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This winter, Google began storing the medical records of volunteer patients of the Cleveland Clinic. The beta test follows pilots of Microsoft's answer to patient-controlled online databases - HealthVault - and solutions introductions by small players.
By Kelly Shermach, Certification Magazine, June 2008
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Challenger Corporation runs the world’s largest electronic library for clinical training. Since 1991, more than 40,000 medical professionals have taken Challenger’s courses either via CDs or through an online learning portal. Memphis, Tenn.-based Challenger built its vast library, so physicians can prepare themselves to meet a slew of healthcare standards and certifications for practicing medicine.
By Jeff Whitney, Learning Circuits, May 2008
Transform Talent With Deeper Skill Specialization
Most companies want one thing more than any other: to be a market leader. This can be achieved in several ways — being a low-cost provider, delivering a distinctive customer experience or through superior technologies, processes and products. But executives increasingly see workforce talent as the distinctive capability underpinning any winning corporate strategy.
By Don Vanthournout and Maeve Lucas, Talent Management magazine, May 2008
Hospitals Show How to Accelerate Learning
Hospitals deal with fast-paced technological advances, rapid and constant arrivals of new information and regulation and a strong pressure on employees to perform. Not surprisingly, when it comes to employee development, these institutions have much to offer their business counterparts.
By Jared Bleak and Stephanie Scott, Chief Learning Officer magazine, April 2008
REPSSI, which became a non-governmental organization in 2005, works to palliate the psychosocial impact of HIV/AIDS on children and youth in 13 African countries. They have pledged to increase the number of children they work with from 500,000 to 5 million by 2011. With this level of growth comes the necessity for a defined infrastructure as well as managerial, negotiation, communication and project management skills. But REPSSI didn’t have the resources or the tools to develop these abilities in its employees.
By Lindsay Edmonds Wickman, Chief Learning Officer magazine, March 2008
Improving patient service (and those all important satisfaction scores) takes careful planning and attention, and focused execution. It's something most health care organizations struggle to improve, but there are several things you can do to set your service improvement initiative up for success. These aren't just theories, either. They're solid strategies that work in health care organizations of all kinds.
One organization that comes to mind, St. Thomas Health, began focusing on service about a year ago. Robin Crowell, director of patient relations and guest services, and her team at St. Thomas, including a new CEO, ultimately rolled out a service training initiative that touched nearly all associates in their organization. Crowell and her team did a lot of things right before they ever set foot in a training room. And just five of these strategies can help your organization, too.
By Diana Powell, DDIDirections, February 2008
A change in perspective and an expansion in knowledge are required if society is to benefit from nanomedical products. As more products become a reality, the current concept of "disease" may be set to undergo a paradigm shift. Nanotechnology is being applied to medicine at an ever-increasing rate and virtually all fields of medical practice are likely to eventually be affected. For medical professionals, there seem to be two main training challenges with regard to nanomedicine: (1) introducing some element of training about the applications of nanomedicine into medical degrees and (2) introducing training about nanomedicine into the continuing professional development of current medical professionals.
By Richard Moore, Medical Device Technology, February 2008 Members may click here to read the full article
Students at Meridian Technology Center will soon use full-body mannequin robots that breathe, talk, blink and respond physiologically like a real person to enhance their learning experience. The mannequins are part of a clinical simulation center that Meridian plans to build on its campus for its nursing students and other medical workers in Oklahoma who want to refresh their skills or receive advanced training.
By Jessica Valentine, The Daily O'Collegian, February 04, 2008
The influx of Gen-Xers and Yers — digital natives, as they are called — into today’s work force is pushing the industry’s conservative management leaders to play more games. By Robin Robinson, PharmaVOICE, January 2008
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Competition in the outpatient imaging center market is intense. One northern California hospital that operates multiple imaging centers created a program to listen to their customer feedback and develop a roadmap for improvement. A laundry list of improvement ideas was forming, but one central theme was voiced repeatedly - decrease report turnaround time (TAT). Physicians wanted to be able to diagnose their patients sooner; and patients wanted to know the status of their health as soon as possible.
The center's leadership decided to utilize the Six Sigma toolkit and the DMAIC process to determine the root causes for current turnaround times. Data would pinpoint the necessary improvements and drive management decisions. Three months after the project, the director of the facility said, "Physicians are now wondering why they do not get the same turnaround from some of our other facilities."
By Jennifer Blaha of GE Healthcare for iSixSigma, January 2008 Members may click here to read the full article
Health care, as an employee benefit, is one of the fastest rising and most seemingly uncontrollable costs facing employers today. In 2005, health care spending rose nearly 7%, twice the rate of inflation in this country. Employers must look for creative ways to address this problem before it spirals out of control, impacting other areas of business spending.
In any industry the health of the workforce is critical to the company's bottom line, as well as the quality of service provided to customers. Dealing proactively with health issues through wellness initiatives that promote healthy lifestyle choices is a positive approach to reducing absenteeism, work-related injuries and health-related productivity issues. It is an area with great promise for helping employers regain more control over their health-care costs.
By Robert Petrancosta for IndustryWeek, January 2008 Members may click here to read the full article
Across the country and regardless of size or budget, health care organizations face a number of commonalities and challenges. Our DDI consultants-who've seen it all-offer their perspectives and advice for HR professionals working in the health care industry.
By Eric Hanson, Ph.D., Mike Kempa, and Diana Powell, DDI, December 2007 Members may click here to read the full article
With so many different issues facing the U.S. healthcare system the task of “fixing” it can seem insurmountable. Every healthcare executive knows the litany of challenges: rising costs, inadequate insurance coverage, capacity constraints, patient safety concerns, workforce shortages, increased competition, optimization of new technologies, etc.
By Carolyn Pexton, iSixSigma Healthcare, November 2007 Click here to read the full article
It seems like you can’t flip through a business magazine these days without reading headlines about the importance of high-quality senior leaders—and how difficult it is to find them. Last month, FORTUNE’s cover story delved into “How to be a Great Leader.” And this month, Harvard Business Review ran a feature on "Solving the Succession Crisis by Growing Inside-Outside Leaders."
By Jill Low, DDI, November 2007 Click here to read the full article
The system is in need of repair in the United States, and engineers are uniquely equipped to help fix it. Healthcare is the largest industry in the United States. The national expenditure is estimated to be $2.17 trillion in 2006, about 16.5 percent of gross domestic product, and is expected to exceed $4 trillion, or 20 percent of GDP, by 2015.
By Ahmed Noor, Mechanical Engineering Magazine, November 2007 Click here to read the full article
Local pianist, composer and recording artist Kevin Asbjornson recently described the difference between the "tune" and "tone" of a piano. The correlation to leading change is striking.
By Charles Fred, The Denver Business Journal, November 2007 Click here to read the full article
Rules dictate the way in which a game is played. In a work-related environment, the “rules” we use to operate and make decisions have evolved from an enduring system of incentives and rewards that reinforce how things get done.
By Charles Fred & Bob Bulow, Healthcare IT News, October 2007 Click here to read the full article
When budgets shrink, CLOs are understandably fearful for their learning dollars. Positioning learning as a cultural asset, one that many influential champions support, can help solidify learning’s position as a key contributor to employee performance, competence and skill.
By Kellye Whitney, CLO Magazine, October 2007 Click here to read the full article
Early one morning, a 911 caller reported an incident at a local shopping mall. The county HAZMAT team responded to what was discovered to be a chlorine gas attack on the mall. This first responder team managed to evacuate the mall and complete full decontamination of the site and people in just over 40 minutes. Unfortunately, there were eventually five fatalities resulting from the attack.
By Paul Breslin, Clem McGowan, Ph.D., Benjamin Pecheux and Richard Sudol, Health Management Technology, October 2007 Click here to read the full article
Nursing students at the Carolinas College of Health Sciences are tending to a new kind of patient.
With the help of high-fidelity mannequins in a simulation lab that mirrors an actual hospital room, nursery, or surgical room, students are benefiting from the ability to actively apply their classroom knowledge before entering a true clinical situation. The mannequins are programmable by instructors which allows students to gain experience as their patients appropriately react to the amount of medication or the type of treatment they are given. A rising trend in healthcare, simulation labs allow students to get comfortable practicing their modalities without the risk of putting anyone in danger.
By Rosie Molinary, Charlotte Medical News, October 2007 Click here to read the full article
The future of healthcare is one of the most pressing global issues of our time. Just look at the impact HIV/Aids has had in Africa, where the average life expectancy has plummeted. Or think of the rapid increase of mortality from chronic diseases in Asia.
The Engineer, September 2007 Click here to read the full article
Health care's complexity, regulatory pressures and lower salaries (when compared with other industries such as high-tech and pharmaceuticals) are formidable hindrances to recruiting and retaining top talent.
Training personnel are faced with finding creative solutions to equip emerging leaders with the necessary tools and savvy, both for short-term organizational performance and longer-term succession planning needs.
By John Michael De Marco, Talent Management magazine, September 2007 Click here to read the full article
Patient and employee satisfaction. These are two of the most important outcomes a health care system can measure. On the patient side, satisfaction—and the loyalty that results when patients are satisfied—positively affects volume growth, market share, and revenue. On the staff side, employee engagement is a hot topic because engaged employees are less likely to leave and more likely to go the extra mile for patients, which affects both turnover and patient satisfaction measures.
By John Verdone, DDI Click here to read the full article
Perhaps you've always aspired to a position of leadership and your career path took you there smoothly. If so, you are fortunate, indeed. It can be another story entirely for the employee who lands in a leadership position by default. For example, a manager unexpectedly resigns and the senior employee in that department is tapped to fill the position. Or maybe a brand new job category is created, resulting in the lone employee with any experience and expertise in that type of job being "promoted" to the leadership role.
By Lynn Pierce, R.N., BSN - Baptist Health Care Leadership Institute Click here to read the full article
The “MercuryMD” package, a mobile software solution offered by Thomson Healthcare, gets positive reviews from physicians at one hospital that started using it in December 2006. They say it gives them easier access to patient data while also increasing the speed and accuracy of billing.
HIS Insider Online, August 2007 Click here to read the full article
Sharing best practices in the learning space is as common — and can be as beneficial to participants — as blood in veins. For organizations that process organs and tissue, a centralized training site where they can collaborate, identify and implement best practices and offer learning opportunities can maximize donation rates and reduce human errors in the chain from donors to recipients.
By Kellye Whitney, CLO Magazine, August 2007 Members may click here to read the full article
Mary Beth Chandler, a technical publisher for GlaxoSmithKline PLC, and her colleagues used to sometimes feel isolated and overworked. They were part of a team, but each reported to a different manager. Deadlines often changed, so at crunch times the workload could become overwhelming.
Then Jim Zisek, one of the managers, signed up for a Glaxo program in which work teams meet to discuss sources of job-related stress. There, Mr. Zisek heard the publishers' concerns. By Carola Mamberto, The Wall Street Journal, August 2007 Members may click here to read the full article
In the pharmaceutical industry, it’s common for plants to experience preventative or scheduled maintenance shutdowns. What’s not so common is to hold a weeklong training camp during the shutdown.
Recently, however, Shire Pharmaceuticals held just such an event. More than 300 people — from production line workers to senior management — converged on the Villa Julie College campus near the company’s Owings Mills, Md., facility to take part in the camp.
The iceberg analogy (you can see only 10 percent above the surface, and the danger lies in the 90 percent hidden below the water) plays into a common CLO challenge for leadership development: How do you develop competencies in that hidden 90 percent?
Most leaders’ 10 percent that is visible to the CLO — technical knowledge and skill, basic intelligence and competence —often are used to gauge whether leaders are effective in their roles because they are easier to measure. But many leaders’ cache of skills that set them apart is tucked away in that elusive 90 percent, which is much harder to develop and assess.
By Kellye Whitney, CLO Magazine, August 2007
Ambient Insight analysts track eight types of learning products, one of which is mobile learning. Ambient Insight restricts the definition of mobile learning to events, content, and applications accessed on handheld devices. Mobile learning is starting to gain traction as growing numbers of U.S. workers and learners embrace mobile computing. But this has been a strong trend in healthcare for several years.
By Jill Parsons Burger, Ambient Insight Advisory Board, July 2007 Members may click here to read the full article
Pouring money into a theory is risky, especially when there is no documented evidence to support that theory. An associate of mine who works for the Department of Defense was in search of evidence that proved simulations, games and related training technologies improved performance in live situations.
By Frank Boosman, CLO Magazine, July 2007 Members may click here to read the full article
The ability to transmit information between patients and providers is central to the provision of safe, quality medical care. Unfortunately, the increasingly complex healthcare environment can complicate the communication process and hinder information exchanges. Indeed, the Joint Commission has consistently reported that communication problems lie at the root of most of the sentinel event reports it receives.
By Kathleen Shostek, Rummler, Health Executive, June 2007 Members may click here to read the full article
Physicians devote a large portion of their lives to education — the road to medical school is a long one, and learning does not end when they earn their diplomas. Although health care organizations, including hospitals, commonly are regarded as places of treatment more than training, a great deal of both goes on in them.
This is especially true at Sioux Valley Health System, which was renamed Sanford Health in February, when T. Denny Sanford donated $400 million to the health care organization.
By Lisa Rummler, CLO Magazine, June 2007 Members may click here to read the full article
As with employee education itself, metrics aren’t worth doing just for their own sake — they have to be tied to something meaningful to have any impact on the way things work in an organization. Thus, any system of measurement has to consider how particular learning and development initiatives (or those of any other function) help the enterprise meet its narrowly defined goals. A generic approach to metrics can lead to irrelevancy or worse.
By Brian Summerfield, CLO Magazine, May 2007 Members may click here to read the full white paper
The healthcare industry had changed so dramatically over the past decade that HCR ManorCare's sales training program had become cumbersome and antiquated, said company official Veronica Fogelman. Based in Toledo, Ohio, HCR ManorCare operates more than 500 skilled nursing centers, assisted living facilities, outpatient rehabilitation clinics, hospices, and home healthcare offices across the nation. As Fogelman puts it, "the sales process had to change from targeting Mrs. Jones in the community to focusing on referrals from Dr. Jones and CEO Jones at the hospital. It was Fogelman's job to find a sales training program to meet the needs of the new millennium.
By Grayson Walker, American Executive, May 2007 Members may click here to read the full article
The task of ranking the top companies of employee-sponsored workforce training and development is no easy feat. This year, Training’s sixth annual report, adds 25 more companies to the list…Training Top 125.
Training Magazine March 2007 Members may click here to read the full article
Novartis’ corporate learning department is responsible for setting and controlling standards. Having made the decision to meet business needs with learning solutions, it’s natural metrics and analytics would play a role in the learning process. For instance, the company employs worldwide leadership standards, as well as values and behaviors taught in various programs.The centralized learning function also is responsible for assessments and setting standards such as 360-degree assessments and other tools.
By Kellye Whitney, CLO Magazine, March 2007 Members may click here to read the full article
Making the right investments in learning often means understanding where an organization’s weaknesses lie. At Tuomey Healthcare System in Sumter, S.C., Administrative Director for Organizational Development Michael Frisina realizes that to create the type of development offerings that will have an impact, he has to overcome issues that plague hospitals everywhere.
By Kellye Whitney, CLO Magazine, February 2007 Members may click here to read the full article
In companies’ day-to-day operations, stress is a given. When it gets too high, one way for employees to cope is to step back, take a deep breath and remember what they are doing is not a matter of life and death. Those who work at the New England Organ Bank (NEOB), however, do not have that luxury.
By Lisa Rummler, CLO Magazine, January 2007 Members may click here to read the full article
With the war for talent in full swing, today’s CLOs find themselves thrust into a more strategic role, as company leaders look to them to help address a wide range of talent management issues. Learning no longer is just about “training,” but it is now seen as a strategic function that can transform a company into a high-performance organization.
By Peter McStravick, CLO Magazine, January 2007 Members may click here to read the full article
Most organizations reported healthy increases in their training budgets, with an average budget increase of 7 percent over last year. Today, companies are spending $1,273 per learner on training, including staff salaries. These higher budgets have driven the growth of overall training industry expenditures. U.S. organizations spent a total of $55.8 billion on training (including staff salaries) this year, with $15.8 billion earmarked for external learning products and services. These numbers are up from last year’s figures, which showed $51.1 billion in total industry spending and $13.5 billion in spending on products and services.
Training magazine, December 2006 Members may click here to read the full article
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (BCBS-KC) serves more than 880,000 members in 32 counties in greater Kansas City, northwest Missouri and several counties in Kansas. The company uses a variety of learning delivery methods to provide its roughly 600 employees with the knowledge and skills required to support the organization’s operation, planning and management, as well as comply with federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act regulations. But learning leaders credit e-learning as a primary driver to enable them to develop and promote talent from within.
- Kellye Whitney, November 2006
Members may click here to read the full Case Study
In today’s healthcare environment, high-quality care is a priority that must be addressed by each member of an organization, from board members to the bedside nurse. Covenant Medical Center in Saginaw, Mich., is a 623-bed acute care facility that used a combination of clinical care paths and an outcomes reporting tool to assist in quality improvement initiatives—and enhanced its revenue in the process, particularly in the area of total hip replacement.
- Healthcare Financial Management Association, 2006
LMS Consolidation Survey Results
The third survey in the Training Challenges Survey Series, conducted by Expertus and TrainingOutsourcing.com, focused on LMS consolidation – defined as the tendency of organizations using more than one learning management system to standardize on a single system.
Survey Results from Expertus/TrainingOutsourcing.com Study, November 2006 Members may click here to read the full article
Future Pharmaceuticals speaks with Don Kraft, Associate Director of Human Resources (Learning and Organization Development Department) at Genentech, Inc. about the evolution of learning in biotech companies.
By Future Pharmaceuticals, November 2006 Members may click here to read the full article
Dr. Nancy Grey, Director of Education at Pfizer speaks with Future Pharmaceuticals about the benefits eLearning can bring to pharmaceutical companies.
By Future Pharmaceuticals, October 2006 Members may click here to read the full article
More than 240 books on Amazon.com and 90 articles on the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) website are devoted to the measurement and evaluation of training. There are also more than 2,000 websites featuring consultants and tools to help the measurement process. Yet, despite all these extensive resources, most training managers do not yet have a complete and actionable measurement program.
By Josh Bersin, Bersin & Associates, October 2006 Members may click here to read the full article
Learning leaders can’t reach consensus on something almost all of them value intensely: measurement of learning impact on the business. ROI measurements or metrics continually spark conversations and debates in the enterprise education space. Parties on both sides of the fence — those who say learning can be measured, and those who subscribe to “We know intuitively that learning works” — might want to go back to the beginning of the debate and evaluate their learning and development expectations before they initiate programs, are disappointed and potentially conclude that learning program content or delivery was to blame when results are less than stellar.
Kellye Whitney, CLO Magazine, September 2006 Members may click here to read the full article
Growth is an interesting and complex subject in the health care industry, and supporting that growth through learning is also interesting and challenging. As the executive director responsible for learning and development in Health Care Service Corp.’s (HCSC) subscriber services division, my charge is ensure that the learning our team designs and delivers supports 7,000-plus employees who directly interface with our members each day.
By Mary Jo Burfeind, May 2006 Members may click here to read the full article
Using screen avatars dressed in medical scrubs to represent them, a team of residents and senior medical students wearing headsets logs onto a network and enters a 3D virtual emergency department created at Stanford University.
During six trauma scenarios, each person takes a role—nurse, x-ray technician, or emergency room physician. By selecting buttons from a menu, they control their avatar’s actions, such as clearing a patient’s airway. The onscreen patient’s vital signs respond appropriately. An instructor debriefs the participants about the choices they made using an audio–video replay of the scenario.
Is this the future of medical training?
By David Raths, ASTD Learning Circuits, June 2006 Members may click here to read the full article
On July 27, global learning services provider NIIT, headquartered in New Delhi, India announced that it had acquired Rochester, N.Y. based Element K. Combined the companies will have more than 3,000 employees throughout the world with revenues in excess of US $250 million. Instead of terming this an acquisition, I like to view it more as the perfect marriage of two complementary organizations. The union of the two companies has the ability to become one of the most powerful companies in the corporate and educational marketplace.
Written exclusively for TrainingOutsourcing.com, By Doug Harward, July 2006 Members may click here to read the full article
The recent acquisition by Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. (NYSE: ACS) of Ernst and Young's Intellinex Learning Services business will create a welcomed new powerhouse in the marketplace for human capital and training outsourcing services. Indeed, it has already created a buzz in the training outsourcing industry that we haven't heard in quite some time.
Written exclusively for TrainingOutsourcing.com, By Doug Harward, June 2006 Members may click here to read the full article
Alignment: It’s the term that describes the continuous process of mobilizing enterprise resources to execute company objectives. For several years, organizations have grappled with how to align their most critical enterprise resource—the workforce. Thus far, most organizations have charged the human resources department with building an alignment strategy. Although HR is an important stakeholder, the development and execution of optimal workforce alignment will never occur without equal participation of the corporate strategy and learning organizations.
By James Harvey, CLO Magazine, May 2006
Few VPs of sales use their own, differentiated sales methodology and strategic, ongoing sales training as a strategy to gain and maintain competitive advantage. There are a host of reasons for that, as you will see. You will also notice that the responsibility for employing this strategy effectively lies with both the companies seeking help as well as those providing it.
By ES Research Group, April 2006 Members may click here to read the full article
You probably wish you didn’t have to spend any of your training budget on marketing. Wouldn’t you rather focus your resources on developing top-quality learning? The reality is that if you don’t have marketing, you don’t get heard at all.
Written exclusively for TrainingOutsourcing.com By Gordon L. Johnson, April 2006 Members may click here to read the full article
Sheila Himanje has dreams of someday becoming a nurse practitioner. At the moment, Himanje is a certified nurse's aide at Good Samaritan Lutheran Health Care Center in Delmar. She sees to the daily needs of the skilled nursing facility's residents by making sure they are well-fed, clean and happy.
By Barbara Pinckney, April 2006 Members may click here to read the full article
This quip from a popular motion picture embodies the thinking of a society that places so much value on "expedience" that little else matters. But in competitive markets like healthcare, expedience is often not enough. It must be better, cheaper and faster to stand out as a competitive offering. It is in this spirit that the concepts of Lean manufacturing have gained such traction recently in healthcare. And the principles of Lean are so intuitive and compelling, that providers and payers alike can apply them and derive significant benefits in financial performance and customer satisfaction.
By Creative Healthcare, February 2006 Members may click here to read the full article
In CHC's follow up to their initial articles on Six Sigma, they chronicle the implementation of Six Sigma at a large medical center while discussing some of the unique benefits of Six Sigma to healthcare institutions in general. A "Special Report" from Managed Healthcare Executive
By Ian R. Lazarus, FACHE and Cindy Neely R.N, BSN, MS, January 2003 Members may click here to read the full article
Scottsdale Healthcare Systems in Scottsdale, Arizona, chose an application service provider (ASP) model for the delivery of electronic learning, or e-learning, to the organization. According to Judy Seiler, RN, MS, Head of Human Resources, the outsourcing of e-learning appeals to a multi-functional staff and provides a digital “dashboard” for skill development and performance accessible by the learner at any time and anywhere there is access to the web.
By Daniel Gee and Daniel Farb, MD, March 2005 Members may click here to read the full article
In the popular film, City Slickers, Billy Crystal learns the secret to life is "one thing," and the purpose of his life is to discover it. His character in the movie proceeds to survive one trial after another, in pursuit of this elusive but important goal. This same thinking is embodied in the philosophy of Six Sigma, a performance improvement methodology suggesting that "one thing" (called a "critical x") is likely the key to improving performance and, once identified, organizations can literally turn the dial to achieve whatever performance is desired. Six Sigma was introduced first in the field of heavy manufacturing, later in the service sector, and most recently in the pharma sector.
By Creative Healthcare Members may click here to read the full article
Six Sigma first appeared on the healthcare scene back in 1999. See what has happened since in this review of CHC recent engagements
By Ian R Lazarus, Fache and Wendy M. Novicoff, Ph.D. Members may click here to read the full article
Six Sigma is a systematic and statistically-based process to reveal defects in performance, driven generally by customer specifications. Six Sigma methodologies aim to reduce the variation and "non-value added" activity in clinical and business process which give rise to long cycle times, high cost and poor outcomes. A process that operates at true Six Sigma levels is producing acceptable quality levels over 99.9996% of the time.
It took a master of merchandising to make it happen, but statistical analysis applied to business improvement is now the most demanded form of industrial change management. Thanks to GE, a process known as Six Sigma is making its way from the manufacturing sector to the services industries. And healthcare delivery is not far behind.
By Ian R. Lazarus, FACHE and Keith Butler, M.D. Members may click here to read the full article