A year after announcing a preliminary merger deal, merging two of the largest hospitals in Northern Kentucky is proving more difficult than expected. St. Elizabeth Medical Center and St. Luke Hospitals are still trying to satisfy federal regulators that the combination wouldn't give them monopoly powers. Representatives from both hospitals are confident the merger will be approved, and say that although the combination would dominate Northern Kentucky it would hold only about 15 percent market share in the entire region.
During his 28 years at Harvard Medical School, Benjamin Sachs, MD, helped launch a network of clinics to deliver a combination of primary and preventive healthcare to poor Boston residents. Sachs, who is now dean of Tulane University's medical school, is preparing for establishing a similar system in New Orleans. In Boston, about 200,000 people are treated each year at 25 community clinics. The neighborhood centers are designed to treat problems before they become major, and more expensive. Participants are referred to doctors if they need specialized care.
This flu season has been creating a tough time for Kansas City-area hospitals and the patients they treat. Emergency rooms have been packed and waiting times have extended into hours due to an influx of both flu patients and those with other respiratory infections. Hospitals have been forced to tell ambulances to pass them by because they're out of room.
About this time of year, as the March 27 deadline looms for the annual Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare program, I start to get questions from prospective entrants on what the secret is to winning a Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare designation.
Here is the secret.
There is no secret.
Our panel of judges is simply looking for the best in senior-level leadership teamwork at a hospital, health plan and medical group practice. Teamwork is too often misinterpreted as a situation in which its members get along well or exist on "team chemistry." Those are qualities that are present on outstanding teams, but truly outstanding leadership teams are more about putting the right talent together and achieving the goals set out by the team.
So our judges look for:
Teamwork exhibited among an organization's senior leaders to achieve stated operational goals/objectives
How a senior leadership team works together to effectively overcome any challenges/barriers encountered along the way to reaching its goals/objectives
The success of senior leadership in meeting the team's goals/objectives
Beyond the official rules, there are some consistent threads that we have seen among the winning Top Leadership Teams, now in its fifth year.
Consistency--Many of the winning Top Leadership Teams have had their core of senior leaders together for a period of several years, as many of the worthwhile goals in healthcare take as long to achieve.
No tolerance for silos--Winning Top Leadership Teams have found ways to break down traditional silos and barriers that can block healthcare organizations from achieving their goals.
Strong at the top, but not dominant--Winning leadership teams have highly-effective CEOs. But we have found that almost every winner over the first four years has had a CEO who delegated key strategic responsibilities to top team members, held them accountable for achieving these goals, but ultimately stayed out of the way.
Transparent--Winning teams in healthcare have to be transparent about what they are doing, who is doing it, and how success or failure is measured. Transparency is a core value that the Top Leadership Teams program is meant to encourage.
Be a quality organization--While the Top Leadership Teams in Healthcare Award is intended to recognize outstanding leadership teamwork, we do recognize that outstanding leadership teams lead outstanding organizations. Healthcare organizations that are embroiled in scandal need not apply.
One of the most rewarding aspects to the program has been the number of entrants over the years who told us how rewarding it was just to go through the exercise of articulating their leadership teamwork. We have also found over the years that teams often win on their second or third try as they are able to demonstrate the leadership teamwork over a longer time frame.
We encourage all hospitals, health plans and medical groups who feel like they have the teamwork to make healthcare better to apply for the program at www.topleadershipteams.net. Deadline for entries is March 27.
More than 4,200 nurses, support staff, maintenance workers and clerical employees at the five Mercy Health Partners hospitals in Greater Cincinnati will vote on whether to unionize. In a deal with the Service Employees International Union, Mercy and its parent company have agreed not to try to influence employee voting. If employees choose a union, they will start negotiating a contract. If they reject a union, the SEIU has agreed not to campaign at Mercy hospitals for three years.
Healthcare networks are trailing residential growth in southern Mecklenburg County, NC, and Carolinas Medical Center-Pineville is the latest example. The 109-bed hospital was given state approval for a $174 million expansion that includes plans to upgrade it to a Level III trauma center. The hospital will be able to treat patients with more severe injuries instead of sending them to Carolinas Medical Center. The project will add a heart surgery program and more than double the size of the 200,000-square-foot campus.