Tekisha King, MPA, is a Doctoral Student at Walden University.
On May 25th, Tekisha will serve on the panel "Ideas and Strategies to Bring in New Sources of Revenue" 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 Tekisha'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.)
Tekisha King: The biggest challenge about the future of work for hospitals is transparency with system infrastructures to collaborate with other health entities – e.g. long-term care facilities (LTC), home health agencies (HHA), community-based organizations (CBOs), and accountable care organizations (ACOs) to perfect patient-centered care. In order to improve health outcomes, the hospital medical team must be equipped with technology to communicate inclusively with the respective medical teams and/or organizations effectively and efficiently to minimize administrative burden, improve health outcomes, and deliver quality patient-centered care.
Q: What, if anything, should hospitals be doing now given economists' projections of a forthcoming economic downturn?
TK: Hospitals should be focused on improving and streamlining the costs for medical services for everyone – the provider, patient, and payer to rebuild trust with the economy while discovering alternatives to generate a return on investment for health systems. For instance, research health systems are earning federal grant funding opportunities to help innovate solutions to many social-related issues impacting the health status in rural and urban communities with social determinants of health (SDOH). In addition, data analysts are gathering statistical data to emerge population health data relative to tackling prevalent and emerging chronic health conditions, making everyone accountable with quality improvement metrics, and evolving the world of precision medicine with futuristic approaches in medicine.
Q: How can hospitals reconcile the need to maintain inpatient volumes with the mission to keep people healthier and out of the hospital?
TK: In my expertise, hospitals can reconcile the costs for medical services, education clinical staff, and the patient with the appropriate resources or direct to a point of contact to minimize the complexities of understanding healthcare. For example, patients feel the hospital is the “one-stop-shop” for all medical incidents – emergent, immediate, or minor, regardless of the prices associated with medical services, and lack of proper understanding of their respective health plans. Therefore, seeking medical care from an urgent care center (UCC), immediate care, or minute clinic is useless when a hospital is open 24/7 and equipped to handle all medical incidents. In addition, the ambulance is equipped to help when warranted as opposed to adhering to routine medical care to ensure disease prevention, vaccinations, routine testing required to maintain the health status. Furthermore, the more we all know, the better we can grow and demolish the traditional health care practices with modern best care health practices to transform an equitable health care system in the United States.
Q: What's one lesson you learned early in your career that has helped you lead in healthcare?
TK: The golden lesson that I learned early in my career is to always put the patient first or “the patient does no harm” which helped me overlook many uncanny actions, behaviors, and responses communicating with residents in the rural and urban communities. However, I have learned to detect fiction from factual events, an untrustworthy individual, and provide valued resources or solutions to help coordinate care.