Steven Airhart serves as Group Chief Executive Officer for Hartgrove Behavioral Health System and Garfield Park Behavioral Hospital.
On May 24th, Steven will serve on the panel "Opioids and Health Systems: What Have We Learned and What Decisions Should Healthcare Leaders Make in the Future?" 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 Steven's session, click here.
Question: What, if anything, should hospitals be doing now given economists' projections of a forthcoming economic downturn?
Steven Airhart: Hospitals are a microcosm of the communities they serve. As communities face economic challenges, so too do the hospitals serving those communities. As patients experience greater financial challenges, they frequently delay and postpone elective procedures and often preventative care becomes less important. The ability to forecast and project for the future is critical for a hospital to remain competitive and survive in changing economic conditions. Strategic planning and responsible management is critical, not just during a downturn, but at all times.
Q: How can hospitals reconcile the need to maintain inpatient volumes with the mission to keep people healthier and out of the hospital?
SA: I believe the future of our healthcare system will require an expansive and robust outpatient continuum of care to support the inpatient services. We must continue to explore and define ways to bring healthcare to the provider instead of expecting the patient to always come to the provider. Accessibility is critical and perhaps more so now than ever before. There will always be a need for inpatient services, but each hospital should be defined by the needs of their community. As we see in some communities, perhaps the need for pediatric or obstetric care becomes less important than serving an aging population. Hospital services should reflect the clinical needs of the community it serves.
Q: What's one lesson you learned early in your career that has helped you lead in healthcare?
SA: A healthcare system is defined and driven by quality services/outcomes and excellence in customer service. We can’t be everything to everyone, therefore the ability to focus and specialize is essential in more competitive markets, which is where I have spent most of my career. Most of us chose a hospital because of one or a combination of three reasons: Location, reputation or experience. Most of us can’t do anything about the location of our hospitals, but we have full control over the reputation and the experience we create for our patients, their families, our visitors, providers, and employees. By creating a positive lasting impression and ensuring excellent clinical outcomes, we help to solidify both the reputation and the overall clinical experience. The intent is to manage what we have control over.
Q: Healthcare has had calls for disruption, innovation, and transformation for years now. Do you feel we are seeing that change? Why or why not?
SA: I believe we are always going to experience disruption, however, I also believe we are always achieving innovation. As for as transformation, that is a more elusive concept for many providers. It is complex, it requires a stronger focus on population health and often times a much stronger sense of coordination with other healthcare systems. It is hard to achieve transformation if there is a mindset of “what is best for me or my system” versus "what is best for my community and what will allow my system to serve more patients?” I firmly believe, given what we are seeing nationally with many community hospitals struggling, the commitment to transformation is critical. I believe there should be a greater focus on the reinvention of one’s system. If a facility or system becomes stagnate, it is usually a sign of failing system.