On April 7th, Laura will serve on the panel “Do Telehealth and Urgent Care Mean the Demise of Brick and Mortar? How Do Systems Stay Busy? Should They Embrace Telehealth and Urgent Care?” at Becker’s Hospital Review 11th Annual Meeting. As part of an ongoing series, Becker’s is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place on April 6-9, 2020 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Laura’s session, click here.
Question: How can hospitals reconcile the need to maintain inpatient volumes with the mission to keep people healthier and out of the hospital?
Laura Swaney: Hospitals have historically always stood ready to care for patients that crossed through their doors in times of need. However, with the focus on population health and consumers looking for efficient, cost-friendly healthcare settings, healthcare systems looking to thrive will need to diversify their offerings. There will be a subset of patients that will require inpatient hospitalizations, but having your arms around this patient further upstream and countless other consumers that may never or infrequently need a hospital stay will be incredibly important. Diversifying a healthcare system’s portfolio is key and considerations for creating health and wellness offerings, cost-friendly outpatient access points, including telemedicine, coupled with efficient online scheduling and bill payment will assist health systems in winning the patient potentially long before an inpatient hospital stay is required.
Q: What’s one lesson you learned early in your career that has helped you lead in healthcare?
LS: No one person will have all the answers, but a strong leader will surround themselves with content experts and give them the latitude to challenge and explore.
Knowing how to build and maintain a well-coordinated, engaged, high performing and accountable team could be one of the most important things a leader can do in any industry. We are only as good as our teams that rally with us.
Q: Where do you go for inspiration and fresh ideas?
LS: To gain inspiration and fresh ideas, I prioritize a few things:
- I value traveling outside of the country which allows me to reset, take a breath, study a new culture and contemplate ways to have a bigger impact in my work. I use lessons learned from abroad on service delivery back home.
- I also like to attend conferences such as those that Beckers hosts. I always gain energy and inspiration collaborating with my peers from across the country.
- I’d also be remiss if I didn’t mention the significant impact of the simple day to day interactions with my peers during my work week and the countless hours at nighttime dinners. There is something magical about truly enjoying the people you interface with on a daily basis. They are my tribe.
Where do you go for inspiration and fresh ideas? Beckers, of course! In all seriousness, the conference speakers are the best in the industry and the sessions are relevant to leaders in hospitals both large and small. And I don’t have to look any further than my inbox daily for the most recent healthcare news and best practices.
What do you see as the most exciting opportunity in healthcare right now? The most exciting opportunity in healthcare today is the move to value-driven care with the patient at the center focusing on wellness and prevention instead of treating signs and symptoms with volume-driven sick visits and hospitalizations. Accountable care, the merit-based incentive payment system (MIPS) and value-based payment programs are driving providers from volume to value-based care with incentives to reward both the physician and the patient!
Healthcare has had calls for disruption, innovation and transformation for years now. Do you feel we are seeing that change? Why or why not? Yes, hospitals that are driving change and transformation are receiving high marks in quality and patient-satisfaction. They are investing in technology to coordinate care and making access easier for their patients. At the same time, they are educating and preparing their workforce to be responsive to innovative change. The age of volume-driven fee-for-service medicine is gradually giving way to value-based care. Hospitals must transform to become organizations that reward value instead of volume and develop delivery methods that use evidence-based practices, procedures and technologies to attain optimal outcomes and achieve greater efficiencies. Many primary care providers have heard the call for value and are joining ACO’s and working to meet this demand. Sadly hospitals that haven’t transformed to ensure the highest quality patient-centered care and the most competitive prices are being bypassed by the primary care physicians, the patients and the payers. “
At Becker's 4th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable, taking place November 2–5 in Chicago, more than 1,500 hospital and health system executives tackle decisions that determine whether organizations thrive or merely survive: protecting margins under cost pressure, choosing where to grow, renegotiating payer relationships, stabilizing the workforce and proving real ROI on technology. This is where leaders work through them together, face-to-face. Apply for complimentary registration now.
