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The survey asked that very question of CEOs at large hospitals and health systems (greater than $1 billion in revenue). Unsurprisingly, the CEOs anticipate that value-based care (VBC) will reshape the future of healthcare. As hospitals are paid differently, profitability will be harder to achieve. (more…)
We all know of great thinkers and business leaders who question the status quo, and Solomon cites the late Steve Jobs of Apple as a prime example. The indelibly memorable “Think Different” advertising campaign that helped bring Apple back from the brink in 1997 completely highlighted the fact that Apple products and its leader were different from the rest of the world. (more…)
Becker’s Hospital Review recently surveyed hospital and health system CEOs, COOs, CMOs, vice presidents, directors and other high-level decision-makers to find out what healthcare leaders’ organizational strategies for improved efficiency look like.
All of these logistical requirements can compound the physical and financial toll of this terrible disease and the term “logistic toxicity” really got me thinking about the level of logistic toxicity that exists in our healthcare systems themselves – in addition to the emotional challenges faced by patients and their loved ones. (more…)
A recent post from the Advisory Board Company describes it this way, “at its essence, systemness is about integrating all aspects of a health system’s governance, operations, and workflows—across all technologies, clinicians, and locations—to deliver seamless, cost-effective, high-quality care.”
The Advisory Board recently conducted a survey of over 150 health system executives, and the conclusion was that those leaders said, “in no uncertain terms that their organizational success depends on greater integration, and greater integration depends on their ability to do concrete things that reduce variation, improve coordination, and improve the flow of information.” (more…)
I share this article because I appreciate the opportunity this program provided to me, and MedSpeed. I thank the NVC and Crain’s Chicago Business for highlighting the great things that this program is doing to encourage entrepreneurialism across the country.
The idea of pulling together activities that if treated individually and uncoordinated could be dangerous and/or cause service disruption resonates. We look at healthcare logistics in a similar manner. How can we take activities that used to be handled individually and develop new processes and infrastructure to turn those individual components into something better? (more…)
There are countless examples of Lean strategies healthcare organizations are doing to meet the triple aim of healthcare. But there is an area of waste that many healthcare operations are not addressing: healthcare transportation. “Going Lean” from Greenhealth explores the organization-wide impact of intra-company transportation, key areas of non-sustainable waste and best practices for Lean and sustainable intra-company transportation.
Alliance members intend to share information about employee health spending and outcomes, with a goal to use those findings to change how they contract for care. According to the Wall Street Journal, some members say they might even form a purchasing cooperative to negotiate for lower prices, or attempt to change their relationships with insurance administrators and drug-benefit managers. (more…)
Yet, despite a stable outlook, and even optimism that healthcare can continue to outperform the broader market in 2016, S&P notes some challenges.
The nonprofit sector’s stability is predicated on a boost from Medicaid expansion and the insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act. But, there are negative pressures at nonprofits, including difficulty with poor IT installation, weaker patient volumes and the cost of absorbing physician practices. “The strongest hospitals and health systems are likely to just hold existing margin and reserve levels, while weaker providers will likely continue to see operating margin and cash flow erosion and eventually balance sheet pressure.” (more…)
The article gives examples of failures and successes and highlights many of the challenges that come with rapid growth. Overall, Modern Healthcare concluded that “hospital system executives continue to pursue size and scale through mergers despite the evidence from some recent deals that problems undiscovered during due diligence—or from culture clashes—may make the marriage hard to consummate.” (more…)
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. (more…)
These CEOs seek ideas from both traditional competitors and from other industries. Rodney Hochman, M.D, CEO of Providence Health & Services advises healthcare leaders to “shamelessly steal” good ideas from other industries and Michael Dowling, CEO of Northwell Health urges hospitals to share their own innovations with other businesses that might benefit. (more…)
Recognizing the supply chain’s importance in overall success as an organization can lead to widespread benefits within healthcare. When organizations are looking for ways to make clinical improvements, it makes sense to involve supply chain early in the process because it “can expedite the adoption of meaningful medical advancements for better patient care.” (more…)
In an effort to drive quality and reduce waste, there have been ongoing efforts by both the federal government and private insurers to reform payments, which have produced some success along the way.
What is the best approach to replace fee for service? The Harvard Business Review recently asked that question and presented the two leading economic models that are contending to replace fee for service. (more…)
The key focus of the report is the concept of the “always-on” supply chain, which is described as “an integrated set of supply networks characterized by a continuous, high-velocity flow of information and analytics, creating predictive, actionable decisions that better serve the customer.” The report points out that the always-on supply chain has the potential to deliver significant economic and environmental rewards, which should encourage further innovation. (more…)
In part, this has a lot to do with timing. Healthcare is moving from acute-care focused to non-acute care focused. Health systems are getting bigger with more points of care along the entirety of the care continuum. These larger systems are working very hard to capture the benefits of scale through greater systemness. This all points to an expanded need for – and available value creation from – intra-company logistics, the category that MedSpeed – and all of our team members – has made its life’s work. (more…)
There are now a number of different hospitality-oriented patient experience services available, and HealthcareDIVE recently reported on some of them. Paul Westbrook, founder of Westbrook Consulting and former vice president of patient experience at Inova Health System in Northern Virginia, says that the mindset transition from a provider-center to patient-centric becomes “critical, particularly as healthcare becomes more consumer-driven.” (more…)
In fact, a recent working paper from the Congressional Budget Office found that the magnitude of the financial impact U.S. hospitals will face in the future depends on how much they can improve their productivity over time. The CBO paper concluded that if hospitals are unable to increase their productivity or otherwise reduce cost growth, the share of hospitals with negative profit margins will rise to 60% and their average profit margin will fall to -0.2%. (more…)
McNamara closes with “Value creation is the axis around which health care delivery will revolve, and all care partners must have a shared interest in the same vision, value proposition and measures of success.”
It’s a slippery slope. Of course all health systems are on a quest to save money, but it’s important to stay focused on the purpose of integration.
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