Christopher Smedley serves as Vice President of Physician Enterprise Solutions for Premier Inc.
On November 12th, Christopher will serve on the panel "Medical Group Management: Top Issues and Strategies for 2020" at Becker's 8th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place November 11-13, 2019 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Christopher's session, click here.
Question: What is the single most important thing you need to do in your role? (Ie: What do you have to be great at?)
Christopher Smedley: Healthcare leaders have to be able to clearly understand the challenges and opportunities that providers face in the most timely manner. That means quickly but accurately interpreting complex qualitative and quantitative information. But what really distinguishes effective leaders is the ability to explain things in the simplest manner. Being able to clearly communicate to others is an art, and because healthcare creates added complexity, it is extremely important in this industry. In turn, I also work to enable other leaders to do this effectively so that they can successfully navigate, address and sustain cost-effective, patient-centered care delivery models amid the evolving healthcare landscape.
Q: Healthcare leaders today need skills and talents that span beyond those emphasized during formal training and higher education. What is one specific competency that you learned or sharpened in real life? Or: What one specific competency do you believe up-and-coming healthcare leaders would benefit from strengthening outside the classroom?
CS: Early in my career and throughout it, I have had the privilege of working with incredible leaders and mentors. I often felt humbled and grateful that they would be so generous with their time and provide endless opportunities to learn and grow. Since I have learned firsthand the benefits of this relationship, I began to model it throughout all the organizations that I have worked. When you see people that are talented, hungry and demonstrate exceptional capabilities, I believe it’s your obligation as a leader to give them stretch opportunities. It’s been my experience that most people will exceed any expectation if they’re liberally enabled with challenging opportunities.
Q: What is one convention, tradition or habit that healthcare has adopted and left unquestioned that you feel either needs to stop or undergo thoughtful scrutiny? Why?
CS: As an industry, we’ve capped out on the level of responsibilities we place on the shoulders of physicians. This is evidenced through the continued uptick in provider burnout. Generally, most physicians are high achievers and have been willing to take on the extra documentation and regulatory requirements to serve the needs of their patients. However, failure to address the barriers and enablers to practicing medicine (e.g. staffing/skill mix, workflows, technology optimization, space utilization) while continuing to increase clinician expectations is a recipe for disaster. We need to flip our thinking around how we organize and support providers and staff in order for them to succeed each and every day in providing the high-quality patient care they yearn to deliver. This requires a more focused commitment to addressing the foundational elements that support more efficient and effective care.
focus their efforts and energy. As I partner with hospital leaders, it’s important to assess the impact
and benefits of projects to help prioritize initiatives.
For example, everyone is paying attention to the rise in specialty drug costs. Yet often there is little a
hospital can do to lower their specialty drug spend. However, there are substantial cost savings
possible through an improved reimbursement strategy and medication utilization-based projects.
Not only would prioritizing these initiatives drive meaningful results, they also are within the
hospital’s span of control.
In addition, I find that hospital leaders can overlook the pharmacy in performance improvement
initiatives, so it is an ongoing education and advocacy about the pharmacy’s potential impact. The
pharmacy should be a center of innovation for a hospital – and innovation is key to expanding
services and improving care.