Shawn McBride serves as Vice President and General Manager of WaveMark for Cardinal Health.
On November 11th, Shawn will serve on the panel "Clinical Integration, Data Analytics" 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 Shawn'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?)
Shawn McBride: Given the current dynamics we can all agree that healthcare is at a critical juncture. An effective leader needs to have a clear vision of what success will look like in the coming years for their business or institution. Creating that vision is not easy though - being open to listening to your staff/team needs, anticipating future needs and being flexible to adapt to new situations are all critical as you develop that vision. Equally important and tied to that effort is making sure you have put the right talent, tools, and necessary support in place to drive engagement from your team towards successfully achieving that vision. Additionally, as a leader on the manufacturer side, upon talking to many of our customers, part of this role is to partner with hospitals and care providers to achieve their vision.
Q: There is a lot to improve upon in healthcare. Of the many issues that hold your attention, what is the one you consider exceptionally imperative and urgent?
SM: Healthcare in the US has a major problem, and it’s not just around the cost of healthcare as in prescription drug or device prices, it's actually related to data. Meaningful use stages are driving the digitization of data BUT most of that data is sitting in a repository like an EHR unstructured. All that myriad of valuable data that can provision better care and drive operational efficiencies is not usable. When physicians and clinicians don’t have access to relevant data, patients are not receiving the quality of care they deserve. When administrators don’t have visibility into their org performance, it leads to operational inefficiencies. Not having access to data, having to process data manually and not having clear insights can lead to ineffective services and rising healthcare costs. Data analytics tools have the potential to transform healthcare in many different ways.
Q: We are all pressed for time and attention. Help us sift through the meaningless and the meaningful by sharing the last thing you read, heard or did that shifted your mindset and really made a difference in your personal or professional life.
SM: I recently read an article on Forbes about how Business giants are looking to become big players in healthcare. The interesting part was that it wasn’t talking about any technology innovation, but rather the approach and change in model, the businesses coming together to provide healthcare for their employees. We are inclined to think of innovation through the lens of technology, but we need to start thinking about innovation around methods of servicing, processes, systems, organizational structures, or even business models. These are large, untapped opportunities where we can innovate quickly to drive greater productivity and efficiency.
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.