What is “system-ness”? “Systemness” is the ability to provide a consistent experience for patients, providers, and hospital staff regardless of the care setting across the continuum. It can improve patient and provider experience, lower costs, improve quality patient care, reduce risk, and increase growth. However, achieving systemness can be quite challenging. Some believe that simply having an established common…
Having over 40 years working in healthcare with 25 of those as a healthcare executive, I learned many lessons, most of which I wish I knew when I was a young man and an inexperienced executive. Over time, I came to learn that not all lessons are learned in the classroom. Here are three that I…
‘Ghosting’ – “The practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly and without explanation withdrawing from all communication.” The other day I was having a wonderful conversation with a Cardiothoracic Surgeon when he suddenly asked me if I had ever heard of the term “Ghosting.” When I asked why, he told me that…
“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” – Henry Ford “Because this is the way we’ve always done it”. Most of us have heard this phrase or a form of it at some point in our lives or careers. It’s like the work version of your parents saying, “because…
A CNS Educator Has Never Been More Important Given the current challenges faced around the proper acquisition and utilization of nursing resources, my work as a Corazon Interim Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) Educator for hospitals across the country has never been more important, or more pressing, on so many levels. Whether it be implementing a…
With advances in Cardiology procedure technology and the goal of achieving a lower cost of care, there has been a visible shift in procedures from the inpatient to the outpatient settings. Several changes in CMS rulings in the last fifteen years have spurred an increase in office-based laboratories (“OBLs”), including catheterization laboratories and vascular access…
Selling Rural As a child growing up on a farm in rural Western Pennsylvania, no one could have convinced me that there was a better place to be. I was privileged to experience the benefits and beauty of growing up in a nature-surrounded, small-town community that supported one another. A community that is home to…
The Post-Pandemic Resignation Boom COVID-19 has challenged and changed the workplace in so many ways and we may never go back to operating how we did before the pandemic uprooted everyone’s lives. Namely, the post-pandemic resignation boom has brought employee retention issues under the spotlight. As turnover rates increase, organizations continue to face high recruiting…
The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) recognizes certain programs that provide the full range of inpatient cardiac care services as Blue Distinction Centers for Cardiac Care. These programs have demonstrated quality outcomes and offer coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG), heart valve surgery, and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). At the beginning of each evaluation…
Visual management is a form of communication used in management which has roots in manufacturing operations, like Lean and Six Sigma, but with opportunities to apply to many other industries, including healthcare. The goal of any visual management is to translate information into a format that is quickly and easily understood at a high…
