Amy Stevens, MBA, MAOM, serves as Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Tidelands Health.
On May 26th, Amy will give a presentation on "Key Steps to Improve Regulatory Compliance and How to Avoid Ending Up on the Front Page of the Newspaper" 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 May 24-26, 2021 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Amy's session, click here.
Question: What, from your perspective, is the biggest challenge about the future of work for hospitals, and what can they do about it? (i.e. automation, desire for more flexibility, clinician shortages, etc.)
Amy Stevens: As a marketer, one of the biggest challenges – but also one of the biggest opportunities -- I see facing health care organizations is the rise of the health care consumer. A consumer of health care is an active, empowered participant in the health and wellness journey. That consumer has myriad choices to make along the care continuum, and it is incumbent upon health care systems to give consumers a compelling reason to choose us – over and over again. That level of relationship-building goes beyond clinical quality. It goes beyond pricing. To create a lifetime customer, we must forge a real, human connection with consumers. To do that, we must meet them where they are – not where we want them to be.
Q: How can hospitals reconcile the need to maintain inpatient volumes with the mission to keep people healthier and out of the hospital?
AS: We must be a lifetime partner for consumers on their health and wellness journey. Yes, the hospital is an important part of that journey. So is the doctor’s office. But health care systems can no longer afford to restrict ourselves to those traditional settings. Again, we must meet consumers where they are. That means everything from wellness information and programming to preventive screenings to post-acute care. Consumers don’t want to experience health and wellness in silos, and we can’t continue to deliver our services that way. By wrapping our arms around the consumer all along the continuum, we can fulfill our mission and remain fiscally strong.
Q: What’s one lesson you learned early in your career that has helped you lead in health care?
AS: Every person has a story worth knowing. When we take time to really listen to each other’s stories, we connect in a meaningful and lasting way. It’s been said that a story is the shortest distance between two people. I’ve built my career on that belief.
Q: Where do you go for inspiration and fresh ideas?
AS: When you subscribe to the belief that every person’s story matters, inspiration is literally all around you. I find my inspiration in the lives of the people around me – whether co-workers or customers. Listening to what matters to them has never pointed me in the wrong direction.
"What's one lesson you learned early in your career that has helped you lead in healthcare? The most important lesson I learned early in my career was that healthcare is a fast-changing world and the imperative was clear; in order to lead effectively I must master the art of change leadership. I learned to focus on people and processes to drive successful change. As a Revenue Officer and Chief Transformation Officer driving big change to help hospitals transform their bottom lines from red to black, I learned to engage the management team early on, along with getting key people into key positions (or removing them, in some cases) then the process part of change goes much smoother. It's important to break big projects down into small wins to build momentum and celebrate the small victories.
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. "