Making Health Care Innovation Easier

In the article entitled: "Why Innovation in Health Care Is So Hard" Dr. Regina Herzlinger (2006) from Harvard Business School identified the six forces complicating innovation in health care, including players, funding, policy, technology, customers, and accountability.Dr. Herzlinger suggested that mitigating issues with the six forces smartly can help break barriers to innovation in health care. Despite the setback posed by the six forces, many health service organizations (HSOs) are thriving, so why is innovation necessary? Without innovating and adapting to the environment, HSOs will lose market share and die. Change is the only thing that is constant in health care.

Ultimately, I aim to demonstrate that innovation in health care is made possible using following seven steps:

1. Balance Problem Solving With Innovation

Take for example a patient who comes into an HSO and is hospitalized. The patient then develops pressure ulcers/bedsores; this becomes a pattern. The hospital staff meets to discuss how to solve the issue. Healthcare organizations spend 90% of their time problem-solving matters just like this instead of pouring their time into creative innovation. The key is to spend more time innovating and less time problem-solving by creating active systems that mitigate issues by focusing on prevention.

2. Education Is The Best Weapon Against Stagnation

Make continuing education and learning a priority in the HSO's. Invest in your employees. Set an expectation for continuous improvement and learning. Acquire excellent talent and work hard to keep them.

3. Cross-Functional Teams

Cross-functional teams, when implemented and used correctly, will help enhance patient treatment. Drs. Michael Porter and Thomas Lee (2013) advocated for creating integrated Practice Unit (IPUs) in their article entitled: "The Strategy That Will Fix Health Care." The idea of IPUs is to have cross-functional teams designed around health conditions. IPUs are useful to take advantage of cross-functional teams to improve patient health. Learning one another's skill set not only expands one's knowledge but allows for more flexibility and teaming; there is no more guessing about what other departments do, now they know.

4. Be A Crazy Scientist: Experiment

Adopt and implement evidence-based practices. Experiment with process innovation. Use plan, do, study, and act(PDSA) to test new ideas pertinent to your HSO. The goal is to experiment without causing harm. All innovation initiatives have to comply with the highest legal, ethical, moral standards to improve the overall situation of patients. All experimentation should be in alignment with the goals of the HSO. Challenge the status quo while aiming to bolster patient experience and loyalty. Implement cost-effective technologies promote operational effectiveness.

5. Agree To Disagree

Build and encourage a safe working environment for collaboration. Create a system that supports diversity and differences of opinions. Encourage a culture that promotes constructive criticism and disagreements. Disagreements are good for the HSO—don't run from them. Promote trust and professionalism. Optimize the culture of the HSO to support teamwork over individual success. Eliminate useless meetings. Ensure that employees are spending an adequate amount of time preparing for meetings. Avoid stifling opposing comments.

6. You Can't Be A Leader If Your Always Following

Leading requires vision and direction. Energize your vision and mission statements by meaningfully drawing employee attention to them regularly. Each employee from the custodian, all the way to c-suit leadership, should know and understand the relevance of the vision, the mission, and the value statements. Leaders must demonstrate and help to instill accountability in the HSO. Work towards becoming the benchmark for the market segment or in your community. Set a precedent for leading and success. Explore innovative ways to improve and maximize the collective intelligence of the organization by encouraging submission of cutting-edge ideas from employees in the organization. Let people in the organization know that ideas presented are valued may be utilized in the HSO. Publicize and recognize people who come up with better ways to improve the HSO without compromising patient's quality of care, safety, and organizational excellence. Lastly, do not become complacent when you become a leader, continue to improve your position by breaking barriers to innovation.

7. Establish Your Tribe

Networking requires effective communication and cooperation. Establish a dynamic network system that is flexible and can adapt to the rapid changes in the health care atmosphere to fortify against future disruption. A fragmented system that is devoid of networking is the enemy of innovation in health care. For example, most electronic health records (EHR) programs are fragmented. Consequently, patients’ health information is not readily available from one HSO to next because of interoperability and incompatibility issues. Standardized EHR systems improve quality of care and patient treatment innovation. An active network is essential for innovation. Historically, great armies have overcome working in a concerted effort to overcome challenges to innovate. Unity is the hallmark of active networking. Each department in the HSO must benchmark and develop strategies that integrated into the overall system to create a synergy in the network.

References

Herzlinger, R. E. (2006). Why Innovation in Health Care Is So Hard. Retrieved May 26, 2018, from https://hbr.org/2006/05/why-innovation-in-health-care-is-so-hard

Porter, M. E., & Lee, T.H. (2013). The Strategy That Will Fix Health Care. Accessed 26 May 2018, from hbr.org/2013/10/the-strategy-that-will-fix-health-care.