Lola Butcher

Leadership, Strategic Planning

Henry Ford Health System board essential for diversity

Henry Ford Health System, a five-hospital system in the Detroit area, routinely earns one of the top spots on DiversityInc.’s Top 12 Hospitals and Health Systems, an annual ranking of health care organizations that are committed to diversity. To make the cut, the 30,000-employee system is continually working to improve its talent pipeline, talent development practices, supplier diversity and other things essential to an inclusive culture.

Care Delivery, Patient and Family Education/Engagement

By the patient, for the patient

By the time Warren J. Smith III met Kavita Bhavan, M.D., he had had dozens of surgeries stemming from a motorcycle accident that shattered his leg. Altogether, he had spent more than a year in hospital beds, and the serious infection in his leg was another disappointing setback.

So when Bhavan, an infectious disease specialist at Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas, suggested that Smith could self-administer intravenous antibiotics at home, he seized the opportunity.

Care Delivery, Patient and Family Education/Engagement

Hospital studies self-care program, with positive results

When leaders at Parkland Health & Hospital System in Dallas launched a novel program for administering long-term antibiotics to Parkland Memorial Hospital patients, they were seeking to address two problems that vex many provider organizations: disparities in the delivery of health care services and the inappropriate use of health care resources.

Nurses, Care Delivery, Physician Workforce, Rural issues, Strategic Planning, Workforce

Nurses as hospitalists

Trustee talking points

• A growing number of small and rural hospitals, unable to recruit or afford physician hospitalists, are staffing their hospital medicine programs with nurse practitioners.
• Hospitals that use this approach must comply with state and federal regulations regarding scope of practice, billing and other factors.
• In many states, NPs can manage patients independently with access to a collaborating physician who does not have to be on-site.
• Hospital medicine is frequently not part of NP training programs, so h

Care Delivery, Quality & Patient Safety

OhioHealth boosts hospice care

Hospice care has been shown to improve patients’ quality of life while reducing costs near death, but hospice services are chronically underused.

OhioHealth, however, has used a quality improvement approach to address that conundrum — and with good success. Within less than a year, the average length of stay in hospice care for cancer patients nearly doubled for the health system in the central part of the state.

Physician Leaders, Nurses, Care Delivery, Physician Workforce, Workforce Supply and Demand, Workforce

Case study: Wisconsin hospital embraces NPs as hospitalists

In the three years since the Rusk County Memorial Hospital hospitalist program started, primary care access in Ladysmith has stabilized, the hospital’s admissions and patient satisfaction scores have rebounded, and Rusk’s future is no longer in jeopardy.

Care [Almost] Anywhere

Trustee Talking Points

• Health systems are experimenting with new types of access that make care more convenient and less costly for consumers.

• Access points pioneered by entrepreneurs — including quick-care clinics, online and video visits, and home visits — are being embraced by traditional health systems.

• Low-cost venues that make it easy for patients to find care also support population health initiatives and the move to value-based payments.

Delivery System Transformation, Care Delivery, Strategic Planning

Housing programs lay foundation for health

Trustee talking points

• Homelessness is a growing problem in many communities, and many health systems are stepping up to be part of the solution.
• In the era of population health management, housing initiatives can have a positive return on investment if they help reduce avoidable emergency department and inpatient utilization.
• Although a few health systems have been involved with housing for years, this is new terrain for most.

Financial Oversight, Governance Effectiveness, Operational Excellence, Care Delivery, Strategic Planning

Independence through collaboration

Trustee talking points

• Collaboratives or alliances of neighboring health systems are an alternative to formal consolidation.
• They provide a way for systems to gain efficiencies of scale without losing independence through a merger.

Separate but Stronger

Trustee Talking Points

·      Collaboratives or alliances of neighboring health systems are an alternative to formal consolidation.

·      They provide a way for systems to gain efficiencies of larger scale without losing independence through a merger. They also allow systems to share resources and knowledge needed for population health management.