Sandra J. Wolfskill, FHFMAPresident and Founder, Wolfskill & Associates, Inc. Consumer-directed health care will change relationships and operations throughout the hospital. Collecting from patients will require process changes, staff training, and possibly personnel changes in finance, patient access, medical records, and other administrative areas. New demands for quality data will require changes in nursing, quality assurance, and other clinical processes to bolster quality improvement and outcomes reporting. New competitors and financial incentives will affect historical referral patterns and physician loyalties.
Effectively responding to these challenges will be a real test of leadership. It will require building consensus and coordinating efforts across the entire range of organizational stakeholders.
Creating a CDHC steering committee or leadership team is a good place to start. Consider including the following on the committee:
The CEO. As the one manager with authority across the entire organization, the CEO must be involved in such an important change initiative. In most organizations, only the CEO can unquestionably command the range of resources required. The CEO’s involvement also underlines the importance of the project to the organization.
The CFO. Because consumer-directed care has such a profound and direct impact on the organization’s finances, the CFO is often the natural choice to lead the initiative. At the very least, the CFO must be intimately involved in orchestrating financial market analyses, strategic pricing initiatives, and revenue cycle operational changes.
The COO or another operations representative. Operating functions, such as medical records, quality improvement, and service line management, must be integrated with financial operations, contracting strategy, and marketing to meet market service and data demands.
Marketing. Market planning and analysis will take on new importance as new competitors enter the marketplace.
Nursing and clinical staff. Nurses are the backbone of hospital services, and their active support will be needed to develop new service lines and improve quality.
Medical staff. Physicians will face even more pocketbook pressure to go into competition or join you in ventures ranging from high-end surgery and diagnostics to urgent care.
Board members. Board finance committee members often are the first involved in setting new billing and collection policies, but other board members may also be needed to build community support for restructuring services. Board members are also handy to have on your side for raising capital for new data systems, joint ventures, and other investments.
Involving all these constituencies from the start of your planning for consumer-directed care gives you an opportunity to educate--and to listen. Often, the best ideas come from those closest to the patient.
This piece is from the "Something to Consider" section of HFMA's new publication Consumer-Directed Health Care, which contains tips, strategies, and news about this new model of health care.
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