July 05, 2018
Hi Team!
The end of June marks the close of our 2018 fiscal year, as well as the completion of the second full year of our strategic plan aimed at getting health care right and moving TriHealth from good to great. In two short years, we’ve made encouraging progress during a time of unprecedented and unrelenting industry change and challenges. Following is a recap of what we’ve accomplished together, what our industry is facing, and what’s ahead in Fiscal Year 2019 (FY19) as we update and refine our strategic priorities to ensure we deliver on the Triple Aim of better care, better health, and better value.
Wins
- Anthem Blue Cross recognized TriHealth as the Top Performing Accountable Care Organization in Ohio.
- TriHealth team members submitted more than 12,000 Bright Ideas in FY18 – surpassing the year-one goal! The Bright Ideas implemented have improved patient experiences, enhanced the workplace and improved process efficiencies, resulting in a return on investment of more than $5M to- date!
- Bethesda Butler Emergency Department received the 2018 Lantern Award from the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA)! The award recognizes emergency departments that demonstrate exceptional and innovative performance in leadership, practice, education, advocacy and research.
- Good Samaritan and Evendale hospitals were both named 2018 Excellence in Patient Care award winners by Studer Group, and will be recognized at its “What’s Right in Health Care ” annual conference in August.
- McCullough-Hyde Hospital was selected by PREMIER as 1 of only 27 hospitals nationally to receive the “HIIN Award for Excellence in Patient Safety Across the Board” as part of the CMS Partnership For Patients initiative. HIIN stands for Hospital Improvement Innovation Network.
What We’ve Accomplished
Since our transformative journey began in March 2016, when our strategic plan was adopted, we’ve proactively anticipated and adapted to major, new realities that are rapidly changing the face of U.S. health care. As a result, we are emerging as a stronger, more integrated system and an industry leader that’s shaping a new model health care system that is focused sharply on improving the health of our community. Today, there is growing and meaningful evidence across all five Pillars (Culture/People, Service, Quality/Safety, Finance, Growth) that validates we are on the right track. In fact, just two weeks ago, we accepted multiple awards from IBM Watson Health – Top 15 Health U.S. System and two Top 100 U.S. Hospitals! And last week, Anthem Blue Cross – the largest health insurance company in the Greater Cincinnati area – recognized TriHealth as the Top Performing Accountable Care Organization (ACO) in Ohio, and one of the best performing ACOs in the country! These achievements and milestones on our journey to get health care right are significant; so too are the changes occurring in health care and the challenges facing every health system today …
What Our Industry is Facing
Following are just a few of the major market forces that are reshaping, and even disrupting, traditional health care financing and care delivery models:
• Consumerism: Busy consumers are increasingly seeking new and better ways to access, manage, and finance their health care – anytime, anywhere, 24/7. They actively shop health care services and expect both cost and quality data transparency from providers, as well as convenient online tools to quickly and easily compare their options, schedule visits, and receive care.
• Disruptive Health Care Delivery Models: Giants in technology, finance, insurance, and retail industries – like Amazon, Chase,
Berkshire Hathaway, CVS, and Walgreens – are moving fast to innovate and enter the traditional care provider space through disruptive new partnerships, technology and care models that are changing the game! Similar to how Uber/Lyft shook the taxi industry, digital phones/cameras ended the demand for Kodak’s traditional photographic film, and Amazon made in-store shopping seem unnecessary for many, these non-traditional providers are quickly – and literally – putting health care in consumers’ hands! In some U.S. communities, more than 50% of doctor visits are now virtual – e-visits, telehealth, smart phone apps – with patients being diagnosed and treated without ever stepping into a physician office or health care facility. And today, United Healthcare – one of the nation’s largest health care insurance companies – employs more physicians than any other health system or organization in the country, and yet owns ZERO hospitals! Traditional health systems that do not adapt and innovate will be left behind, as we’ve seen with other industries.
• The Move to Value-Based Care & Associated Financial Pressures: In simpler times, a health system’s success was based primarily on building demand and negotiating big year-over-year rate or price increases. Volume and higher rates drove revenue, so the more patients you took care of and the more services you provided, the more money you made. Today, those paying the bill for health care – employers, consumers and government – demand much more, and are holding health care providers, like TriHealth, accountable for delivering better value, better health, and better care. Additionally, any rate hikes are increasingly being tied directly to improvement in these outcomes. Today, TriHealth is caring for more patients than ever before, but we’re doing it in more cost-effective places – like outpatient facilities, physician offices, and in-home settings – that ultimately generate less revenue. And the amount we get paid now depends on the quality of care we provide and the overall health of the patients we serve. As a result, U.S. hospital systems are experiencing negative trends in inpatient volumes and revenue, as well as escalating operating costs that are creating a renewed demand for efficiency, clinical quality, and financial discipline. And, not surprisingly, these financial pressures are taking a toll on the financial health of the industry! Rating agencies – like Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, and Fitch – are downgrading credit ratings and revising the future outlook for U.S. health care companies from neutral to negative. And U.S. hospital bankruptcies are at an all-time high, as recently witnessed locally with Premier Health’s announced closure of Good Sam Hospital in Dayton.
What’s Ahead in Fiscal Year 2019
TriHealth anticipated these “new realities” and has been working to address them proactively, since adoption of our current strategic plan two years ago. We’ve also updated our strategic priorities and system goals for the coming year to ensure strong alignment with these evolving market realities. Following are a few highlights:
• Patient Safety & Clinical Quality: This initiative was launched in May at our first Annual Safety Summit, and will continue throughout FY 2019 and beyond. Our work to become a high reliability organization is central to our promise to deliver on the Triple Aim – better care, better health, and better value. We’ll be drawing from global best practices in industries like aviation and nuclear power to position TriHealth as the safest, highest quality, most reliable health system anywhere!
• Consumerism & Convenience: In the coming year, we’ll be thinking out of the box to develop new and better ways to give patients and consumers the care they want – when and how they want it! We will invest in innovative, new digital tools and re-imagine our care delivery pathways to make it fast and easy for patients to access great care at TriHealth. Examples include new telemedicine tools, enhanced price transparency, and improved scheduling processes to get new patients seen when they want to be seen!
• Population Health Management: We’re stepping up our game in FY19 to not only help our patients get healthy, but also make sure they stay that way! Our care teams will be taking on greater responsibility for proactively managing the health of our patient population, with new goals to ensure patients are getting the preventive and chronic care management they need to prevent illness and restore health.
• Team Diversity & Inclusion: To be the best health system in the region requires us to build a team at TriHealth that reflects, understands, and can respond to the evolving needs of the diverse community we serve. In FY19, we’ve put goals in place to make every level of our organization rich in diversity and inclusion – including and especially our system leadership! And we are setting goals to continue our efforts to make TriHealth a great place to work—an environment where team members feel valued, where the work is rewarding, and where all of us are proud to say, “I am a TriHealth team member”!
• Efficiency: In FY19, we will build upon our recent success by bringing rigorous financial discipline to all aspects of our operations. We will do so by working to achieve greater efficiencies in overhead and support areas, adopting new models of care, and reducing unwarranted clinical variation. Our work in this area to-date has enabled TriHealth to remain a financially healthy organization in the face of serious industry challenges. And this has allowed us to continue to make necessary investments in our people, new programs, technology, and facilities. However, the unrelenting environmental and industry challenges remain, and are likely here to stay, so this work must continue and become our new norm.
These key focus areas and our associated FY19 Pillars Goals (click here to review) will ensure we remain well- positioned to lead the transition to a value-based U.S. health care delivery model, while fulfilling our promise to get health care right for all those we serve.
I want to thank you for your hard work and dedication in support of our journey from good to great. While our challenges remain great – our opportunities are even greater, and I am confident that with your continued support, we will make FY19 our best year yet!
Happy New Year and keep up the great work!