Welcome to The Bard Report

The Bard Group has been advising hospitals, health systems, academic medical centers, and physicians across the country for over 25 years. Our consultants gain a uniquely broad perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing healthcare organizations. We see not only the trends, but how organizations and professionals are responding to them - both successfully and unsuccessfully.  In an environment that changes so quickly, we feel it is important to share what we are learning with others who are working to improve the process and structure of healthcare delivery.

This e-newsletter is one part of that effort. If you are a subscriber, it will appear once a month in your e-mail inbox, bringing you our latest thinking on the issues facing healthcare professionals. We have also revamped our Web site to provide more frequent updates and information, and have stepped up our speaking engagements and publishing.

We hope that you will find this newsletter a useful addition to your armamentarium for improving the quality, organization, and outcomes of patient care.

Marc A. Bard, MD Chief Executive Officer

Andrew L. Epstein, MD Executive Vice President

New Trains; Old Tracks
By: J. Richard Ludgin, MD, JD 

We can all benefit from the lesson that Amtrak learned when it introduced the Acela high speed train in America's Northeast Corridor. High speed trains can travel only as fast as their tracks permit. Today's healthcare environment requires high performance: The organizational platform of physician leadership used by most hospitals today represents old tracks that do not support that level of performance. New trains cannot be optimized on old tracks.

To learn how healthcare organizations need to change, click here.

Introducing The Bard Index
Many of the most widespread trends in healthcare call for responses from both hospitals and physicians that they must work together to deliver. The Bard Index provides a cost-effective and timely assessment of the current state of a healthcare organization's relationships with its medical staff and offers concrete options for improvement. To find out more, click here.

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