“The Strategy That Will Fix Health Care” is an intriguing and thought-provoking article published in the October issue of Harvard Business Review.
RNs have been espousing concern about the broken healthcare system for more than a decade now. Seasoned hospital RNs express how healthcare is at an all-time low. In 31 years of educating Certified Legal Nurse Consultants from all over the U.S., I have never witnessed more pessimism about healthcare and the climate of RN jobs in hospitals.
The premise of the article is that it’s time to maximize value for the patient, i.e., achieve the best outcomes at the lowest cost. The authors propose a patient-centered system (hardly a novel concept) with a strategic agenda of 6 components:
- Organize into integrated practice units.
- Measure outcomes and costs for every patient.
- Move to bundled payments for care cycles.
- Integrate care delivery across separate facilities.
- Expand excellent services across geography.
- Build an enabling information technology platform.
Are these ideas sufficient to get us out of what I call the “Dark Ages of Healthcare?” Probably not, because the healthcare system can’t get fixed until the insurance companies get fixed too. While I find it interesting that insurance companies weren’t directly addressed in the strategies, it’s at least refreshing to see that the conversation about the broken healthcare system and recommendations for fixing it are finally on the table.
And as for CLNC consultants, it’s unlikely that medical malpractice cases are going away anytime soon.
I’m Just Sayin’
P.S. Comment and share your thoughts, as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant, on what it is going to take to fix the broken healthcare system.
