Within the lifetime of a well being system CEO, there may be all the time one thing to fret about.
This has been very true for Tampa Common Hospital CEO John Couris previously few weeks. His group has weathered not solely the proverbial stormy waters of accelerating denials charges and an ongoing nationwide supplier scarcity — but additionally the literal stormy waters that roared throughout Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.
After I sat down with Couris final week on the HLTH convention in Las Vegas, I requested him what considerations are preserving well being system CEOs like himself up at night time. He responded instantly.
“I believe the only greatest downside is our incapacity as an trade to coordinate care successfully and at scale,” Couris declared.
He famous that whereas there are loads of well being programs launching revolutionary tasks to make a distinction of their native communities, the reality nonetheless stays that scientific outcomes within the U.S. “are common at greatest.” Healthcare prices proceed to rise and fluctuate between 17-21% of the GDP, he added.
This value trajectory is unsustainable — and it’s not creating worth for U.S. sufferers, Couris mentioned.
“There’s an incapacity to coordinate care effectively and successfully — and to interrupt down silos, get rid of friction and cut back fragmentation. That provides to the fee and high quality challenges that we’ve got,” he remarked.
In Couris’ view, healthcare leaders ought to deal with “the fundamentals” till these issues are solved. This implies prioritizing fixing points associated to entry, care coordination and patient-provider friction.
For example this concept, he recalled a panel he attended at HLTH.
“I listened to a panel talk about their perspective on healthcare and what our points have been. They have been taking it from an employer and payer perspective — and I heard one panelist say, ‘Properly, employers shouldn’t actually be anxious about entry and the way lengthy it takes to get an appointment. They need to be fascinated about insurance coverage for his or her workers extra strategically.’ My argument to that individual could be: If you happen to can’t get the blocking and tackling down, how will you really cope with the larger points in a considerate means?” Couris defined.
Healthcare organizations from throughout the trade — reminiscent of hospitals, payers, employers and pharmacies — want to return collectively and “get severe” about fixing entry and care coordination points earlier than they dive deep into flashier tasks, he said.
To Couris, these issues can’t be solved merely with new tech instruments. With out considerate collaboration from healthcare gamers throughout the sector, these points will solely proceed to worsen, he declared.
Picture: FG Commerce, Getty Photos
