The national conversation around Healthcare Transformation and Health IT is inspiring. The thinkers, innovators, caregivers and “doers” bring a high-level of passion and energy to moving healthcare forward. Much of the conversation is focused on the innovative technologies themselves and the front-line delivery of care. This is interesting and exciting and it raises awareness for what’s possible, but it often stops short of helping real organizations run sound businesses that are ready for this innovation.
Think of a practice group whose business processes are out of control. Its workflows undefined; its EMR shaky; its billing and scheduling departments in chaos. The leadership team jumps from fire to fire and squeezes in just enough visits to keep the lights on and squeak out a small profit. They’re in no position to innovate — no time; no appetite for risk; no confidence.
On the flip-side, think of a practice that’s running smoothly and profitably and in a way that allows its leaders time to think. This group is poised to take some shots. They will be the leaders in healthcare transformation.
The Business of Healthcare Chat (#hcbiz) is an attempt to bridge this gap. How do we help that first organization be more like the second one? What tools and techniques can be employed to improve their business processes? What should they stop doing? How can we help them create some room to innovate?
Discussion Details
#hcbiz chats will be held on Wednesday’s from 12–12:30 EST. Questions will come from the @ZenPRM handle. I (@dflee30) will moderate, but will recruit guest moderators along the way. Tweet me if you’re interested in moderating or if you have topic ideas.
30-minutes; 3 questions.
Next Chat: February 17, 2016; 12:00 pm EST
Discussion Topics
Q1: The Administrator to Physician ratio has grown by more than 3000% since 1970. What has caused this and what can we do about it?
Q2: The average physician and their staff spend 23 hours annually submitting 18 different credentialing forms. With around 900,000 active doctors we’re talking more than 20 Million hours of labor each year. Are we getting commensurate value for this effort? How can this process be streamlined?
Q3: We spend $361 Billion annually on healthcare administration — 2X what we spend on heart disease; 3X that on cancer. Are there any duplicate admin efforts that could be eliminated? Are there any things that we should just stop doing altogether?
Recap