Sunday, one week ago, as I flew to Chicago, legislation for heatlh reform was passed. It was timely since I was attending the Congress on Healthcare Leadership held each year by the American College of Healthcare Executives . There was a bit of a deflated feeling at first, but a few speakers really helped me put it into perspective. I share a little of my thoughts on this here as well as some of the other highlights from my Congress experience.
Richard Pollack of the American Hospital Association (via videoconferencing because he was in Washington) really did a great job providing an overview of the new legislation. He also reminded us that this isn't the first time we as healthcare leaders were handed problematic legislation and had to figure out how to make it work for the patient. Once again, we are called upon as leaders and once again we will work through the barriers and with what we have to do the best we can to put the legislation into practice. It is truly unfortunate that we consume much time, energy and expense working out the problem areas, rather than using these resources to actually care for patients. We certainly have some bumps in the road ahead of us!
One of my sessions was on use of non-physician providers (NAs, PAs, etc) and teleconferencing to facilitate a remote presence in the patient care process. We saw a couple of demonstrations of the technology in specific telemedicine scenarios and I thought it was fabulous. It was my first really big telemedicne experience and I'm even more impressed by the potential benefits we can realize with this technology. (Too bad there wasn't any significant change in health reform that will use telehealth to expand access to care.)
Another session focused on innovation and the globalization of healthcare. We explored how nano technology, social media, human genome, longevity, the Silver Tsunami , transparency, medical tourism and remote tele-treatment and work can/may impact the way care is provided and received. It was the session that takes your thinking out of your box and into the future frontiers.
Of course, I sat in on the Best Practices for Applying Social Media to Health session. How could I have missed it? It was led by Marty Bonick who is also included in my book. I'm most impressed by the number of people who attended the session and the number of C-suite types - the decision makers.
While we are on the topic of social media.... I went down to the bookstore and picked up a copy of the new catalog and guess which book is included on the cover? Yep, Social Media in Healthcare: Connect, Communicate and Collaborate. It was pretty cool!
Throughout the week, there were tutorials for healthcare executives on using LinkedIn. I thought this was a really great idea and was impressed by how many older healthcare executives I saw learning how to use this powerful social networking tool.
Juan Williams of Fox and NPR gave an excellent and motivating presentation. He reviewed some of the demographic trends of recent generations and their impact on the healthcare industry. I've always enjoyed hearing Juan's perspective, but seeing him in person and having a whole 30 minutes of his thoughts and ideas was the best.
I also participated in a small group discussion with Lynn Brewer on the topic of corporate ethics and healthcare. We discussed the red flags that increase the likelihood that one will find fraud and/or abuse in an organization. Not surprising, a culture of "tell the boss what he/she wants to hear" rather than the truth seems to be one of the common threads in organizations who have been brought down in recent times. A real leader has to be aware of the good, the bad and the ugly. That is the only way they can lead a turnaround and possibly find a swan under the ugly. We also discussed the current environment related to investigations, especially by the OIG . My advice: assess the culture of your organization and don't be the another emperor with no clothes.
I also discussed my new role with the Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center with those I met and others who I've known for years. Many healthcare leaders acknowledged the potential of telemedicine applications, but pointed to the low, and even lack of, reimbursement and the high cost related to the new expectations on credentialing and priviliging by CMS . It was the same story I've heard from networks in our 8 state region who see these two barriers standing in the way of more widespread use of telemedicine. Just as with EHRs and HIE, there are issues related to the accrual of benefits, but those organizations who are both the payor and provider (ie the VA) see the value. I'm going to work on these issues and welcome your support.
Sunday, one week ago, as I flew to Chicago, legislation for heatlh reform was passed. It was timely since I was attending the Congress on Healthcare Leadership held each year by the American College of Healthcare Executives . There was a bit of a deflated feeling at first, but a few speakers really helped me put it into perspective. I share a little of my thoughts on this here as well as some of the other highlights from my Congress experience.
I also discussed my new role with the Northwest Regional Telehealth Resource Center with those I met and others who I've known for years. Many healthcare leaders acknowledged the potential of telemedicine applications, but pointed to the low, and even lack of, reimbursement and the high cost related to the new expectations on credentialing and priviliging by CMS . It was the same story I've heard from networks in our 8 state region who see these two barriers standing in the way of more widespread use of telemedicine. Just as with EHRs and HIE, there are issues related to the accrual of benefits, but those organizations who are both the payor and provider (ie the VA) see the value. I'm going to work on these issues and welcome your support.