The ability to make and implement sound decisions quickly in a rapidly changing environment is critical to financial survival and mission success. The problem is that the traditional hospital organization and the culture it has fostered are utterly inadequate to deal with these emerging challenges and opportunities.
Clearly, health care providers must adapt by developing new structures and operating methods if they are to survive and prosper. What will tomorrow’s leading health care organizations look like?
- Governance – Boards will possess unprecedented sophistication on issues affecting reimbursement, ethics, technology, law, regulation and management. Board orientation and continuing education will assume increasing importance.
- Organizational Culture – The classic concentration on uncoordinated department agendas will be supplanted by a dynamic, synergistic hospital focus.
- Management – Department managers will function less like chief technicians and more like entrepreneurs. They will possess the mindset and training to perform in a new era of high expectations.
- Decision Support – Technology-savvy managers will routinely consume and act upon incredible quantities of financial and management information, including market intelligence and benchmarking data.
- Planning – Hospitals will operate from and manage against integrated results-focused business plans with a one-year time horizon.
Making this organizational transition has become “job one” for progressive governance and executive management teams and many hospitals have made significant progress. However, ultimate success requires a significant continuing organizational development effort. Successful change will occur only when a positive vision for the future and dissatisfaction with the status quo combine to overcome the natural human resistance to change.
How ready for the future is your hospital?
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