Blog
Metro Detroit hospitals the most racially segregated in the U.S., study says
Hospital Populations Do Not Reflect Communities, Imperil Health Equity
Some 50 percent of hospitals in the United States are racially segregated, meaning the patient populations they serve do not reflect the demographics of their communities, according to the latest analysis from healthcare thinktank Lown Institute which was emailed to journalists. This imperils national efforts for addressing health equity. More
PRESS RELEASE: America’s most segregated hospital markets are Detroit, St. Louis, Kansas City
Lown Institute Analysis Shows Hospitals Are More Equitable When Caring for COVID Patients. More
Award recognizes Bitterroot Health as #4 “critical access” hospital in U.S.
There've been a variety of awards in recent years for the organization now known collectively as Bitterroot Health. But the latest from the LOWN Institute is unique, rating 3,000 hospitals and health care systems on criteria such as social responsibility with regard to cost, healthy outcomes and benefits to a community. More
Vikas Saini and Judith Garber Discuss Nonprofit Hospital CEO Compensation
During this 33 minute conversation Dr. Saini and Ms. Garber discuss CEO bonuses during the pandemic, discuss generally CEO compensation as an outlier in the nonprofit sector, discuss the substance of their research findings including what explains CEO compensation and conclude by discussing what criteria should be used in calculating CEO compensation. More
Surgeons work to keep fading American shopping malls alive
The health care industry will soon be offering elective surgery where Americans once bought their underpants. “There is a certain logic to it,” said Vikas Saini, a cardiologist who is head of the Lown Institute, a think tank. He sees it as part of a general trend “towards the commercialisation of healthcare”. Dr Saini thinks that malls in wealthier suburbs might hold a particular allure for hospitals. “The most desirable patient is the upscale patient who is healthy, who has commercial insurance and who can get some kind of elective surgery, like their knee or something, that’s very lucrative,” he said. More
Are nonprofit hospitals serving their fair share of Medicaid patients?
Do nonprofit hospitals have higher unreimbursed Medicaid costs than for-profit hospitals? More
Racism impacts health – how do we account for it?
Why is it equitable to take race into account in healthcare in some cases but not others? The answer lies in the distinction between race and racism. More
Racial inclusivity in Covid
Join us March 17 at 1pm as we announce the most racially inclusive hospitals in America, and discuss the impact of Covid on hospital inclusivity. More
Bringing Medication Reconciliation and Pharmacovigilance from France
According to stats from the Lown Institute, 1 in 250 Americans go to a hospital emergency room each year due to an adverse drug event. That’s millions of people going to the hospital due to adverse drug events. What a big problem. More
How to identify low-value prescribing practices
A newly-developed metric of low-value prescribing practices helps fill an important gap in the research of overuse metrics. More
As many as 25% of screening colonoscopies are unnecessary, study finds
As many as 25% of screening colonoscopies are not consistent with national guidelines, according to a recent systematic review. More
Low-value care for back pain is common, but may be declining
Low back pain is one of the most common health problems in the world and one of the most common causes of overuse -- but there is some good news. More
How some drug companies manipulate patient advocates
Patient advocates and researchers uncover concerning patterns in financial relationships between industry funding and patient advocacy organizations. More
‘An ever-spiraling upward cycle’: nonprofit hospital CEOs paid 8 times more than average worker
The pandemic has brought hospital finances and pay scales to greater attention as burned out healthcare workers call for higher pay after two years of COVID-19, though hospital CEOs have faced scrutiny for years over sky-high compensation. "Today, hospital boards compare the compensation of their CEOs not to other community-based nonprofits but to their for-profit publicly traded hospital CEO peers, who themselves are compared to leaders in the largest industrial and financial companies trading on Wall Street," the researchers said. "Since many boards set CEO salary by obtaining 'comparable' salary data, this becomes an ever-spiraling upward cycle." More
Lown Institute: 7 questions to guide decisions on hospital CEO pay
Amid the experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an opportunity for boards of nonprofit hospitals to rethink how their CEOs are paid, particularly compared to the staff at their facilities, representatives with the Lown Institute wrote in a Feb. 10 article published in Health Affairs. The Lown Institute, a nonpartisan healthcare think tank, examined the gap between the pay of hospital staff and the CEO, as well as the implications of it. More
How much should we pay nonprofit hospital CEOs?
What are we rewarding hospital CEOs for -- and what metrics could drive their salaries on instead? In an recent piece in Health Affairs Forefront, Vikas Saini, Judith Garber, and Shannon Brownlee from the Lown Institute share findings from the Lown Hospitals Index on pay equity at nonprofit hospitals. More
The medicalization of death: What does it mean and what can we do about it?
Deaths in high-income countries have largely become "medicalized," moving more and more into the purview of the health care system. What are the implications of this change for families and for health systems around the world? The Lancet Commission on the Value of Death recently released a report addressing the medicalization of death and why it matters. More
When meds taken “as prescribed” still cause harm
A group of advocates has been sounding the alarm about the risk of side effects from benzodiazepines, even when taken as directed. An upcoming documentary tells their stories. More