Leadership in Today's Changing Healthcare Environment

 While rising costs have driven the healthcare industry to think outside the box, it is only by having good leadership that this can be accomplished. It is one thing to be able to see the overall plan for the future, but another to be able to make it happen. Good leaders are multifaceted in their ability foresee the future or at least the direction they perceive the future to be (Meyer & Ron, 2013). Another characteristic in a good leader is their ability to be flexible and have the capability to change directions when the time comes to make the needed adjusts to adapt to the environment of the present. Good leaders also know that they need to provide the tools needed to help those managers and others in the leadership roles be able to accomplish their tasks at hand. Some of these important tools are time, resources, and the authority to get things done (Meyer & Ron, 2013). This article is about the new model of Accountable Care Organizations which include Medicare and Medicaid payer bases. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services define an ACO as "an organization of healthcare providers that agrees to be accountable for the quality, cost, and overall care of Medicare beneficiaries who are enrolled in the traditional fee-for-service program who are assigned to it (Meyer & Ron, 2013).”  This is a tremendous undertaking by an organization, so many choose to organize affiliations with other facilities in order to incorporate all the needed services in order to make this happen. Of course by doing so, they must research, plan, and make wise decisions about who to affiliate with and when in order to accomplish these goals and stay within their focused directional vision. As long as schema within all the affiliated entities are the same in general, they will be able to stay on track and provide all the services needed without great expenditure, which is a cost savings provision as well (Buchbinder and Shanks, 2011).

References

Buchbinder, S., and Shanks, N. Introduction to health care management. 2^nd edition. Burlington,MA: Jones and Bartlett Learning, 2011. Print.

Meyer, M., & Ron, A. (2013). Leadership is the key to a successful accountable care organization. American Journal of Managed Care, Retrieved from http://www.ajmc.com/conferences/NAMCP_2012/Leadership-Is-the-Key-to-a-Successful-Accountable-Care-Organization/

http://www.ajmc.com/conferences/NAMCP_2012/Leadership-Is-the-Key-to-a-Successful-Accountable-Care-Organization/

Management Strategies

Planning and evaluation is always at the front line of health care today. Take information as an example. In the past there were log books and paper charts to keep track of patients, patient’s medications, and test results. Today there is extensive planning on the best way to collect patient information and also great planning in the evaluation of this information. Over the last decade, pharmaceutical companies have been aggregating years of research and development data into medical databases, while payers and providers have digitized their patient records (Kayyali, Kuiken, & Knott, 2013). Recent technical advances have made it easier to collect and analyze information from multiple sources—a major benefit in health care, since data for a single patient may come from various payers, hospitals, laboratories, and physician offices (Kayyali, Kuiken, & Knott, 2013). With these changes it is important of health-care stakeholders to compile and exchange information to keep up with the needs of patients and quality of service.

While health-care costs may be paramount in big data’s rise, but now care is based more on evidence based need. Physicians have traditionally used their judgment when making treatment decisions, but in the last few years there has been a move toward evidence-based medicine, which involves systematically reviewing clinical data and making treatment decisions based on the best available information (Kayyali, Kuiken, & Knott, 2013). Although the health-care industry has been the last to join the big data—partly because of concerns about patient confidentiality—it could soon catch up. If stakeholders are not on board they can find themselves left behind in the healthcare field.  Patient data is of great value due to it shows the trends and needs of today’s healthcare patients while provided much needed data for physicians and hospitals.

References

Kayyali, B., Kuiken, S. V., & Knott, D. (2013, April). The Big-Data Revolution in US Health Care: Accelerating Value and Innovation. Retrieved from McKinsey Insights on Health Systems: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/health_systems/the_big-data_revolution_in_us_health_care

http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/health_systems/the_big-data_revolution_in_us_health_care