HFMA VIEWS

Stuart Itkin
CMO, Kronos

On Monday, a room full of executives from a variety of industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, and retail, heard from a panel of authorities on how to develop and implement business continuity plans. The session was part of the Kronos annual user conference--KronosWorks--held this week in Orlando. 
 
During the interactive panel discussion, which I moderated, some surprising points came up. The audience responded to a series of polling questions. Attendees agreed that developing and implementing a crisis management plan is top of mind at their organizations, and 57 percent have a plan in place. But only 21 percent of attendees were very confident in their organization’s ability to recover after a crisis situation. A more startling finding was that 44 percent of the attendees at the session stated that their organization has not proactively communicated to employees what to do if a crisis situation occurred. On a more promising note, as a result of what attendees learned from the panelists, 88 percent agreed they are likely to propose action within their organization.
 
All of which emphasizes the point made by Randy Langford, director of physician compensation and payroll at Ochsner Health System in New Orleans, which stayed open throughout Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath: managing the workforce is the single most important element of a crisis situation.