Focusing on Patient Care – Webinar Review and Analysis

On June 15th, 2020, I had the opportunity to attend a webinar through Becker’s Hospital Review titled “Reimagining Healthcare: A Revolutionary Refocus on What Matters Most, the Patient.” The two key speakers were Thomas Koulopoulous, the Chairman and Founder of Delphi Group, and Chris Pass, the CFO of John Muir Health.

As the title suggests, this one hour webinar was based upon the current state of healthcare within the United States and how a dramatic shift towards the needs of patients needs to occur. I think a lot of information presented in this webinar was both interesting and crucial for the general public to know. 

Pretty early on, Mr. Koulopoulos shared a statistic that was simply shocking to me – 800,000 people come to the United States per year, spending over $10 Billion dollars on uninsured, out-of-pocket procedures. Conversely, about the same number of United States residents leave the country yearly to seek care due to high costs within the US. Additionally, he shared that roughly 25% of patients put off necessary procedures due to the high out-of-pocket costs, and that administration accounts for nearly 30% of healthcare costs in the United States. 

The most concerning part about these statistics are that according to Mr. Koulopoulos, there is almost no correlation whatsoever between the costs of health procedures and the outcomes of said procedures in the United States. This leads me to believe that decreasing both simple oversight by medical staff and the administering of unnecessary procedures could easily drive down the cost of care care within the United States. Additionally, I discussed in my college coursework the dangers of “unofficial” overseas medical procedures, which is something that should be, but is often not, considered by those contemplating leaving the country for procedures. 

Billing was another major issue discussed by Mr. Koulopoulos, and I found it shocking that the United States spends more on Business and Insurance Related (BIR) costs than Germany, Australia, and Canada spend on all of their healthcare combined. It was also brought to my attention that many hospitals have more quirks and specifications within their billing process than they do actual hospital beds. 

Since when did healthcare become focused on everything OTHER than the patient? The entire focus of this webinar was to explain how healthcare systems need to reevaluate their processes and priorities, and I believe the aforementioned statistic is a perfect explanation as to why.   

Mr. Koulopoulos then went on to present several key issues facing healthcare in the United States in the upcoming years – there is no single repository for all patient data, patients see many doctors over their lifetime but these doctors do not communicate, healthcare systems have many responsibilities that distract from patient care, healthcare continually is changing and developing, and america is rapidly aging. These issues, and more, are discussed in his book titled The Six Forces Shaping the Future of Business – The Gen Z Effect. 

Without just continually repeating Mr. Koulopoulos’ thoughts, it seems that a major focus of current healthcare news is the need for improvement in terms of telehealth, data analysis, and patient education in terms of the care they are receiving and the different options that they have. Too often patients are not aware of certain possibilities or conditions and just take the advice of their physician who may or may not have different priorities than said patient. 

I read an interview of Thomas Lee of Press Ganey recently, and he discussed the idea that doctors need to treat every single patient the same way, like they are the only patient that matters in the world. He explains that it does not matter how you acted towards your last patient or who your next patient is.

Similarly, my physician at Northwestern Hospital, Dr. Reynolds, recently said the following to me – “No need to be concerned about ___, it is only natural and we are a team. It is certainly reasonable to ____.” Dr. Reynolds calls me from his personal cell phone, will speak to me for as long as I want and answer as many questions as I have, and genuinely makes me feel that 1) I have a say in my healthcare and 2) that he genuinely cares about my health and keeping me healthy. 

Medical providers need to shift their thinking with patients to the idea that they are a team, working together to better their care. Mr. Koulopoulos discussed the idea of smartsourcing non-clinical aspects of a hospital to outside entities (ie – food, laundry, valet, administration, etc), and I think that this is a critical first step for health systems to take in order to allow physicians to solely focus on their patient. Mr. Koulopoulos referred to this idea of smartsourcing as a “digital ecosystem” where countless organizations work together to ensure the safety and health of patients, and to ensure that a health system runs smoothly. 

Chris Pass of John Muir Health had some similar ideas in relation to integrating healthcare, and he proposed the idea of implementing a command center to focus on bringing all aspects of a hospital’s control under one roof. He discussed what his health center is doing in terms of innovation, explaining that they often have “safety huddles,” which are meetings that include every department altogether in one room. This is done either campus-by-campus or enterprise wide. 

I think that this is a fascinating idea and one that needs to be adopted country wide. It connects directly with smartsourcing and the idea of a digital ecosystem in terms of allowing different aspects of care to come from different entities while all employees have the same goals and ideas in mind. It ensures that everyone is always on the same page and greatly minimizes the potential for error. 

In conclusion, I want to leave you with an important idea that Mr. Pass presented. There is NO single source of truth in terms of COVID-19. Organizations as large as WHO and the CDC are constantly learning new things about this virus and changing their previous opinions. While this is a large stressor, it is important to try to not worry about things that are out of your control. All you can control is YOU, nobody else. Wear your mask, wash your hands, and follow the guidelines provided by medical professionals. Thanks for reading. 

If you made it this far, thank you, and please consider checking out my last Healthcare related blog post, titled COVID-19 & Marketing – Becker’s Hospital Review – https://mattjmorrow.wordpress.com/2020/06/14/covid-19-marketing-beckers-hospital-review/.

References

Dr. Reynolds, Northwestern Hospital, Profile – https://www.nm.org/doctors/1316365950/jonathan-edward-reynolds-md

Thomas Lee Interview – https://assets.asccommunications.com/whitepapers/leidos-may-ebook-5.7.pdf

Webinar Information – https://go.beckershospitalreview.com/reimagining-healthcare-a-revolutionary-refocus-on-what-matters-most-the-patient