Bernard Boulanger, MD, MBA, serves as Chief Clinical Officer and Executive Vice President for MetroHealth System.
On May 2nd, Dr. Boulanger will serve on the panel "Driving Efficiency in the Operating Room with Data Analytics" at Becker's Health IT + Clinical Leadership + Pharmacy conference. 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 2-4, 2019 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Dr. Boulanger's session, click here.
Question: What do innovators/entrepreneurs from outside healthcare need to better understand about hospital and health system leaders?
Bernard Boulanger: The most successful hospital and health system leaders are constantly asking the questions: What’s best for the patients? What’s best for the community or population we serve? No matter how simple or complex the issue, these grounding questions must be asked.
Q: What one strategic initiative will demand the most of your time and energy in 2019?
BB: Growth is essential. The question for each organization is: How? In a very competitive market, such as Cleveland and North East Ohio, the answer is not always straightforward. We are focusing on growing the share of wallet for those patients that we already serve. Ensuring that our patients have the right care, at the right location, at the right time. The continuity of care improvements that accompany an increased share of wallet are certainly better for the patients. We have established ourselves as a lower cost, high value provider of care in our market. This position in our geographic market opens up growth opportunities related to risk contracting and both horizontal and vertical expansion.
Q: Healthcare takes a lot of heat for not innovating quickly. What's your take on this?
BB: Medical practice has innovated fairly quickly. Look at advances such as minimally invasive surgery or the use of point-of-care ultrasound that transformed medical practice in a short time. However, hospitals and health systems have been traditionally slower to innovate. The complexity and scale of some health systems and hospitals has been a barrier. Also, the direct investment required to innovate is beyond the means of many hospitals and health systems.