Improving healthcare through engaging in strategic business plans
Episode 18
Why Healthcare? I grew up in a healthcare family. My father was a practicing internal medicine position in Ohio and I had the opportunity as a child and teenager to work in his office and I really enjoyed the environment. I went to university and I discovered I wasn’t into being a healthcare provider but I like the environment. I was getting a degree in Bachelor in Business Administration and suddenly there are two things together, my skills in Bachelor in Business Administration and love for health care then I discovered there’s hospital administration, so I put those two things together.
Hot Topic that should healthcare leaders agenda: Population health. There are different ways to approach healthcare that lends itself better outcomes in the end. So much of health is determined by lifestyle.
What would you suggest something that companies/payers/providers should keep in mind if they really wanna move the dial on outcomes? I suggest employers that it’s important to engage people about their health. I worked with companies that started to encourage their employees to pay attention to their health. We got people got engaged in their own health and that is the key.
During the span of program, did you notice any difference in sickness or just outcomes that are worthy of note?
Absolutely. At Catholic health initiatives, we had about 130,000 employees and across those 130,000 employees in 4 year time period, we manage to generate about $175,000,000 in savings, a lot of that is healthcare cost avoidance. Our population of employees were less sick after we started the program than they were before. In generating the savings, we were able to reduce our annual health insurance increases from 8% a year before the program to about 2% after the program.
Proudest leadership moments: In healthcare, we turned our organization around to become very committed in understanding that we have to improve the quality of care. In business, we were able to engage our employees around the mission of the organization and help them understand what role they play in the organization.
Setbacks that you learned from: Making decisions about hiring new executives and manager into the organization.
Michael 101 Course on Outcomes Improvement:
1.What is the best way to improve healthcare outcomes?
Understand best practices and implement standards across an organization.
2. What is the biggest mistake or pitfall to avoid?
Allowing people honestly to deviate from those standards is easy to do in healthcare where we like to believe that sometimes medicine is an art vs. a science.
3. How do you stay relevant as an organization despite constant change?
It is important to constantly read and keep up with the field and to engage in continuing education which could simply participating and engaging in conversation with your peers across the industry and across the country.
4. One area of focus that should drive everything else is:
Understanding of the mission and how it relates to your customers of your organization.
Recommended Book: All I Really Need to Know I Learned from Watching Star Trek by Dave Marinaccio
Closing Thought: It is important as leaders for us to think about the concept of servant leadership. The idea that it’s not about us as individuals but it’s about the organization, to think about those below you to accomplish the mission of the organization.
The Best Way To Contact Michael:
Email address – michaeltrowan2016@gmail.com
Resources:
Healthcare 2.0 Fall Conference
