Where hospital CEOs' concerns lie
What are the top three concerns among hospital CEOs? Most people would feel confident saying patient safety and quality was a top concern; however it wasn't selected from among the list of categories. According to an American College of Healthcare Executives study, the three topics that hospital CEOs said were more important were:
- Financial Challenges
- Healthcare Reform Implementation and
- Government Mandates
Patient safety came in fourth, just one percentage point off from the number three spot. Though hospital CEOs cared almost nearly as much for patient safety as government mandates, the top three concerns all coincide with the idea of promoting quality improvements.
Healthcare reform implementation involves facets promoting patient safety and quality through such tools as electronic health records and new forms of health delivery like the Accountable Care Organization model. These tools are invaluable because they put more of an emphasis on quality and efficiency. If a hospital can streamline their health delivery, more patients can be treated, costs can be reduced, and patients’ experiences can be improved. Through new health models, health systems are rewarded for lowering costs and increasing patient satisfaction.
Likewise, there has been news about possibly repealing healthcare reform. However, this is of little concern for hospital CEOs since they all agree a new form of healthcare delivery is needed. Healthcare reform provided the spur for increased coordinated care and more efficient healthcare methods.
With government mandates, hospitals need to be aware of them in order to effectively implement coordinated care and quality initiatives. To help avoid penalties and be awarded incentives, hospitals need to take advantage of government mandates. By being proactive in their approach to these directives, coordinated care and more efficient methods may result enabling better patient quality and safety.
Dealing with financial challenges has been the perennial chief concern for hospital CEOs, with 77% of survey participants grading it as one of their top three worries on the job every day. The ability to be financially stable enables hospitals to provide care to patients in the first place. Within the subgroup of financial challenges, Medicaid reimbursements were of great concern as 88% of survey participants ranked them among their top three issues. These three concerns all deeply influence hospital CEOs core mission – patient care.
James Ellis, CEO, Health Care Realty Development Company, is a nationally recognized successful real estate investor and developer of medical office properties with a comprehensive knowledge of sophisticated real estate transactions, cost effective designs, and efficient property management.
Aaron Razavi is Associate Marketing Director at Health Care Realty Development.
Visit their blog at http://www.hcrealty.com/medicalrealestatedevelopment/
