Photo: Getty/Tom Merton
Two executives at the four-hospital Memorial Health System in Springfield, Illinois, have some advice for their peers facing what the current climate of upheaval in the healthcare industry.
“While change is a management constant, the accelerating pace of transitions along multiple simultaneous fronts (pay-for-performance penalties, talent wars, unprofitable growth, facility and technology obsolescence, the moral imperative of improving health and lives) indicates ours is an industry looking for solutions,” write Charles D. Callahan, Ph.D., executive vice president and chief operating officer and Todd S. Roberts, vice president of quality and safety, in a post published by Hospitals & Health Networks.
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They outline the “8 Ps” of the “dynamic, reform-driven” health delivery system and share plenty of details about their efforts to manage change at their organization, including:
- Reengineering structures and processes to improve outcomes
- Exploring new ways to engage with the medical staff
- Transforming the training of next-generation physicians and other healthcare professionals
- Adopting Lean Six Sigma to produce quality, safety, service and cost benefits that matter to stakeholders
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“Six years later, over 300 Lean Six Sigma improvement projects yielding nearly $30 million in positive financial impact have transformed the Memorial culture,” they write. “Projects have spread to all areas of the organization: clinical, financial, service, production, facilities, inventory and workforce management.”