The Future of Leadership in Healthcare: 5 Ways Leaders Can Survive (and Thrive)
In as little as two years everything will change—and healthcare as we know it will be a thing of the past.
Think that’s an exaggeration? That change couldn’t possibly happen that fast? Take a look at what Amazon did to retail and then get back to me.
The rise in new healthcare tech companies and the rapid advancement of A.I. is giving patients more power, options, and accessibility than ever before. The healthcare marketplace is in the “infant stages” of becoming Amazon-like.
And that’s a good thing for healthcare as a whole.
But it’s terrifying for us as healthcare leaders.
Because it means your job will drastically change (in ways that neither of us can predict).
Are you ready for that?
This digital transformation in healthcare threatens the entire system we’ve operated within for the last few decades.
And as leaders, we have no choice but to adapt.
But what if this actually presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us? The truth is, forward-thinking leaders (of any industry) normally make a fortune during times of change like these.
And if you can equip yourself to lead through those massive changes, your organization can take advantage of this incredible opportunity.
I’ve been coaching hospitals and hospital leaders for decades. And in this article, I’ll reveal the 5 ways you can prepare to thrive during these unprecedented times.
5 Ways Health Leaders Can Prepare to Thrive Throughout the Digital Transformation
1. Adopt a Patient-First Mindset
Based on Crowe’s proprietary data of over 1600 hospitals, I’ve noticed a pattern in the nation’s most successful organizations:
They’re prioritizing patient lifetime value instead of simply trying to maximize as much revenue as possible out of a single episode of care.
Your future success is directly tied to your patients’ level of trust that you’re taking good care of them.
And that truth has only been amplified during the digital transformation.
We know that patients come back time and time again because they feel taken care of. They now have so many choices at their fingertips, that they demand better care – and a better experience – from providers.
If you focus on becoming a Patient Management Organization (like I describe in my book, The Patient-First Revolution), you will be able to thrive regardless of how the healthcare industry evolves.
So, as a healthcare leader, you must lead the charge for putting patients first in your organization.
Every member of your staff and every technological tool you have at your disposal should be focused on giving your patients the best, and most empathetic care possible.
You can take care of business by taking care of your patients.
2. Focus on Innovation Over Improvement
Great healthcare leaders have a different mindset than their peers.
They aren’t merely looking for 1% improvements within their systems—they’re searching for drastic changes that can revolutionize the way they do business.
That means they:
Embrace automation and the digital transformation in healthcare
Rethink the way they do business (operations)
Look for the most efficient and scalable solutions
Build support and structure around innovation within the organization
And more
But most leaders in healthcare don’t have this mindset.
Why?
It requires you to have immense courage.
I’m not implying that most healthcare leaders don’t have courage. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
But an innovation mindset requires you to have an extraordinary amount of courage.
You’ll constantly push boundaries and challenge assumptions, which can lead to massive success.
…and it can also lead to failure.
Not every decision you make will be the right one.
And sometimes people simply won’t buy into your vision.
But great healthcare leaders know deep down that an innovation mindset is worth the potential risks and they’re able to stay calm when facing pressure.
3. Unify Your Providers
Working together is a tenet of successful healthcare—different specialties of physicians working together to address a patient’s health, many hospitals in a health system working together toward a common mission, and finance department resources working together to produce monthly financials.
But what most healthcare leaders don’t know is there are actually 3 types of collaboration, and the industry is largely stuck on the least effective one:
Inform - Gathering to share perspectives and experience (this is where most organizations land)
Build & Design - Collectively developing solutions to common challenges (highly effective and stimulating)
Shared Operations - Health systems operating together through a central entity (the future)
To thrive during the digital transformation, you must move to deeper levels of collaboration.
You not only need to collaborate with your staff and other professionals—but you also need to create collaborative systems and operations.
This is the “Shared Operations” level of collaboration.
Each department, person, and tech tool should talk (directly, virtually, digitally) to each other to give the patient the best possible experience.
This is what the Patient Management Organization is all about.
When every provider in a network has access to the same database infrastructure, they can collaborate to deliver faster, better, more empathetic care – communicated in a manner that is most effective and personal.
4. Sound Decision Making
Being a leader in healthcare is like being in the middle of a whirlwind.
Problems, opportunities, and distractions fly at you from every direction all day long.
And it’s far too easy to make fear-based decisions.
But great healthcare leaders use structured, data-driven models for making critical decisions.
When they’re faced with decisions on things like finding the best way to engage with their patients or reducing employee turnover, they turn to proven models like:
Epsilon First (explore and exploit) - test several actions and measure results against a pre-determined goal.
Epsilon Greedy - a shortened version of Epsilon First (often by 90%) where you select and execute only one option (the winner).
Gibbins Index - establish milestones with specific goals and eliminate any option that doesn’t hit each milestone.
These models give them a structure they can use to explain and support their decisions.
Because let’s face it, these decisions carry a lot of personal risks.
Better to have a proven process and time set aside to make the most critical decisions on your plate.
5. Prioritize Systems Over Goals
Most health system CFOs I’ve worked with have very similar goals.
They want to:
Grow revenue
Expand their market
Strengthen their margin
And more
But despite these common goals, these CFOs don’t have similarly successful results.
And, in my experience, there’s one big reason why…
They set big goals for themselves and their team, but they don’t address the underlying systems that dictate their results.
For example, if a healthcare leader sets a goal of 38 days in accounts receivable, but doesn’t address their systems (bill hold, the billing process, denials resolution), they don’t stand a chance.
Great leaders focus on managing and reporting on their key systems rather than tracking against the goals.
James Clear said it best in his book, Atomic Habits.
“You don’t rise to the level of your goals – you fall to the level of your systems.”
Center your action plan on improving your systems first, and the goals (the results you’re looking for) will follow.
You Have What It Takes
No one knows exactly what’s going to happen in the healthcare industry over the next few years.
But here’s what we do know…
It will look wildly different.
Technology and A.I. will continue transforming every aspect of healthcare.
And you can prepare for everything this unprecedented time throws at you by using these 5 qualities as your north star.
Stay agile, think big, focus on your processes, and put your patients first.
Do these things and you will thrive.
Want to take the next step and unleash your leadership potential?
Click here for a free sample of my new book The Patient First Revolution that goes into far more detail on how you can take your hospital from slowly dying from loss of market share to thriving and providing incredible care that dramatically increased patient loyalty.
