I came away from the conference invigorated by the new ideas we all shared. When I got back to the office after the meeting, there was a letter from Scott Becker that reiterated what I would consider the one main point to highlight: That a real differentiator between surviving and success is proactivity.
Reimbursement, along with the myriad other changes and challenges in healthcare, have put significant pressures on hospitals and health systems. But, in many instances these challenges have also helped shift leaders’ strategies from reactive to proactive. Instead of just responding to changes as they occur, we are seeing more and more examples of industry leaders moving before change happens to get in front of it and actually lead it.
Now, I acknowledge that there is risk involved with this form of proactivity. It means moving with limited information and inviting potential failure because of it. However, committing to being proactive can allow healthcare leaders to find areas that may become the success drivers of tomorrow for their organization.
While there is no single strategy that will produce the “right” answer, applying and testing new ideas and concepts with discipline and cohesion should lead to improvement. None of us expect one brilliant concept to save the day, but if we are proactively evolving our processes and measuring that difference, chances are pretty good we’re going to get better and better at what we do.