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Full-Text Articles in Health Services Research
How Many Regional Medical Centers Can Maine Sustain? How Patient Hospital Utilization Can Help Define Structure, Lars Rydell
How Many Regional Medical Centers Can Maine Sustain? How Patient Hospital Utilization Can Help Define Structure, Lars Rydell
Maine Policy Review
Making thoughtful decisions about where various levels of hospital care are to be provided is an important part of controlling overall healthcare costs. Efficient utilization of healthcare resources requires that high-cost and less frequently used high-tech equipment and specialized personnel should be limited to a few tertiary regional medical centers. Lars Rydell uses patient discharge data from the Maine Health Data Organization to suggest that Maine currently has only two hospitals that function as tertiary regional medical centers—Maine Medical Center in Portland and Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. Policymakers need to think about whether Maine’s population base warrants more …
Financial Performance Of Hospitals In Maine, 1993-2003, Nancy Kane
Financial Performance Of Hospitals In Maine, 1993-2003, Nancy Kane
Maine Policy Review
Hospitals are the largest single component of healthcare expenditures. Nancy Kane’s study of hospital financial performance fulfills a mandate of Maine’s Dirigo Health Reform Act. By most financial measures, Maine’s hospital industry outperformed hospitals nationwide and in the Northeast during 1993-2003. Still, there is major variability among the state’s hospitals in financial performance. Kane analyzes financial and non-financial characteristics of high-, medium-, and low-performing hospitals, and suggests that not maintaining acute inpatient volume is the biggest problem for low-profitability hospitals. Although no hospital is in imminent danger of failing, Kane suggests a new “blueprint” is needed for Maine’s healthcare system, …