Frontiers of Health Services Management最新文献

The simple fact is that hospitals that do not innovate today may not be solvent tomorrow. Although not every hospital has a budget for a million-dollar innovation laboratory, a pop-up innovation lab can be set up for less than $1,000 with materials available at a local superstore. In 2014, Drs. Ibata and Olver visited leading innovation labs to identify best practices for curricula and materials. The site visits were funded by a grant to support the development of a rapid-cycle innovation training program. The lessons learned are shared here with sample agendas and material lists to set up a low-cost innovation lab. This article also describes half-day and full-day rapid-cycle innovation workshops. These workshops combine design thinking and the rapid-cycle plan-do-check-act improvement method with improvisational theater games to arrive at outside-the-box solutions to intractable healthcare delivery problems.

For health systems seeking a path forward and upward in a value-based environment, ownership of a health plan can yield many positives, including a chance to drive value-based care, financial margin improvement, and opportunities for rewarding partnerships. However, being both a payer and a provider-a "payvider"-can make extraordinary demands on both the health system and health plan. Developing this hybrid business has been a learning experience for UW Health, an academic medical center that, like others in academic healthcare, was built on a fee-for-service model. Today, UW Health is a majority owner of what has become the state's largest provider-owned health plan. As illustrated here, health plan ownership is not for every system. The burdens are heavy. But for UW Health, it is an important component of both mission and margin.

Summary: The founding of Ochsner Ventures followed the natural evolution of more than a decade of growth and expansion of Ochsner Health's offerings and capabilities beyond traditional patient care. This growth has enabled the health system to bring critical services to underserved communities across the Gulf South. Ochsner Ventures supports promising companies both in and beyond the region while bringing forward new solutions to healthcare sector challenges and improving health outcomes, access, and equity. In a dynamic healthcare environment amid the persistent effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ochsner Health is executing a multiyear strategic plan to reinforce its mission and maintain a position of strength in the region. One aspect of the strategy focuses on the diversification and pursuit of new value by creating new revenue, additional savings, cost reductions, innovations, and amplifying existing assets and capabilities.

Summary: University of Chicago Health System-UChicago Medicine-recently joined forces with AdventHealth's Great Lakes Region to expand access to services, treatment options, and clinical trials to residents in Chicago's western suburbs. Other organizations may want to follow that approach in developing and maintaining a high-quality and integrated healthcare ecosystem-one that not only increases access to care for underserved populations but also responds to changing consumer preferences and behavior. Building partnerships with other systems that possess similar values and complementary strengths is an effective way to provide patients with convenient, high-quality care closer to home. Early results of the joint venture show promising synergies and benefits.

Summary: Changes in underlying cost structure, intensifying competition for nonacute healthcare services, heightened costs of capital, and lower investment returns have put many health systems on an unsustainable path forward. Traditional performance improvement efforts remain important but cannot fully remedy the underlying causes that have disrupted operational and financial performance. Health systems must consider a fundamental transformation of their business model. Transformation requires a disciplined assessment of the health system's current portfolio of businesses, services, and markets. The goal of transformative change is to concentrate efforts and resources on ways that can sustain the organization's long-term relevance while supporting its mission. Decisions resulting from this assessment will define new opportunities to optimize lines of business, identify partnerships to fulfill mission, and free up resources for areas where the organization can truly excel.

Summary: Doing more with less has been a business mantra for decades. Healthcare leaders have implemented flex scheduling and job sharing, streamlined workflows, committed to process improvement techniques such as Lean, hired retirees, gained efficiencies from remote work ... and the list goes on. Each tactic has yielded productivity improvements, yet the need to do more with less continues. Postpandemic challenges include staff recruitment and retention, labor inflation, and dwindling margins, all of which must be addressed while maintaining corporate cultures. The journey with bots described here started in this dynamic environment, and the work has not been single-threaded. The organization featured here-an integrated delivery network-has digital front-door and back-end robotic process automation (RPA) projects underway. The digital front-door initiative supports patient self-registration and automates authorizations and insurance verification processes. The back-end patient financial services RPA project replaces and enhances existing technology. Revenue cycle as a multidepartment function is leadership's poster child for RPA, and the revenue cycle team is tasked to demonstrate the value of the technology. This article covers the initial steps and lessons learned in the process.

Effective leadership and governance are at the heart of creating and maintaining resilient health systems. COVID-19 exposed a plethora of issues in its wake, most notably the need to plan for resilience. Facing threats that swirl around climate, fiscal solvency, and emerging infectious diseases, healthcare leaders are challenged to think broadly on issues that affect operational viability. The global healthcare community has offered numerous approaches, frameworks, and criteria to assist leaders in creating strategies for better health governance, security, and resilience. As the world exits the worst of the pandemic, now is the time to plan for the sustainability of those strategies. Based on guidance developed by the World Health Organization, good governance is one key to sustainability. Healthcare leaders who develop measures to assess and monitor progress toward strengthening resilience can achieve sustainable development goals.

Amid many challenges, health systems and hospitals are striving to improve the health of their communities with varying degrees of commitment. While many have recognized the importance of the social determinants of health, most have not responded aggressively to the global climate crisis that is sickening and killing millions of people worldwide-and getting worse. As the largest healthcare provider in New York, Northwell Health is committed to keeping our communities well in the most socially responsible way. That means engaging with partners to enhance well-being, expand access to equitable care, and take environmental responsibility. Healthcare organizations have a special obligation to broaden their efforts to prevent further damage to the planet and limit the human toll of that damage. For this to happen, their governing boards must support tangible environmental, social, and governance (ESG) strategies and put in place the administrative structures for their C-suites that are necessary to ensure compliance. At Northwell Health, governance is the engine that drives accountability for ESG.