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Mitigating Financial and Operational Care Delivery Challenges

January 11, 2024
David Burik

As we confront the COVID-19 pandemic’s residual effects and face a radically changed health care paradigm, how can essential hospitals successfully overcome the pressure of managing the total cost of care while meeting clinical, financial, and operational expectations?

That was the overarching topic explored in this three-part webinar series arranged by America’s Essential Hospitals in conjunction with Guidehouse, a global consulting firm bringing together the best in commercial and public-sector expertise to outmaneuver today’s challenges. Hosted by Wendy McIntyre, MS, director of membership and marketing at America’s Essential Hospitals, the sessions featured experienced health care executives from hospitals and health systems across a half-dozen states.

How Essential Hospitals Can Reset for the Future

Obstacles posed by recent financial pressures, staffing challenges, and changing workforce expectations can present opportunities for innovation at essential hospitals, said speakers at the first webinar.

Moderated by Guidehouse Partner Edward Abraham, MD, a former CEO of association member University of Miami Health System, in Miami, with more than three decades of health care management and advisory experience, the webinar also featured essential hospital leaders Ted Day, executive vice president for strategic planning and business development at University Health, in San Antonio, and Arturo “Art” Saavedra, MD, PhD, dean of the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Medicine and executive vice president for medical affairs at VCU Health System, in Richmond, Va.

Focusing on adaptability as the primary driver of any essential hospital’s reset strategies, the experts explored such solutions as:

  • Using patient advocates to communicate with providers and help patients with appointment reminders, transportation needs, and financial forms, resulting in greater patient, provider, and staff satisfaction.
  • Incorporating artificial intelligence, augmented intelligence, and predictive analytics strategically to help reduce costs and increase quality.
  • Making efforts to understand generational differences and adapt operations to maximize retention as Gen Z employees become a greater percentage of the workforce.
  • Developing financial stability plans that include “co-opetition” opportunities and new partnerships.
  • Being more involved in community decision-making to differentiate from new players in the marketplace.
Learn More and Watch the Full Conversation

Advancing a “Beyond Acute Care” Strategy to Solve Operational Challenges

The second webinar emphasized the need for essential hospitals to create a comprehensive strategy for health care across the continuum — in-hospital acute care, acute care at home, skilled nursing care, and everything in between — based on integrated workflows and smart collaboration.

Guidehouse partner Donna Cameron, a clinical transformation leader with four decades of health care experience, moderated this talk, which featured on-the-ground insights from Lisa Harris, MD, CEO of association member Eskenazi Health, in Indianapolis; and Vernon Pertelle, a management consultant with two decades of health care experience who implemented Palomar Health’s transition care management program and acute hospital care at home program.

Panelists recommended:

  • Developing a post-acute care collaborative network to help strengthen relationships with targeted skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies.
  • Building a network of outside services, such as telemedicine, remote patient monitoring, and respiratory therapy vendors, and integrating communications systems among services and across acute care to post-acute care.
  • Creating rapid-improvement teams to work together across in-hospital and home-based care to target specific medical conditions.
  • Identifying educational and informational opportunities that can arise from home-based care, such as determining patient nutritional needs and challenges within the home, for cross-functional teams to target.
Access the Full Webinar Series

Resetting Your Value Strategy for Sustainable Growth

The third discussion focused on adopting consumer-friendly competitor approaches while developing partnerships based on the value principles and community-centric proposition that essential hospitals offer.

Dennis Butts, Guidehouse partner and health strategy and innovation leader, moderated this discussion with Liz Popwell, chief strategy and transformation officer at essential hospital Stony Brook Medicine, in Stony Brook, N.Y., and Chris Stanley, MD, president of Healthy Populations, an independent population health services organization that’s a wholly-owned subsidiary of association member Henry Ford Health, in Detroit.

Popwell and Stanley suggested that hospitals consider:

  • Elevating their population health and preventive medicine focus through annual well visit outreach, new initiatives, and innovative partnerships.
  • Transforming care models to be more consumer-friendly and use technology tools that are convenient, accessible, and easy to digest for physicians and consumers.
  • Being purposeful with big investments to achieve the right level of care delivery without overinvesting in infrastructure — and spreading those investment costs out into multiple phases over a longer period so that other significant priorities are not underfunded.
  • Enhancing their network strategy, affiliations, and partnerships to improve care delivery and get a fair rate under Medicare Advantage while ensuring that revenue captured by premium programs helps sustain essential community programs.

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