I’ve just returned from giving a lecture at a management training session at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida. Jackson is a large, county-owned hospital with an annual budget just under $2 billion. The hospital has been running a leadership conference series for many months, and today’s session was entitled, “Achieving Success & Quality through Transparent Leadership.”
Now, here’s the funny thing. Although the assembled group was new to me, I was not new to them. Apparently they had used the Harvard Business School case about my first six months at BIDMC in earlier sessions. That six-month period, as I have written here before, followed a five-year decline in the BIDMC after the merger of New England Deaconess Hospital and Beth Israel Hospital. My job at the time was to conduct a turn-around of the hospital and get it on a sound financial footing.
Today’s topic, in contrast, was focused on improving hospital processes through engagement of staff at all levels in the institution. People were very interested in our approach to transparency.
They were also intrigued with the blog, and so I took these pictures so they could be participants in this posting!
Paul: Your refreshing approach to transparency has been evident for some time. What are your thoughts on transparency to patients in terms of assessing the value of their healthcare (i.e., transparency of quality and of costs)? Elizabeth Tisberg argues that allowing patients to judge this value and vote with their feet is sorely lacking in healthcare. Shouldn't healthcare organizations take ownership of disseminating this (as opposed to oversight agencies gathering information on at least the former)?
ReplyDeleteThis comment isn't related to your most recent blog post but I didn't see another way to contact you. I just read on boston.com about your idea for helping hospital employees avoid layoffs and the response to it and I just had to write to you and say that I think you're amazing. Honestly, truly, amazing. This country needs more out of the box thinkers like yourself. I'm not an employee at BI, nor do I even live in Massachusetts. But like so many other people, I was laid off from my job two weeks ago and my husband and I are struggling to figure things out. The story about you and about BI warmed my heart and made me feel that there's still good in the world and hope to be had. Thank you, thank you, for being such an inspiring person.
ReplyDeleteLike one of the other recent commentators I do not live in Mass.. I am a volunteer at a hospital in Michigan. I also see that interface between patients and those pushing patients' wheelchairs or delivering meals etc. As a volunteer it is compensation for us to see patients' spirits raised by a kind word or a joke. I hope that your methods of acknowledging the need to keep as many of those kind "caregivers" employed are also used by other Med. Ctr. CEO's. Thank you for caring....RB e-mail rbmagic09@yahoo.com
ReplyDeleteAfter you fix the mess at BIDMC, please run for governor, and then president. You might never get elected though, you're too honest. Out of curiosity, and if appropriate, I was wondering if you might write a blog post about how and if the Madoff scandal has effected BIDMC & the Boston hospitals - I hear Carl Shapiro took quite a hit from it, and that in turn has taken a direct hit on the hospital. In that the hospital is 50% decendent from the Jewish community, which was targeted by Madoff, I would imagine a lot of philanthropists who donate to BIDMC were involved in this, and I wonder if it's related to the state of the budget at BIDMC? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks, but I think elective office is for others more attuned to that way of life!
ReplyDeleteI don't really want to spend time on Madoff, but, no, that has nothing to do with the budget issues at our place.