The McKinsey Quarterly

2008

• July 2008 

  Service-line strategies for US hospitals

  All signs point to a more specialized future for US hospitals. But getting from here to there won’t be easy.

• March 2008 

  Innovation in health care: An interview with the CEO of the Cleveland Clinic

  Delos "Toby" Cosgrove discusses innovation in health care—including a key role for top executives to play in reducing the nation’s health care burden.

• February 2008 

  A healthier health care system for the United Kingdom

  New research indicates that leadership by clinicians and talent management are the keys to making things better.

2007

• November 2007 

  A better hospital experience

  Hospitals must learn what commercially insured patients and their physicians look for when choosing facilities—and how to deliver it.

• June 2007 

  Overhauling the US health care payment system

  During the next five years, rapid innovation may restructure the value chain of health care payments and change the sector’s balance of power.

• February 2007 

  Transforming US hospitals

  Battered by competition and regulation, hospitals need fast, dramatic treatment: leadership that thinks strategically, builds quality, and aligns doctors with the goals of hospitals.

2006

• August 2006 

  US hospitals for the 21st century

  US hospitals rank among the triumphs of 20th-century technology and organization. Yet they must change drastically to adapt to the needs of the 21st.

2004

• February 2004 

  A consumer view of boutique health care

  Fee-based services could help hospitals provide better care for all patients.

2003

• December 2003 

  Healing Eastern Europe's hospitals

  The region’s governments can’t afford to provide quality health care for everyone. Hospitals must get creative to make up for the shortfall.

2002

• May 2002 

  The case for boutique health care

  By offering comfort and convenience to people willing to pay for them, nonprofit hospitals could finance better care for everyone.

2001

• May 2001 

  Hospitals get serious about operations

  The income statements of hospitals have been ailing. The cure? Serious attention to operating efficiency.

2000

• February 2000 

  Hospital, heal thyself

  Hospitals bought up the practices of primary-care physicians to gain additional patient referrals, but instead they transformed those physicians from entrepreneurs into salaried, complacent bureaucrats. The damage can’t easily be undone, but it can be mitigated in the present and avoided in the future.

1999

• February 1999 

  M&A Malpractice

  Hospital mergers rarely produce the expected benefits. Market power, leverage over prices, and cost reductions have all eluded most of the consolidators. So why do some of them succeed?

1998

• February 1998 

  Group purchasing is not a panacea for US hospitals

  Over the past decade, many US hospitals have achieved considerable savings by channeling purchases through group purchasing organizations. But GPOs are just one of many levers by which to improve hospital supply management.

1996

• November 1996 

  Building hospital market power through horizontal integration - is it working?

  1995 saw a huge leap in the number of hospital mergers and alliances in the United States, primarily in response to the expansion of managed care systems that have forced down hospital prices and utilization rates. Multihospital systems, however, do not necessarily outperform independent hospitals.

1995

• August 1995 

  Healthcare’s IT mistake

  Tools, not toys. Billions have been invested in information technology. Where are the results? A failure to focus on productivity. Get practice guidelines to the point of care.