Operational Excellence

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…
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…
U.S. hospitals are embracing tried-and-true sustainability methods and launching new initiatives tailored to their individual budgets and staffing needs. Here’s a sample of initiatives underway, from the Health Facilities Management/American Society for Healthcare Engineering/Association…
• 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;…
Rural health care boards and executives are transforming their organizations for a new world of accountable care marked by changing payment models, heightened expectations for physician alignment and greater need for collaboration. The 2016 Rural Health Care Leadership Conference Feb. 7–10 in…
When your board hired your organization’s CEO, the competencies the CEO possessed likely were a major factor in the selection process. However, many of those same skills are not sufficient to lead the hospitals and health systems of tomorrow.
Getting there is half the fun, right? Keep that in mind this holiday season, all of you who will be loading the family jalopy with unruly kids, rambunctious pets, more baggage than you even knew you owned and every flashy distraction Silicon Valley has yet to devise. The ride to Grandma’s…
Successful hospital and health systems are rooted in a mission-driven focus. But that focus must include a continued sense of vitality, creativity, relevance and forward thinking if hospitals and health systems are to continue their success into the future. Who better to contribute energy, new…
Trustee Talking Points Trustee Talking Points Many health systems are operating venture funds or other formal mechanisms for developing and commercializing innovations. Their motivations for developing innovations are to improve their own operations and create new…