“…Hospitals are teetering on the edge” of financial viability
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Dear Colleagues:
Enclosed is an article relevant to where I work in Massachusetts. No matter where you work, I imagine your state is not exempt from the concerns mentioned in this article.
Recently we published an article entitled “Innovation in Orthopedics/Shoulder Care: Context, Culture and Creativity”. This message and enclosed article is intended to lend some context to my presentation.
It is hard to imagine how one can “innovate” when financial stress affects all of us in the healthcare delivery ecosystem. This is especially the case for institutions like Mass General Brigham (MGB) where our complex mission includes management of the most complex cases, which are high costs for an underinsured population. Orthopedics remains an economic engine for our hospital system so we can “innovate” in the way we deliver care. So, we need to rethink the concept of “innovation.” For example, reducing complications and length of stay is a major innovation we can control; however, we generally don’t systematically analyze our approach to care to standardize “best practices.” Part of this is cultural, as it has been said “surgeons are like fighter pilots as they don’t like to fly in formation.” It is time to “fly in formation” to reduce cost of care! Moreover, systematic attempts to measure quality of care and cost of care will improve operating margins and this is quite evident in the literature and in social media. Large medical centers are, however, very slow to adopt such initiatives and struggle with changing care delivery models.
One additional area where we as orthopedic surgeons can help with improving the bottom line of our organization is in a collaborative approach to cost of care in partnership with our institutions. Recently we presented an entire webinar on this concept: “Value in Orthopedic Surgery: Let’s take a closer look.”
In conclusion, we need to adopt a lifeboat strategy to financial survival in these times. We should hold one another accountable for costs and quality of care and we should find ways to incentivize both initiatives as a “carrot” is always better than “a stick” when it comes to motivation and partnership.
I hope you find this information useful for your own practice.
Kind Regards,
Jon “JP” Warner MD
Founder, CSS
