Consulting

By Matt Keahey

According to Advisory Board’s Annual Health Care CEO Survey, cost control has surpassed revenue growth as healthcare system CEOs’ number one priority. Hospitals are large enterprises, whether they are part of healthcare system with hundreds of hospitals, or a single hospital with hundreds of beds. Additionally, each hospital can encompass hundreds of employees in both clinical and operational faculties. Even as hospitals and their systems grow larger, 62 percent of surveyed CEOs identify “preparing the enterprise for sustainable cost control” as their top priority.

The executive director for research at Advisory Board noted that health system CEOs “recognize that any effective growth or financial-sustainability strategy must be built on a competitive cost structure in order for their enterprises to deliver high-quality, cost-effective care to the patients they serve.” Hospital leadership recognizes this importance in both the practice of care and the environment of care. But how? [Read more…] about Prioritizing Hospital CEOs’ #1 Priority: Cost Control and the Physical Environment

The act of traveling for healthcare is hardly something new in the medical industry, but the volume at which patients are going abroad for their treatments today is consistently growing. In fact, in the past 10 years, searches on Google alone for ‘medical tourism’ have gone from barely 300,000, to a whopping 8,920,000 in April 2018. This growth is still going as more and more people come to see the benefits of medical tourism. We’ve decided to explore just why people are taking to medical tourism and what the benefits really are.

Why Have We Started Looking Global For Our Healthcare?

From unique holistic treatments in Asia to a Longevita hair transplant Turkey treatment, there is plenty to be sought after abroad. However, there is much more to the industry than that. While the thought of going abroad for treatment can often drum up images of unsanitary clinics and botched surgeries, the reality today is actually much different. In fact, countries across the world are opening their doors to brand new facilities and standards of treatment that rival even that in the UK or USA.

The question is, however, if we have such good healthcare facilities at home, why travel abroad? The simple answer can lie in the benefits that medical tourism brings up. From cost savings of potentially hundreds of pounds on some treatments to shorter waiting lists and the opportunity to enjoy a break abroad before and after your treatment, everyone has their own reasons for embarking on a medical tourism trip. We’re exploring some of the reasons here. [Read more…] about The Globalization Of HealthCare And Why You Should Travel For Treatment

By Jason Bisesi

Nearly every professional in every industry can likely relate to covering for a colleague who has been out sick or on leave for a long period of time, or gaining additional responsibilities for someone who’s left the organization completely.  For large organizations as a whole, this scenario may not seem like a problem, but for the smaller teams within them, this can be a significant stressor.  Now, consider the implications of a sub-specialty inside the confines of a hospital, with the vacant position being the leader of that team…

Corazon has oftentimes found that Manager, Director, or Administrator-level positions in healthcare facilities can become vacant unexpectedly, but are nearly never filled quickly enough to avoid lasting, damaging effects on day-to-day operations, team morale, patient satisfaction, and supply/inventory management.  Oversight for all of these singular responsibilities is very important for a quality leader, and to be most effective, should reside with one person.  To assign these responsibilities to multiple team members will no doubt result in inconsistencies, which can be very costly – clinically, operationally, and financially – for any size hospital. 

In the event that a team leader, especially one in a high-volume area, is no longer present at the facility and there is no clear replacement readily available, hospital executives typically turn to their in-house recruitment teams to secure a new hire.  Sometimes a search such as this one can last anywhere from three months to up to a full year due to the difficulty of finding, vetting, and then hiring a qualified candidate, which are in short supply in nearly every area of the country.  The negative programmatic impact of such a lengthy search can affect all aspects of service line operations.



[Read more…] about Interim Management: Long-Term Value from a Short-Term Placement

By Patrick Vega, Vice President, Corazon, Inc.

Healthcare, specifically the Orthopedics, Spine, and Neurosciences specialties, are in a period of extended and dramatic change driven largely by new models of reimbursement, novel technology, increased hospital-physician alignment, and a heightened focus on demonstrable clinical quality. Because of an aging population and the prevalence of musculoskeletal and neurological conditions, these specialties are among the most attractive to develop in both medical centers and community-based settings.

One of the most important (and ultimately beneficial) by-products of this change is the emergence of deliberate efforts by hospitals to collaborate with their medical staff. What this means in practice is that the management and delivery of the core elements of care (financial performance, clinical outcomes, and operational efficiency) are migrating away from hospitals and physicians working independently (and sometimes at cross purposes to one another) toward increased collaboration.

While fee-for-service reimbursement is currently the dominant model, payment is inexorably moving to models such as bundling, total episode-of-care payment, capitation, and other fixed-fee arrangements. Under such models, the hospital may be the recipient of a single payment, which is then shared with physicians. [Read more…] about The Near-Term in Orthopedics, Neurosciences, & Spine: Innovation is Not Enough

By Samir Panchal, Consultant, Freed Associates

Expertise, objectivity and supplementary assistance are the primary reasons for a health care organization to hire an external consulting firm. It is wonderful when a consulting relationship works well, yet not all do. Why do some external consulting relationships seem to thrive, while others become challenging?

In this article, we explore how and why a major health care provider significantly benefited from an external consulting relationship, and how you can apply these lessons to your organization, no matter its type or size.

The Three Vital Success Steps

While strategy-setting is a vital and necessary part of any consulting relationship, the reality is that strategy is typically just a small part of the overall work provided by a consultant. Far more time and budget is spent on project implementation, which highlights the need for a great consulting relationship fit. With that in mind, here are three vital implementation-related success steps to consider when engaging a consultant. [Read more…] about Three Steps for Maximizing Your Organization’s Consulting Relationship