engaging online through [electronic medical records]," Cosgrove tweeted...