The US healthcare system has been plagued by complexity and inadequate technology for decades, creating an infrastructure that has been all too often inefficiently bandaged together as it works to address urgent demands and layers of regulation. For many, offering coverage and caring for patients within this infrastructure can feel like being charged with trying to fix a plane while it’s in air, full of passengers, and slowly leaking fuel. The limitations cause friction and frustration for people in all roles – clinical, operational, administrative, technical -- leading to an overwhelmed workforce and environment that can be tilted toward crisis.
In this context, many healthcare leaders have the instinct that they do not currently have time, resources, or capacity to tackle innovation or plan for the many changes emerging in the healthcare system and the world around them. For some, the goal is to master the fundamentals of healthcare administration as a foundational step before they can move forward to tackle new capabilities. These executives espousing caution are often the best kind of leaders on some dimensions – they are those who are protective of their teams, committed to listening, and working hard to solve current problems before inviting in new ones. Because the healthcare industry has been relatively stable over the past several decades it is familiar to imagine having a few years to stabilize before needing to embrace change.
And yet, here’s the challenge. At the dawn of the AI age, new capabilities are coming on deck faster than ever before, all at a time when big retail, big tech, and others are gaining traction after years of experimentation in healthcare. For-profit national carriers and other mega players in the healthcare ecosystem have been investing in AI and advanced analytics to increase efficiency and embrace new capabilities. Those organizations waiting to get their ‘ducks in a row’ before exploring innovation will continually be ‘catching up’ to industry standards. With new tech on deck, this ‘catching up’ could lead to getting better and better at yesterday’s healthcare.
The tools available to address all aspects of care and delivery becoming available to us are evolving so quickly that it is virtually impossible to keep up. In The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-First Century's Greatest Dilemma, Mustafa Suleyman writes:
“Within the next couple of years, whatever your job, you will be able to consult an on-demand expert, ask it about your latest ad campaign or product design, quiz it on the specifics of a legal dilemma, isolate the most effective elements of a pitch, solve a thorny logistical question, get a second opinion on a diagnosis, keep probing and testing, getting ever more detailed answers grounded in the very cutting edge of knowledge, delivered with exceptional nuance. All of the world’s knowledge, best practices, precedent, and computational power will be available, tailored to you, to your specific needs and circumstances, instantaneously and effortlessly. It is a leap in cognitive potential at least as great as the introduction of the internet.”
These capabilities will be infiltrating every aspect of our lives – and they will not stop at the doorstep of healthcare. In fact, the health industry is a direct target for growth identified by those outside of the industry. Big tech, big retail, and the national for profits are not slowing their pace so that regional and nonprofit organizations have a chance to catch up. Rather, they would try to use this delay as a chance to advance their business goals, and in so doing, changing the script.
The historically siloed healthcare industry is facing blurring boundaries and greater connectedness with other sectors of the economy. Organizations focusing on getting better and better at how healthcare has always been, may find themselves to be masters in a few years of services that are soon to be abandoned.
According to our survey of 47 healthcare executives from regional, nonprofit, and community-based healthcare organizations, 90% reported that growth was either critical or very important to their long-term plans. Most were looking at geographic or service line expansion, but about a third were beginning to explore revenue areas outside of their core business. This is an indication that local healthcare organizations are beginning to think more broadly about their business models and how they fit into the future healthcare landscape.
Such innovation provides an alternative approach to revenue that can reinforce the current business while also bringing in higher margins, new partners, and fresh approaches to fulfilling the organization’s mission. Many of the seemingly intractable problems that have plagued the healthcare industry for decades have been limited by the technical infrastructure. We can embrace new tools to solve these familiar problems, perhaps even offering an opportunity to leap over the historical interventions. It requires an update to our understanding of not just what is possible now, but also what will be possible in the coming years.
A simple intervention establishing a discipline with future visioning can shift this dynamic. Committing to a half day visioning session each quarter could keep an executive leadership team looking up and out even as they approach the day-to-day challenges before them. This type of engagement can take place ‘before ducks are in a row’, and without disrupting current organizational structure. There will always be a need to remain focused on the near-term needs even while beginning to look forward. That said, taking time to collectively step back will help leaders to think-future as they approach problems coming their way and is likely to shift the direction of the ship over time.
We also advocate for the development of a discipline around managing innovation. Without a specified process it can be too easy for the pressing needs of the now to eat into planning for the future. This involves a process to collectively monitor the environment, evaluate opportunities according to agreed upon criteria, identify problems internally to solve in fresh ways, and develop organizational muscle memory around innovative thinking.
Many organizations may choose to develop this on their own. For those seeking an innovation process for a lower total cost and with national-level insight and resources, we offer this service in an outsourced manner. Our solution is tightly coordinated with your own teams internally, ensuring engagement with leadership across disciplines and roles, but with minimum disruption day to day.
Some of you know that I am deeply worried about the future of community-based healthcare. As pundits offer predictions on the impact of accelerating consolidation, many are foreseeing a healthcare industry characterized by oligopoly among a few for profit entities. Those who are close to the day to day benefits that local organizations offer to their communities recognize the dramatic loss such an oligopolistic system would mean for our country, especially with impacts to the historically medically underserved.
The good news is that this is not the only scenario possible. Local payers and providers are more creative and nimble, with deeper connections in the community. They often have more engaged employees who are inspired by the mission. Engaging leaders and employees in exploring the landscape of the future can provide some level of assurance to those who are concerned about the changes around them. It can also spark energy and greater purpose to be working toward a rich future vision.
Let’s us not let ‘busy’ keep us from doing something great. Let us not wait until these ducks are in a row before embracing this moment.
All my best,
Nancy W.
Spring Street Exchange offers a structured innovation with national-level insight and resources; we can administer this for lower cost than an organization developing it internally. Connect with us for more information. connect@springstreet.exchange