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Friday, 17 May 2013

6 Biggest Reasons Provider Business Strategy Will Fail

Written by Laura Miller?| May 16, 2013

At the Becker's Hospital Review Annual Meeting in Chicago on May 10, 2013, Founder and CEO of AchieveIT Scott Regan gave a presentation titled "The 6 Biggest Reasons Your Strategy Will Fail."

1. Mission and vision are AWOL. The biggest reason why hospital strategies fail is because they don't have an appropriate ? or any ? mission and vision. The mission statement shouldn't be something that is a statement of fact, such as "To be an integrated health delivery system providing great care to our community." Your mission should be linked to the vision of where you want to go in the future.

"Vision statements have to be powerful stuff," said Mr. Regan. "If your vision is weak, your plan will be weak. Your mission also has to be stable. If I can take your mission and vision statement and mix it around with others and then hand it back to you and you don't know if it's yours, we have a problem. Be able to repeat it. Once your vision has been reached, you have to make a new one."

2. Form filling in place of analysis. Measuring progress and success toward a mission and vision is important. Make sure you think about how measurement will take place as you form your mission and vision. A great place to start is by answering these two questions: How much? And by when?

"Unless you know the answers to these questions, you can't improve anything," said Mr. Regan. "Answer the questions and then you can build a plan to achieve your objective. Create success measures first and then make the plan. If you can't put your plan in a visual dashboard that tells you where you are, the plan isn't very strong. Everyone should be able to visually see how you are performing and whether you are headed in the right direction. Hold people accountable to measure the plan."

3. Leadership. By the time most people reach the executive level they think they know strategy and execution, but very few are trained on good strategic planning. Oftentimes, members of the C-suite are very like-minded and don't bring in people who are on the front lines of delivering healthcare.

"The closer you can get to the front line, the better the strategy will be," said Mr. Regan. "Expand who is involved in strategy work. Good strategy doesn't happen in the C-suite; it's those who are on the front lines that understand their capabilities and restraints. Senior leadership should set goals and middle management should be responsible for creating the action plan. If you want to create buy-in, they need a say in the action plan. When senior leaders force feed, failure rate goes up dramatically."

4. Lack of focus. Reduce the number of major objectives to a managed number so you can really meet your goals. While there are several opportunities to make the hospital better, zero in on five main objectives and when one is complete focus on another.

"The bigger your plan is, the less likely you are to succeed," said Mr. Regan. "Tackle five major things, which is a manageable number, and we can really move the dial on our success rate."

5. Misguided follow-through. Assign different responsibilities and hold people accountable. Make sure everyone knows their specific responsibility, and each responsibility is tasked only to one person. "The more people who are responsible for executing the plan, the higher chance there is for failure," said Mr. Regan. "Just assign things to one person and if it doesn't work, re-tool the plan."

6. Communications. Many leaders go through the planning process and decide they are ready to make a strategic change without telling anyone in their organization what their plans are. Hospitals may be protective of their information since nurse or physicians may work in multiple hospitals, but if they don't know the plan they can't executive it.

"You have to communicate your plan and dashboards so people know what they are responsible for and how they will be bonused for meeting their goals," said Mr. Regan. "Align individual performance plans with incentives. Do not keep strategic plans a secret; the only way you can execute better is if you know what the plan is."

IDC: Android OEMs Shipped 162M Smartphones In Q1, More Than 4X Apple's Rate; Windows Phone Now In (Distant) Third

IDC today was the latest to publish its numbers on smartphone market shares after the major handset makers released Q1 earnings, and like Gartner, Strategy Analytics and the rest, it underscores the power of Google's Android platform at the moment: Android OEMs shipped 162.1 million handsets in the quarter, giving the platform a 75% share of total worldwide shipments, while Apple's 37.4 million devices put it at an increasingly distant second position at 17.3%. Microsoft's Windows Phone, driven primarily by its partner Nokia (79% of all WP shipments), grew the most of all platforms, with a rise of 133.3%, but that still puts it at a single-digit?share, 3.2% on 7 million devices shipped.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/BHDknH1Z5jw/

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Cambodian shoe factory collapse kills 2, injures 7

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) ? The ceiling of a Cambodian factory that makes Asics sneakers collapsed on workers early Thursday, killing two people and injuring seven, in the latest accident to spotlight lax safety conditions in the global garment industry.

About 50 workers were inside the factory south of Phnom Penh, the capital, when the ceiling caved in, said police officer Khem Pannara. He said heavy iron equipment stored on the floor above appeared to have caused the collapse.

Two bodies were pulled from the wreckage and seven people were injured, he said. Rescuers combed through rubble for several hours and after clearing the site said that nobody else was trapped inside.

At a clinic where she was being treated for her injuries, worker Kong Thary cried on the telephone as she recounted the collapse.

"We were working normally and suddenly several pieces of brick and iron started falling on us," the 25-year-old said.

An initial investigation showed the ceiling that collapsed was poorly built and lacked the proper building materials to support heavy weight, said Ou Sam Oun, governor of Kampong Speu province, where the factory was located.

Chea Muny, chief of a trade union for factory workers, identified the factory as a Taiwanese-owned operation called Wing Star that produces sneakers for Asics, a Japanese sportswear label. He said shoes made at the factory were imported to the United States and Europe.

An Asics spokeswoman in Tokyo confirmed the factory was in contract to make Asics running shoes. She said Asics was trying to determine what happened.

"We understand that some people have died, so first we offer our condolences," said spokeswoman Masayo Hasegawa in Tokyo. She said she did not have information on the last time the building structure had been inspected but added, "We want the highest priority to be placed on saving lives."

The factory complex, which opened about a year ago, consists of several buildings and employs about 7,000 people, said Pannara, the police officer. The structure where the collapse occurred was mainly used as a storage warehouse for shoe-production equipment but had a small work area for about two dozen people, Chea Muny said.

The garment industry is Cambodia's biggest export earner, employing about 500,000 people in more than 500 garment and shoe factories. In 2012, the southeast Asian country shipped more than $4 billion worth of products to the United States and Europe.

The accident comes about three weeks after a building collapse in Bangladesh killed 1,127 people in the global garment industry's deadliest disaster.

"This shows that the problem is not only isolated to Bangladesh, and that companies (elsewhere) are trying to drive prices down by taking shortcuts on workers' safety," said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch.

Last month, the U.N.'s labor office released a report that called for "urgent attention" to worker safety violations in the Cambodian garment and footwear industry.

The report by the International Labor Organization found "a worrying increase in fire safety violations," including that only 57 percent of factories kept paths free of obstructions. It reported "unacceptable" heat levels, abuse of overtime hours and a lack of worker access to drinking water.

___

AP writers Jocelyn Gecker in Bangkok and Malcolm J. Foster in Tokyo contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cambodian-shoe-factory-collapse-kills-2-injures-7-042837834.html

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Google to face UK lawmakers again over tax

By Tom Bergin

LONDON (Reuters) - Google Inc faces another grilling over its tax affairs from a committee of British lawmakers on Thursday who have called the company back after questions were raised about testimony given in an earlier hearing.

Corporate tax avoidance has become a major issue in Britain, where there are concerns over rising government debt and accusations from lawmakers that the UK tax authority has adopted a light touch approach to taxing big businesses.

Google's Northern Europe boss, Matt Brittin, was called to testify to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) in November about Google's low UK tax bill.

From 2006 to 2011, Google generated $18 billion in revenues from the UK, according to statutory filings, and paid just $16 million in taxes.

Brittin told the PAC Google was not taxed on the profits of its core advertising business in Britain, because all UK sales were conducted from Ireland.

Reuters revealed that the Internet search giant had described its London offices on its website as a base for sales teams and advertised dozens of London-based sales vacancies.

Committee chairwoman, Margaret Hodge said the company had questions to answer.

"When Google appeared before the Committee last year we were told they were not selling in the UK. There appears to be a clear discrepancy between that and the evidence that has now been uncovered by Reuters," she said.

"This hearing is their chance to explain themselves."

Google is just one of a raft of companies including Apple Inc., Microsoft, Starbucks and Amazon.com, whose tax affairs have come under scrutiny.

All the companies say they follow international tax rules.

On Wednesday, Amazon.com Inc, which was also called to testify at the November PAC hearing, attracted criticism from politicians over its tax bill for 2012.

Accounts published on Wednesday showed Amazon.co.uk Ltd, Amazon's main UK unit paid $3.7 million of taxes on its 2012 income. Amazon Group had UK sales of $6.5 billion (4 billion pounds) in 2012.

Google's auditor, Ernst & Young, and representatives from the UK tax authority are also being called to answer questions.

(Reporting by Tom Bergin; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/google-face-uk-lawmakers-again-over-tax-164123284.html

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Thursday, 16 May 2013

Buenos Aires launches tours for Argentine pope

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) ? You can see the streets where he grew up and played soccer, the church where Jorge Bergoglio prayed as a teenager and the cathedral where the man who would become Pope Francis said Mass. You can even visit the stand where he bought his newspapers every weekend and where he went for a haircut.

With an Argentine on the throne of St. Peter, the South American country's capital city has launched a series of guided tours to give visitors a glimpse of the places that formed Francis, even if the bus and walking tours are just a modest, and so far non-commercial first stab at papal tourism.

The tour bus is a single-story cruiser with sealed windows above a huge image on each side of Francis and the words "Pope Circuit" in papal yellow, which also happens to be the official color of the metropolitan government that began offering the tours last weekend.

For three hours, the bus winds through Buenos Aires twice each Saturday and Sunday and can carry about 40 passengers, rolling past 24 sites linked to the new pope, but stopping only twice and leaving little opportunity for snapshots. There's no charge for the trip, or for more limited walking tours of downtown and neighborhood sites offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

"I loved the tour ... It's to live the history of Bergoglio, of his family, and I also visited his neighborhood, which I had never seen," said Alicia Perez, a 71-year-old Argentine who was one of the few non-journalists on inaugural bus tour.

The house at 531 Membrillar where the pope and four siblings grew up with his mother and father, Regina Maria Sivori and Mario Bergoglio, in the 1930s and 40s is gone now, but the bus cruises down the tree-shaded middle-class street past the property, where another dwelling was later built.

Nearby there's the little plaza where he played soccer as a boy, and the narrow, neo-classical San Jose de Flores church where he worshipped as a teenager and felt called to devote his life to God.

Visitors also see the seminary in the leafy neighborhood of Villa Devoto where Bergoglio decided to become a Jesuit priest, and the Metropolitan Cathedral, which looks more like a classical Greek temple than a typical Catholic church. Bergoglio eventually presided as the capital's archbishop in the imposing structure, which also houses the tomb of South American independence hero Jose de San Martin.

The tour also passes the Jesuit College of El Salvador, where Bergoglio taught literature and psychology in the 1960s, and the Salvador University he later oversaw.

The tour leaves out the gritty slums where Bergoglio's church was a frequent benefactor, but there's a nod to his reputation for ministering to society's outcasts: a swing past the Devoto prison where he often said Mass on the Thursday before Easter.

The bus finally stops at the parish of San Jose del Talar, where visitors can pray at a sanctuary that features a painting of the Virgin untying knots and passing them to angels. Bergoglio had the painting brought from Germany in the 1980s, and ever since, attendance at the church has soared.

Less sacred ground is covered as well. The bus stops downtown at the historic Roverano passageway, where Bergoglio had a monthly haircut for 20 years at Romano's barber shop, a high-ceilinged place that seems to have been frozen in time since the early 20th Century. But the barbers would rather not be bothered: Tourists are advised to gawk from outside as the artisans with scissors and razors work on their mostly elderly clientele.

"It's a pride to have had Monsignor Bergoglio, now Pope Francis, as a client every month for 20 years," says a poster stuck to the shop window.

Owner Nicolas Romano, 72, is only four years younger than the pope. He told an Associated Press team that returned for a post-tour interview that Bergoglio came to the barbershop until about a decade ago, when one of the barbers began going to give him a personal trim at the archbishop's office. An assistant also gave him a monthly pedicure.

"He was a man of few words. He spoke just what was needed, sometimes of politics or current affairs," said one of the barbers, 71-year-old Mario Saliche.

The tour ends at the Plaza de Mayo, which is fronted by the cathedral and the office building where Bergoglio lived alone in a humble room, shunning an ornate diocesan mansion in a northern suburb. The church has not provided outsiders with access to this bedroom, despite the curiosity of the faithful.

Across the plaza is the newsstand where Bergoglio bought his La Nacion paper on Saturdays and Sundays.

"He paid me with coins and we chatted about soccer and how things were," said Nicolas Schandor, who owns the weekend stand. He also said Bergoglio would stop to chat with war veterans occupying the plaza, and give food to the poor who slept on the cathedral's steps. "He's a very simple person. Nobody expected he would become pope."

Schandor's kiosk is one of the few attractions on the trip that shows any evidence of papal commerce: A plastic key holder with the pope's image goes for about $1.90, and a calendar costs $2.30. Schandor said some tourists even have themselves photographed with him.

___

AP Video available at https://vimeo.com/66256578

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/buenos-aires-launches-tours-argentine-pope-180658039.html

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Malaria infected mosquitoes more attracted to human odor than uninfected mosquitoes

Public release date: 15-May-2013
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Contact: Souri Somphanith
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Malarial parasite may change mosquito olfactory system, enhance attraction to human odor

Mosquitoes infected with the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum are significantly more attracted to human odors than uninfected mosquitoes, according to research published May 15 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by James Logan and colleagues from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK.

The authors investigated the response of mosquitoes infected with P. falciparum malaria parasites and uninfected to human odor collected on a fabric matrix. Mosquitoes that were infected with the parasites landed and probed significantly more than uninfected mosquitoes in response to the odor. Previous research has already shown that the malarial parasite can alter mosquito behavior in ways that increase the rate of malaria transmission. For example, malaria-infected mosquitoes also consume larger, more frequent blood meals than their uninfected counterparts. For the first time this study reports that, "malaria-infectious females are more attracted to human odors than uninfected mosquitoes".

According to the researchers, studies of mosquito behavior in the context of malaria transmission usually use uninfected mosquito subjects, and their study suggests that such behavioral studies may not always be representative of the behavior of infected mosquitoes. They conclude that understanding the olfactory changes underlying the behavior of these infected mosquitoes may help identify new compounds that could be used to develop mosquito traps for surveillance programs.

###

Citation: Smallegange RC, van Gemert G-J, van de Vegte-Bolmer M, Gezan S, Takken W, et al. (2013) Malaria Infected Mosquitoes Express Enhanced Attraction to Human Odor. PLoS ONE 8(5): e63602. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0063602

Financial Disclosure: The authors have no support or funding to report.

Competing Interest Statement: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

PLEASE LINK TO THE SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT (URL goes live after the embargo ends): http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0063602

Disclaimer: This press release refers to upcoming articles in PLOS ONE. The releases have been provided by the article authors and/or journal staff. Any opinions expressed in these are the personal views of the contributors, and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of PLOS. PLOS expressly disclaims any and all warranties and liability in connection with the information found in the release and article and your use of such information.

About PLOS ONE: PLOS ONE is the first journal of primary research from all areas of science to employ a combination of peer review and post-publication rating and commenting, to maximize the impact of every report it publishes. PLOS ONE is published by the Public Library of Science (PLOS), the open-access publisher whose goal is to make the world's scientific and medical literature a public resource.

All works published in PLOS ONE are Open Access. Everything is immediately availableto read, download, redistribute, include in databases and otherwise usewithout cost to anyone, anywhere, subject only to the condition that the original authors and source are properly attributed. For more information about PLOS ONE relevant to journalists, bloggers and press officers, including details of our press release process and our embargo policy, see the everyONE blog at http://everyone.plos.org/media.

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Malaria infected mosquitoes more attracted to human odor than uninfected mosquitoes

Public release date: 15-May-2013
[ | E-mail |

Share ]

Contact: Souri Somphanith
onepress@plos.org
415-624-1217 x199
Public Library of Science

Malarial parasite may change mosquito olfactory system, enhance attraction to human odor

###

Financial Disclosure: The authors have no support or funding to report.

Competing Interest Statement: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

PLEASE LINK TO THE SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE IN ONLINE VERSIONS OF YOUR REPORT (URL goes live after the embargo ends): http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0063602

[ | E-mail |

Share ]

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/plos-mim050913.php

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Four genes identified that influence levels of 'bad' cholesterol

May 15, 2013 ? Scientists at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute have identified four genes in baboons that influence levels of "bad" cholesterol. This discovery could lead to the development of new drugs to reduce the risk of heart disease.

"Our findings are important because they provide new targets for the development of novel drugs to reduce heart disease risk in humans," said Laura Cox, Ph.D., a Texas Biomed geneticist. "Since these genes have previously been associated with cancer, our findings suggest that genetic causes of heart disease may overlap with causes of some types of cancer."

The new study, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is published online and will appear in the July print issue of the Journal of Lipid Research.

Texas Biomed scientists screened their baboon colony of 1,500 animals to find three half-siblings with low levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL), or "bad,"' cholesterol, and three half-siblings with high levels of LDL. In the study, these animals were fed a high-cholesterol, high-fat diet for seven weeks. Scientists then used gene array technology and high throughput sequencers to home in on the genes expressed in the two groups and differentiate those in the low LDL groups from those in the high LDL group. They discovered that four genes (named TENC1, ERBB3, ACVR1B, and DGKA) influence LDL levels.

Interestingly, these four genes are part of a signaling pathway important for cell survival and disruption of this pathway promotes some types of cancer.

It is well-known that a high level of LDL is a major risk factor for heart disease. Despite concerted efforts for the past 25 years to manage cholesterol levels through changes in lifestyle and treatment with medications, heart disease remains the leading cause of death and mortality in the United States and around the world. It will account for one out of four U.S. deaths in 2013, according to the American Heart Association.

Heart disease is a complex disorder thought to be a result of interactions between genetic and environmental factors, which occur primarily through diet. To understand why humans have different levels of LDL and thus variation in risk for heart disease, the genetic factors causing these differences need to be understood.

However, these studies are difficult to do in humans because it's practically impossible to control what people eat. Instead, Texas Biomed scientists are using baboons, which are similar to humans in their physiology and genetics, to identify genes that influence heart disease risk.

The new research also suggests that knowing many of the genes responsible for heart disease may be necessary to devise effective treatments. For example, several genes may need to be targeted at once to control risk.

The next step in this research is to find the mechanism by which these genes influence LDL cholesterol. "That starts to give us the specific targets for new therapies." Cox said. If all goes well, this information may be available within two years.

Other Texas Biomed scientists on the study included Genesio Karere, Ph.D.; Jeremy Glenn, B.S.; Shifra Birnbaum, B.S.; David Rainwater, Ph.D.; Michael Mahaney, Ph.D.; and John L. VandeBerg, Ph.D.

This research was supported by NIH grants P01 HL028972-27, P01 HL028972 Supplement, and P51 OD011133. It was conducted in part in facilities constructed with support grants C06 RR013556 and C06 RR015456.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/heart_disease/~3/ds2Kji5Ual4/130515131444.htm

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Friday, 17 May 2013

More Articles on Hospital Leadership and Strategy:

Thursday, 16 May 2013

Malarial parasite may change mosquito olfactory system, enhance attraction to human odor

Malarial parasite may change mosquito olfactory system, enhance attraction to human odor