Operational Excellence
As a kid, I remember that the best roller coasters were the ones that were both terrifying and exhilarating. You knew it was really awesome when you couldn’t tell the difference between screams of joy or fright. It was fun to look at the pictures the amusement park would take at the same spot…
The American Hospital Association last month awarded its 2015 Shirley Ann Munroe Leadership Award to Vince Oliver, CEO and superintendent of Island Hospital in Anacortes, Wash. The award honors small or rural hospital leaders who have improved health care delivery in their communities through…
Deeply held beliefs can blind boards to the true nature of change. It’s time to challenge the orthodoxies. In the early 2000s, the Nokia board debated creating a smartphone. The company’s wireless handset was the global best seller. Management believed consumers would not use a touch…
• Pediatric facility design must enable excellent medical care while also offering playful features that engage, calm and delight young patients. • The patients may be small, but spaces must be big enough to accommodate family stays and large medical equipment. • Technology is a way…
When Canadian physician John Fernandes was told earlier this year that there would be no way to rid a four-year-old girl of the same Escherichia coli strain that had claimed her brother’s life, Fernandes turned to a physician crowdsourcing site hoping for better news. His persistence was rewarded;…
A group of cybersecurity experts, representing everyone from NASA to academic medicine, formed a committee targeting the small but potentally lethal threat in which a hacker takes control of a medical device, an act known by some as “medjacking.” The Cybersecurity Standard for Connected…
Health care executives and boards no longer can lead with only one organization in mind. Value-based payment, along with a renewed emphasis on developing healthy communities, makes care coordination among community providers in multiple entities a necessity.
Succession planning is a high-stakes governance responsibility. The significant costs of protracted CEO searches and failed replacements are well-documented. Yet, data from the for-profit and nonprofit sectors continue to show that many boards aren’t focusing enough attention on succession planning…
Hospitals and health systems are extending their efforts to embrace environmental sustainability, especially when it comes to energy consumption, according to the 2015 Health Facilities Management Sustainable Operations Survey conducted with the American Society for Healthcare Engineering and the…
“The Association Between Patient and Family Engagement Practices and Patient Experience” is a slide presentation that covers the findings of a 2013–2014 survey conducted by the Health Research & Educational Trust and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The survey examined patient and family…