On October 9th, Christopher will serve on the panel “Evolving Technology, Disruptors, and Regulatory Issues in HIT” at Becker’s Annual Health IT + Revenue Cycle 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 October 9-12, 2019 in Chicago.
To learn more about the conference and Christopher’s session, click here.
Question: As a leader, how do you stay connected to the actual work that is being done – and not just by watching others execute, but by executing yourself? If so, how do you balance between leading and executing personally?
Christopher Kunney: True leadership is much less about what you are doing and more about who you are being. It’s wasn’t the specific task a leader performed that influenced me the most in my career. It was the character they exhibited while performing that task and inspiration they provided while leading us through to our goal. Where they a genuine, honest, resilient, courageous leader? Did they make an effort to connect with me and my teammates to understand what motivates us? Sharing ourselves authentically goes against our natural instincts for survival. When we are vulnerable, we automatically move into self-preservation mode. Which leads to avoiding conflict or difficult discussions, canceling meetings, delaying projects, or placing blame on others. Taking accountability for your actions as a leader and how they impact the team’s success is the sincerest way to gain credibility and refocus a team on achieving its objectives. It’s through becoming vulnerable and transparent that we can connect most deeply.
I think rolling up your sleeves and getting the work done is par for the course. As a leader, you have to be willing to jump in and help when needed. It’s keeping your team focused and committed to the task at hand that takes a special quality great leaders exhibit flawlessly.
Q: What does healthcare need more of? Less of?
CK: Transparency! There is virtually no transparency in health care and little has been done to change this situation even with all the innovations currently taking place in the industry.
Patients, health care advocates, and government officials are demanding to make health care more transparent. It believes physicians and healthcare professionals should be the champions of this cause and take an active role in aggressively advocating for these changes. Transparency means different things to different segments of the health care ecosystem. For patients, this means having access to more information about the price and quality of health care services to assist them in making better decisions about their care options. Consumers struggle to understand the actual out-of-pocket costs they will incur and where they can get the best care for their money. They’re also uncertain if their insurance will cover a test or drug ordered by their doctor, and if it doesn’t cover it, why not?
Most physicians want to do their best for their patients. That means knowing which potential referral partners consistently provide the best outcomes at a competitive price for their patients. Unfortunately, many hospitals, specialty clinics, and medical system networks are often unwilling to share quality and pricing data with their partners. As a result, when patients go to a hospital for tests or treatment, usually at a referral from their primary care provider, They’re totally in the dark about what the cost will be or what their insurance will cover. The time for making excuses is over. We need to start at the root of the problem and address the real obstacles impeding transparency in healthcare. Ideally, this transforms should be lead by providers, supported stakeholders, input provided by consumers and enabled through the use of technology.
What do we need less of? Excuses as to why transparency cannot become a reality!
“What you have to do and the way you have to do it is incredibly simple. Whether you are willing to do it, that’s another matter.” -Peter Drucker
Q: What is one topic or issue you’ve been investing time in to better understand as of late?
CK: The impact of telehealth technologies within the healthcare ecosystem is top of mind for me these days. Telehealth holds the promise to significantly impact some of the most challenging problems of our current healthcare system: access to care, cost-effective delivery, and the ability to maximize a limited number of providers over a broad geographic area. Telehealth can change the current archetype of care and allow for improved access and health outcomes in cost-effective ways.
According to The California Telehealth Resource Center, there are a number of areas where telehealth can make a positive impact on the healthcare ecosystem. For example…
Telehealth increases access to healthcare:
- Remote patients can more easily obtain clinical services.
- Remote hospitals can provide emergency and intensive care services.
Telehealth improves health outcomes:
- Patients diagnosed and treated earlier often have improved outcomes and less costly treatments.
- Patients with Telehealth supported ICU’s have substantially reduced mortality rates, reduced complications, and reduced hospital stays.
Telehealth reduces healthcare costs:
- Home monitoring programs can reduce high-cost hospital visits.
- High-cost patient transfers for stroke and other emergencies are reduced.
- Telehealth assists in addressing shortages and misdistribution of healthcare providers:
- Specialists can serve more patients using Telehealth technologies.
- Nursing shortages can be addressed using Telehealth technologies.
Telehealth supports clinical education programs:
- Rural clinicians can more easily obtain continuing education.
- Rural clinicians can more easily consult with specialists.
Telehealth improves support for patients and families:
- Patients can stay in their local communities and, when hospitalized away from home, can keep in contact with family and friends.
- Many telehealth applications empower patients to play an active role in their healthcare.
Telehealth helps the environment:
- Reducing extended travel to obtain necessary care reduces the related carbon footprint.
Telehealth improves organizational productivity:
- Employees can avoid absences from work when telehealth services are available on-site or when employees can remotely participate in consultations about family members.
These examples illustrate some improved outcomes and cost savings being achieved by Telehealth and telehealth programs: Home monitoring of chronic diseases is reducing hospital visits by as much as 50% by keeping patients stable through daily monitoring. The national average for re-admission to hospitals within 30 days following a heart failure episode is 20%. Telehealth monitoring programs have reduced that level to less than 4%. Timely provision of treatments that effectively reverse the consequences of a stroke has risen from 15% to 85% due to the availability of telestroke programs. Telehealth support to Intensive Care Units (often called eICUs) is reducing mortality rates by 15 – 30% and substantially reducing complications and length of stay. Telehealth retinopathy screening programs support early identification of serious eye disease and reduce the incidence of blindness in diabetic patients.
Besides using telemedicine to connect with patients, doctors are also utilizing this technology to connect with their colleagues for expert advice and consultation. Along with the benefits the technology brings, adversely are the pitfalls that can occur through poor implementation and misuse. Congress has begun to pass new regulations created to ensure the quality of care and appropriate reimbursement of telehealth providers, as well as impose penalties for fraud, waste, and abuse in a virtual care setting. My firm, Coker Group (www.cokergroup.com) has invested significant human capital in understanding the various business models, technology and compliance requirements associated with the emerging telehealth industry. We’re excited to assist our clients in navigating the dynamically shifting currents of the telehealth marketplace.
What contributes to better conversations between a health system’s financial and clinical leaders?
At Becker's 4th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable, taking place November 2–5 in Chicago, more than 1,500 hospital and health system executives tackle decisions that determine whether organizations thrive or merely survive: protecting margins under cost pressure, choosing where to grow, renegotiating payer relationships, stabilizing the workforce and proving real ROI on technology. This is where leaders work through them together, face-to-face. Apply for complimentary registration now.
