Rick Shepardson serves as the Director of Optimization for Nordic Consulting.
On May 11th, Mr. Shepardson will serve as a speaker at Becker's Health IT + Clinical Leadership 2018. As part of an ongoing series, Becker's is talking to healthcare leaders who plan to speak at the conference, which will take place May 10-11th 2018 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Mr. Shepardson's session, click here.
Question: How do you define patient engagement?
Rick Shepardson: I maintain an idealistic definition of patient engagement as "a state in which a patient is a fully active participant in his or her own healthcare and outcomes." Unfortunately, there are significant barriers to obtaining true patient engagement today. One might hope that we, as people, would naturally protect and improve our health, but the reality is that, culturally, we have a live-for-today mindset. This means we often neglect chronic issues that seem too challenging to address and seek out healthcare only after a problem has progressed to the point it impacts our day-to-day life. Even then, many people will pause before visiting health professionals because of the need to pay out-of-pocket to cover the deductible on our high-deductible health plans. Despite these challenges, healthcare organizations are attempting to empower and encourage patient engagement through open access scheduling, flexible payment options, patient portals, multiple communication mediums, and focused education and outreach. I remain hopeful the patient and healthcare provider will meet in the middle, but we have a long way to go.
Q: How do you see the barrier between competitors and collaborators changing?
RS: I think the world of population health is helping to break down barriers within the healthcare industry. Large provider organizations that have long been competitors are now incentivized to share patient data to improve care efficiency and outcomes. On another side, large provider organizations may have historically "competed" with payers to maximize reimbursement but are now partnering through ACOs to better understand and manage patient risk and costs. Meanwhile, the demands of this environment are driving EHR vendors to open up their systems to allow integration between their robust platforms and innovative niche products. Over the next, year I think we will continue to see more collaboration between organizations that have been historically competitive as the industry pushes towards cost reduction.
Q: As a leader, what is the best investment you made in your own professional development in the past five years?
RS: The best investment I have made is in obtaining a certification in Lean Six Sigma through the University of Wisconsin. The principles and toolset I learned through those courses allow me to design and execute projects more efficiently and with better outcomes. The courses also allowed me to see healthcare delivery in a different light. It can feel insensitive to compare a patient to a manufactured widget, and there are certainly many psychosocial factors that must be managed in hospitals that don't impact a production line, but many of the principles are the same. Standardizing processes and protocols, managing throughput and handoffs, and measuring outcomes and quality are all more relevant than ever in healthcare today. Lean Six Sigma has provided me with objective approaches and tools as well as methodical change management techniques that allow me to successfully lead organizations through significant optimization projects.
When was the last time your organization responded to concerns or needs expressed by physicians? What unfolded?
RS: Many of our clients are struggling with physicians' frustration with their EHR and the repetitive, time-consuming tasks of reviewing charts, ordering, entering documentation, and communicating with patients and other physicians. We are working with many organizations to understand physician efficiency in the EHR and develop strategic system optimization and personalization to make the EHR more efficient and physician friendly. We use objective data to share physician performance and allow them to benchmark against their peers within departments and service lines. We also help organizations deploy new tools and workflows for physicians as well as develop and implement system training and workflow adoption programs designed to meet physician needs and drive satisfaction.