By Barbara Carey, President, TCI

Mike McCall, Vice President of TCI and I attended the Beckers’ Annual Review Conference on April 3 - April 6 at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago. It was extremely informative and we encourage you to consider attending in 2024. TCI also had an exhibit and we talked to some amazing healthcare leaders. About 3400 people participated and besides the very informative panel discussions, we heard celebrity speakers:

Larry Bird, Olympian and NBA Hall of Famer, Sports Superstar

Earvin “Magic” Johnson, Sports Legend and Entrepreneur
Mark Cuban, Entrepreneur and Shark Tank Owner

Here are two major themes that were discussed at the conference.

Emphasis on Culture and an Intentional Belief System (core values) as a strategy to drive performance and retain staff.

The CEO’s of large hospital systems emphasized belief systems which seems to be the glue that keeps multisite organizations together and provides staff and patients with similar experiences. However, they all expressed the work that it takes to achieve buy-in at all levels. John Couris, CEO of Tampa General Hospital, emphasized that the culture has to embrace change and disruption because the healthcare industry is rapidly changing from external and internal pressures. New retail entrants and technology comprise external forces and provider and talent retention are internal challenges.

John Couris also said that they emphasize providers over patients because without excellent providers, a hospital cannot have excellent healthcare. The culture has to be one that attracts and keeps talent.

Greg Till, Executive VP of Providence said that “living the mission, vision and values” was important. They purposely attend to the culture. They measure this in an annual survey and leaders ask questions about it while “rounding” front line units. Rounding is considered at one hospital in executives' annual evaluation.

Aaron Gillingham, Senior VP of Unity Health said that they use as their brand promise, “Know how much you matter to the world.” He said they use daily “huddles” to track issues and that he knows Tier I and Tier II issues each day by noon due to reports from these 15 minute huddles at the beginning of the day. Shared decision making Is part of the belief system at Unity as well. Mr. Gillingham said that staff input is considered when the leaders make decisions.

Several speakers said that they see that people want to connect to the mission of the hospital and leaders see their success at doing this well as a competitive advantage. It seems to be even more important in light of automation trends.

Disruption of the Industry was widely discussed. Who are the disruptors?

Ai’s future role is not clearly understood but it will be a disruptor.
Robotic surgery is making inroads in large and small hospitals, A speaker from Northwell Health said that they had 12 robotic Da Vinci Units in 2017 and now have 83 units. They have gone from 700 robotic procedures to 15,000 annually. Robotic surgery now accounts for 24% of their non-emergency surgeries.

Note: A physician in this session said to me that robotics is good for soft tissue surgery but would not be the game changer that laparoscopic surgery was decades ago.

Consumerism is growing because of the giant corporations invading the provider healthcare space. Walmart, CVS, United Healthcare and Amazon see patients as consumers and approach healthcare in that manner. They are purchasing primary care clinics, building clinics, acquiring home health companies and pharmacies. Hospitals will compete with them in the future for patients. They provide accessibility and excellent on-line patient experiences. These companies are also masters at scaling businesses. Leaders were encouraged to collaborate and partner with these companies but as one leader said, “We don’t share the same values so our discussions do not progress.”

Technology and Big Data is and will be a huge influence. One leader said, “Tech is not at the table, they are the table.” The audience was encouraged to embrace tech but to put up guardrails in the form of sophisticated cybersecurity measures. EPIC seems to be a dominant player in healthcare technology. One speaker asks that the audience raise their hands if they used EPIC and 50% of them did.
Staffing Salaries and Retention Leaders is an issue trying to fill technology and software positions are having trouble competing with the salaries of “big tech.” Travel nursing is still drawing professionals with pay higher than hospitals can offer. One panel suggested that retention would be increased if the system made “care easier for the caregivers.” There was much discussion about people working at the top of their license and finding ways that technology and/or other staff could take some of the onerous tasks from the caregivers. Leaders are discussing with doctors of retirement age other options rather than working full time. They are presenting part-time options, mentoring and teaching options to keep the physicians in the organization. One panelist expressed concern about “Primary Care Aggregators” as a threat to attracting primary care physicians to his hospital.

One panelist said that their winning combination for attracting physicians and clinicians was: workforce “energy,” compensation, providing support and structure and lifestyle.

There is more to come about the conference. Stay tuned!

TCI offers marketing consulting and marketing, public relations and community engagement programs. We have over 20 years of experience helping hospitals to increase their revenue.

We Help Our Clients Understand Their Environment and to Find Solutions.

Call Us 1-888-922-2824 or Email barbara@tciconsults.com

Trends in Healthcare from the Becker's Annual Review Conference