CHICAGO—Numerous conflicting forces are impacting the traditional hospital/physician integration model, and administrators need to have a good sense of the issues and what the physician values before employing additional physicians, according to a March 23 presentation at the American College of Cardiovascular Administrators (ACCA) annual meeting.

Although the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) is a promising innovation, rigorous evaluations and comprehensive implementation analyses are needed to assess effectiveness and refine the model to meet stakeholders needs, according to an article in the February edition of the American Journal of Managed Care.

Almost a quarter of C-level hospital executives named recruitment of cardiologists and other cardiovascular (CV) professionals as one of their biggest challenges in running a CV business unit in a survey by the American College of Cardiology (ACC). The results released March 6 were based on responses from 300 hospital executives and CV professionals from 291 hospitals and medical facilities.

With oral arguments set for March 26-28 in the Supreme Court for the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the courts decision could have a significant effect on the 2012 presidential election since PPACA is already a hot-button issue, according to a perspective paper published online Feb. 29 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dabigatran appears to be a cost-effective treatment for preventing stroke in atrial fibrillation (AF) patients who had a prior stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) when compared with warfarin, according to an analysis in the March issue of Stroke. But dabigatran loses that economic edge in institutions with superior warfarin management.

LAS VEGASData can and should be used to make care better, said Andrew M. Wiesenthal, MD, director at Deloitte Consulting and former national physician leader for Kaiser Permanentes HealthConnect project, during a Feb. 20 presentation at the 2012 Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) conference.

Incorporating a patient's family history into the cardiovascular (CV) risk assessment mix can help identify more patients with risk and could improve prevention tactics, according to a study published in the Feb. 21 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The hospital is a peculiar business. It is multipronged and loses business on a lot of procedures but it has to keep doing them. It loses money on Medicaid patients and makes money on private patients.