Webinar shares innovation strategies plus approaches to reinvent access and enhance the patient experience.
With annual hospital revenue growth limited to 1% as part of a mandate by Maryland's rate setting commission and a grant funding agreement from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, Baltimore-based LifeBridge Health has significant reasons to fast-track innovation efforts.
The $2 billion integrated healthcare delivery system has embraced the concept of innovation and is bringing ideas to market to lower costs, improve productivity, and promote operational excellence.
- Innovators at LifeBridge Health will share details behind their approach during a webinar at 1:00 p.m. (EDT) on Wednesday, August 15.
- LifeBridge also is one of 10 leading health systems presenting the insights behind their innovation practices at NEXT Hospital Innovation in Dallas, October 7‒9.
During the webinar, Neil Carpenter, chief strategy officer, and Caroline Robinson, senior operations manager, will share insights into how their organization—which includes Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, Northwest Hospital, Carroll Hospital, and Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital—approaches innovation and will explore their initial transformation strategies and projects.
Before venturing into this territory, Carpenter says, health systems should determine why they should invest in innovation. LifeBridge has four overarching objectives.
It's a ridiculously big list," says Carpenter, "but it's what our strategy requires."
1. Use Digital to Promote Operational Excellence
"Healthcare is one of the only industries that uses technology to increase costs," says Carpenter. "One of things we're really going to have to think through as an industry, in some cases, is how we replace manpower or womanpower, with technology. That's how you're going to increase productivity; that's how agriculture and manufacturing got productivity."
2. Increase Reach Through Virtual Care
"Given the demographic challenges and the nature of the Baltimore market," he says, "we have to think beyond Baltimore. Virtual care is one of the ways we are going to do that. It allows us to think about geography differently."
3. Reduce Total Cost of Care
"Part of deal with the state means we really keep the total cost of care down," explains Carpenter. "We have to be creative about how we do that. I would argue that the theory that we are going to be able to use community engagement as a vehicle to change behaviors to reduce total cost of care is not fully backed up by the literature. We still need to think through the ways we use or deploy technologies to change patient or provider behaviors and get better outcomes for lower cost."
4. Find the Right Digital Partners
"Finally," Carpenter says, "we want to proactively go out and find technologies to [provide solutions] for the delivery of healthcare in our system." LifeBridge is actively exploring digital acquisitions to support its strategies.
More details are available by signing up for "LifeBridge Health and Innovation: Beyond “Feel Good Innovation.” You also can explore how other healthcare systems approach this topic:
- 4 Innovation Insights from MemorialCare's CEO
- How UPMC Turned Innovation Into an Enterprise
- How Baylor Scott & White Innovators Built a Better App
This fall, these leaders and others will gather at HealthLeaders NEXT Hospital Innovation, co-hosted by Baylor Scott & White Health October 7-9, 2018, in Dallas. The conference features innovators from 10 of the nation's top health systems, showcasing how they brought applications and tools to market. You'll gain insights into how to transform ideas into reality from health systems that have incubated, funded, and built their own innovation solutions.
To sign up, visit the registration page.
Mandy Roth is the innovations editor at HealthLeaders.