We spend a lot of time serving hospitals, and the times are changing. Hospitals today are doing critical work in the most real-time setting there is – the doors never close; patients never stop arriving. Many of them are embracing ground breaking, forward thinking work under tremendous pressure to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape. No rest for the weary!
The clarion call to deliver a more personalized, flexible and empowered health care experience to a highly invested customer base (remember, patients are customers after all) is one heard across the country. While the topic of health care is landing square in the eye of the storm these days, we thought it would be interesting to showcase a few herculean efforts hospitals are making to forge the new frontier.
In a two-part post, we’ll introduce a few heroic hospitals doing some heavy lifting, breaking ground from which other hospitals can draw inspiration:
Personalized Medicine
The Mayo Clinic’s Center for Individualized Medicine is working toward leveraging the power of gene sequencing, which looks to patients’ genomic blueprints to determine aspects of their health. In a piece for US News and World Report, the center’s director, Gianrico Farrugia, said the primary value should be the needs of the patients, and, “We can’t live up to it unless we turn to genomics.” Perhaps in the not too distant future, patients will be able to tote their genome mapping on their iPads.
Telemedicine
This sizzling hot new delivery mode enables clinicians to interface with patients via video conferencing to assess, diagnose and monitor health issues remotely. Telemedicine most often benefits patients and families in rural communities by broadening access to distant specialists; plus, hospitals can bring in readily accessible staff to meet unexpected demands, such as in the ER. Mercy Health was an early pioneer in telehealth, beginning in 2006, equipping its ICU with telemedicine capabilities. Since then, Mercy has reduced mortality rates to 20 percent below the expected level, and reduced hospitals stays’ durations by 30 percent, according to the US News & World Report.
Physicians in Executive Leadership
The entrenched hierarchies that divided a hospital’s clinical and administrative staff are dissipating. After all, who has a deeper understanding the real needs of patients than doctors on the front lines? Today an increase in physician hospital executives who work in tandem with hospital administration to develop policy and make critical decisions regarding patient care is a model garnering more interest. According to Becker’s Hospital Review, now there are more than 60 joint MD-MBA degree programs, compared to only a smattering in the 1990s, for example.
Becker’s cited San Diego-based Scripps Health as one example of a system that broadened physicians’ role in decision-making. When the Physician Leadership Cabinet was created, the group included chiefs of staff and CEOs from each hospital campus, along with the VP of nursing. The cabinet strengthens collaboration between Scripps administrators and physicians as they develop strategies to improve quality and efficiency while reducing costs and clinical variation. Win win!
We applaud the continuous efforts of progressive minded hospitals to innovate toward improved patient care, reduced waste and costs, and a more flexible, empowered patient experience. As always, we stand ready to empower physicians with an integrated approach to capturing the physician’s narrative with accuracy and speed. After all, it all begins with a patient’s story. More on that in part 2!
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