Finding Inspiration and Insights In A Difficult Healthcare Environment

Almost everyone agrees that the US Health and Healthcare System is in serious trouble and needs a transformation. However, the convoluted incentives system, the complexity of regulatory requirements, and sometimes, actions of a few bad actors in the system can make you feel exhausted and in search of inspiration. Last week, I attended the National Healthcare Executives Forum in Houston and meeting, discussing and seeing the work of some of the champions of health and healthcare who are making a difference in the communities they serve was deeply invigorating.

The emerging pattern from these conversations was clear – to do the right thing, champions need to focus on moving care upstream through social determinants of health and through a more holistic approach to mental & behavioral health. There was also an acceptance that healthcare systems cannot do this alone (and, shouldn’t be asked to do it alone). That we need to engage local governments, business communities, community-based organizations, and citizen volunteers to change the direction of this $3.5 trillion dollar and growing freight train. 

Here are some of the highlights from the sessions that I was able to attend:

• A frank and honest discussion on the impact of High Deductible Plans and other risk shifting on middle class households (University of Illinois and others)
• Impact of newer interoperability requirements from CMS on innovation and patient experience (CareJourney and Microsoft)
• Use of human centered design in workflows to improve outcomes and patient engagement (a topic very close to my own heart) (Institute for Healthcare Delivery Design)
• How can we better serve our veterans, especially when it comes to mental and behavioral health (Trinity Health System)
• Earlier detection of Alzheimer’s disease through predictive analytics (Mayo Clinic)
• How Tulsa, OK transformed health and healthcare in the city through renewed focus on social determinants of health (University of Tulsa)
• Improving hospital operations through analytics and machine learning (KP, OHSU, Emory)
• Understanding and improving the data used to rate healthcare organizations (by CMS and others like Leapfrog, US News & World Report) (Rush)
• Innovating for the future (Stanford, Harris Health, PCCI, TMCx)

Looking forward to next year’s forum.