Some factors affect health care organizations, including technological advancements, aging populations, changes in disease patterns, medical discoveries, and public policies. People need a stable environment to function well so that changes can be challenging.
This study sets the question: how do successfully transform organizations in health care? Ventra Health care professionals were asked to evaluate changes of relevance to their work that they deemed successful.
- Well-informed, insightful, and constantly learning
With a focus on the future change trajectory, these organizations understand the current environment. A high-performing organization, therefore, can begin to take into account trends and organizational changes as a function of continuously monitoring the numerous environmental factors that influence them, including those in the political (government), economic (market segment), and social (population) spheres. They will be able to set their course and pursue imperatives that align with the dynamic environment of healthcare.
- Visionary, Bold Change
They embrace change management as a competitive advantage rather than just being “change ready.” High-performing organizations are not content with incremental change but seek “breakthrough, transformative change.” Much change is occurring in healthcare, but the transition from fee-for-service to value-based care is not clear. Pilot experiments, course corrections, and failed attempts are being used to discover this process.
- Agility and Adaptability
By being agile and adaptable, high-performing organizations pursue the strategy and find value. Due to the speed of change in the world, the best strategy is flexible and “opportunistic,” rarely going further than one to three years and focusing on specific targets for the most immediate year. Managing the diverse portfolio of imperatives requires prioritizing the change underway according to strategic pillars and related value propositions. Having multiple project efforts related to similar pillars (and impact measures) results in more synergistic results.
- Information-based actions
Data can be analyzed into information, transformed into actionable information, and ultimately, into “predictive analytics.” Many organizations face several challenges, including:
-A framework for analytics that fails to outline and prioritize information or reporting needs
-Reports from multiple analytics silos overlap
-It is difficult to understand each silo’s capabilities and queues due to limited transparency and awareness
-Analytics efforts are not aligned to strategic and operational goals.
Disarray and uncertainty often stymie action or cause “analysis paralysis.” High-performing organizations increasingly use analytic strategies to gain a competitive advantage and incorporate that information into their value-based payer strategy.
- Financial discipline
An organization’s financial discipline is crucial to its performance. The goal is to balance the capital requirements and financial capabilities to meet the vision and mission of the organization. This data helps the organization determine how large a strategic investment it can make by assessing its financial and credit rating performance. A well-integrated strategic, financial, and capital planning process is crucial to gain balance. Financial goals forecasted out five years and annually, along with clear objectives to meet the expected well-defined capital needs, are crucial to success.
- Implementation-oriented and accountable
The majority of organizations struggle with implementation and execution. Ineffective prioritization; numerous initiatives dilute effectiveness; “analysis paralysis”; “no one’s accountable”; overburdened employees already engaged in their “day jobs.” The best-performing organizations can seamlessly transition from setting direction and devising a strategic plan at the top to executing the plan at the middle and the front lines.
A nuance found by high-performing organizations to increase accountability is ensuring bi-directional input on an imperative, a project, or a task – at the organizational level and at the local level where each individual participates. When accountability goes beyond the hospital walls, what can be done? It is imperative to develop and implement local plans to deliver services where leadership stretches to new groups and partners who are not necessarily inside the hospital’s walls.
