Prescription for a Cure

prescription
for a cure
Successful health care leaders are treatingailing systems with a healthy dose of innovativesolutions.
This article discusses key issues facing healthcare leaders today, innovative solutions fordealing with them, and ways to gauge thehealth of your organization with a series ofthought-provoking questions.
By Jim HartWhether there is a need to Rising consumer expectations. Increasing What cultural habits are impactingcompetition. Soaring costs. Limited fund- your ability to innovate for newimprove hospital patient flow ing for capital improvements. Decreased solutions?reimbursement. Strained hospital-physi-through process redesign, cian relations. Declining patient care All organizations have cultures. Aspects ofimplement organizational experience and satisfaction. The high cost a culture like commitment and serviceof caring for the uninsured. These are support success and other traits like turfchange to deal with increased among the myriad challenges that health issues or trust issues may hold you back.demand on acute care services, care leaders face every day. An organization's attitudes, habits andresulting culture are a direct reflection ofor integrate electronic medical In the face of these pressures, health care the CEO and senior leadership team.CEOs and senior teams are challenged as CEOs who understand this are examiningrecords, change can be success- never before to be more agile, flexible, which of their leadership and dynamics offully achieved in a systematic, strategic and increasingly more account- the team at the top need to shift to suc-able for their organization's greater good. cessfully drive needed change. Healthhealthy way. But the change They must drive innovative, cost-effective care CEOs are expanding their skills andmust begin at the top. solutions, improve efficiencies, streamline knowledge as well as re-evaluating lead-and standardize processes and patient ership because they know the currentflow, as well as seek out new, less-tradi- health care system cannot sustain itselftional sources of revenues and cost-saving indefinitely without dramatic change.As a health care executive, synergies.you may want to diagnose Innovative strategies and changes in orga-"The people at the helm of hospitals nizational services are easier to decideyour own health care system. across the country must decide whether upon than to get established leaders tothey will be the ones leading their hospi-On page 4, we provide some change their ingrained behaviors.tals and health systems through a new Progressive CEOs are taking greater per-statements to consider when dynamic," writes Jim Molpus in "The sonal risk by becoming true changeState of the CEO," in the April, 2007 champions. Leading change is no longerevaluating the cultural state of issue of HealthLeaders News. "The new- an option and cannot be delegated - ithealth of your organization. era CEO must be someone who is a is a survival skill.change leader, who knows when to com-pete and when to collaborate, and who Senn Delaney is working with severalcan take strategic risks that potentially health care system leaders of both for-expose the hospital to a loss of market profit and non-profit organizations toshare for the greater good." help reshape and align their historical cul-tures to better support their new organi-Non-profit or faith-based health care zational strategies. These leaders have allorganizations are further challenged to recognized that their existing cultures willsomehow serve two conflicting agendas: become a roadblock to their changemission and margin. They must reconcile efforts if not proactively addressed.their bottom lines with their mission, toserve the underserved and poor, while Does your organization need toproviding an excellent patient care experi- shift from a holding companyence. They must be profitable enough to model to more of a sharedreinvest in equipment, staff and infra- business model?structure to continue to serve their com-munity-based mission. These institutions Many health care leaders have fed theirare also focused on keeping their staffs historical growth needs by increasing theirconnected with their mission, vision and revenue and market share through merg-values and aligning those with each ers and acquisitions. Many have contin-employee's personal spiritual connection ued to run these acquisitions fairly inde-to their work. pendently in a holding company model.
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