A new Alexander Group Survey asked healthcare leaders about how they are planning for the long term amid COVID-19.
Recent findings from the Alexander Group, "COVID-19 Hospital Leadership Learnings & Future Planning" survey found that most hospital leaders don't expect elective procedures to reach 100% volume this year and budget constraints will continue into 2021. The survey asked C-suite executives, other hospital leaders, and hospital administrators across 35 states about how their hospitals are planning for opening up elective procedures, updating visitors to new policies, and anticipating their "long-term operational changes" due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hospital sizes ranged from 100 to 4,000 beds across 35 states. The survey was conducted between April 28 to May 15, 2020.
According to Alexander Group Healthcare Principals and co-survey authors Doug Beveridge and Craig Ackerman the biggest survey findings from the healthcare leaders included:
73% of healthcare leaders don't expect elective procedure volume to reach 100% until 2021. "We thought the return to elective procedures was actually going to be faster than it turned out. I think to everyone's surprise, patients weren't as willing to come back as many had hoped. I think those two go hand in hand," Ackerman says.
To increase elective procedures, 63% of healthcare leaders say they plan to extend operating hours; 52% say they plan on staggering timing by procedure type; and 51% say they plan on increasing and/or introducing weekend procedures.
The survey also found that 90% of healthcare leaders say they "likely" or "very likely" expect "budget constraints to continue into 2021."
The utilization of telehealth was found to have the biggest long-term operational impact, with 55% of participants expecting "increased reliance on virtual vendor support" and interactions. "All of a sudden, telehealth [has] gone mainstream, and that's how hospitals and physicians are interacting a lot more with their patients," Ackerman tells HealthLeaders.
The Alexander Group suggests the following "action items and next steps" for hospitals and health systems during the COVID era:
Prepare for the long recovery ahead and "potential rebound" that affect the hospital or health system's revenue and profitability
Build up personal protection equipment reserves, as well as reserves for other essential supplies
Make sure patients are educated on "new hospital policies and safety regulations"
Utilize telehealth and other "digital channels" as a means to not only care for patients, but to also communicate with vendors and third parties for elective procedure support
A second survey is due to go out in August to gain updated perspectives.
"Things … are just constantly shifting," Beveridge says.
"The only thing predictable is the unpredictability of what's going on with COVID and some of the uncertainty in the environment," Ackerman says.
The provider-sponsored health plan's top executive Joan Budden will retire in January 2021.
Priority Health President and CEO Joan Budden has announced she will retire January 1, 2021
Priority Health, a provider-sponsored health plan, part of integrated health system Spectrum Health in Michigan, will work with the Furst Group to conduct a national search for a replacement.
"Joan's focus on affordability and value have been vital in advancing us toward our vision of personalized health made simple, affordable and exceptional," said Tina Freese Decker, Spectrum Health president & CEO, in a press release. "She cares deeply about the company but more importantly she cares about individuals—and is willing to give generously of her time and talent to mentor others."
Budden became president and CEO of Priority Health in 2016. Her accomplishments include implementing "strategies, products and programs with the goal of ensuring everyone has access to affordable care." The health plan serves 1 million members.
At the beginning of 2020, Priority Health merged with Total Health Care. A more formalized relationship with Cigna Health is set to start January 1, 2021.
"Knowing the company is in a strong position has allowed me to plan for the next chapter in my life which includes spending more time with family and continuing my passion for mentoring and community service," said Budden. "I'm incredibly proud and honored to have worked with exceptional people over the last 12 years within the company, along with our partners and community leaders to improve health. Priority Health is in good hands with a strong leadership team.”
Dr. Harold Paz, CEO of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, shares the healthcare organization's strategy that addresses social determinants of health in its communities.
In May 2020, the Franklin County Board of Commissioners declared "racism as a public health crisis" in Ohio. And in June, an Ohio Senate committee introduced a Concurrent Resolution "to declare racism a public health crisis and to ask the Governor to establish a working group to promote racial equity in Ohio."
In line with these declarations, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center created Anti-Racism Initiatives to "elevate, engage, equip, and empower" the community, students, faculty, and staff to focus on improving racial inequalities in healthcare. The medical center also states that "racism is a social determinant of health."
HealthLeaders recently spoke to Dr. Harold Paz, executive vice president and chancellor for health affairs at The Ohio State University and CEO of The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, about the medical center and university's focus on addressing social determinants of health and racial inequities in their surrounding communities through an anti-racism action plan.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
HL: Why is it important for hospitals and health systems to focus on social determinants of health and racial inequities?
Paz: Study after study has shown … that healthcare, the thing that we spend over $3 trillion on in this country, contributes to about 20% of your health status. Genetics attributes, on average, something around 10% or so. And then the [rest] are the environmental, social, and behavioral determinants of health.
I would say that racism is a social determinant of health, because of the challenges that it puts in front of individuals who are affected by it, and how it affects their health overall. And we know there's ample evidence from a number of studies that show, on the basis of race, there are real differences in health status and longevity.
In the COVID-19 pandemic, although black people are a smaller percentage of the overall population, they were a higher percentage nationwide of those who are hospitalized and died from COVID-19. That group has higher rates of diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, which is a risk factor for COVID-19 hospitalization, and we've seen similar issues with the Hispanic population as well compared to non-Hispanic whites.
So, without a doubt, discrimination is a known stressor, and stress leads to physical damage. There's plenty of studies to show that stress leads to things like delayed wound healing, faster aging of the body, and weight gain.
On the basis of all this data and information, we felt that there's a direct line between racial discrimination and health outcomes. And that's why we made a decision to include racism as one of the social determinants of health, in addition to poverty, housing, violence, food insecurity, transportation. We think it's very important.
HL: How has training for medical and health science students changed to address social determinants of health and racial inequities?
Paz: We do lots of different work in this area. We think it's exceptionally important, and we're proud of the track record we have. Ohio State Wexner Medical Center was ranked fourth in the country in Forbes, this year, among the best employers for diversity list. U.S. News and World Report ranked the Ohio State College of Medicine as No. 2 in the U.S. for its number of African-American medical students when you exclude the black colleges and universities. Twenty-four percent of the incoming class is from underrepresented backgrounds in medicine.
This has been a priority area for a long time, but we feel strongly that that's not where we stop. As a matter of fact, we feel we have a huge obligation and sense of urgency to take our accomplishments and move even further and faster. We want to continue to move forward and we want to continue to provide leadership.
We have an array of different programs from cultural competency training for faculty and staff, to implicit bias training across the organization, because we recognize that has an impact on selection committees for the College of Medicine, [and] search committees for faculty and staff.
For example, we were in the midst of a search for the Dean of the College of Medicine. We made sure that committee was exceptionally diverse by gender and also by racial makeup. We included implicit bias training in their thinking so that when the list of candidates came forward, we would have a diverse group of candidates who would be well positioned to take on the role.
HL: Can you talk about the anti-racism action plan and the medical center's approach on improving education, engagement, funding, and policies and practices?
Paz: We have two committees at the [Ohio State Wexner Medical Center]. One is an internal committee that looks at diversity and inclusion led by our chief diversity officer. The other is an external committee to look at diversity and equity in the community.
We wanted to have our existing two committees … come together and develop a road map for us, and we would make it very public, we would hold ourselves accountable to it, we'd make investments in it, to continue to move our organization forward in ways to deal with these issues.
It began by organizing roundtables about action against racism with institutional and community leaders led by our health equity steering community. That was one step along the way to do things like screening consistently for social determinants of health questions in the electronic medical record, to engage in policy work that contributes to anti-racism efforts to make sure that this is included in our hiring promotion and search committees, to create an annual anti-racism report. And then to do the work in our organization; continue to do more work in implicit bias training, the anti-racism listening sessions and safe space discussions, and discussion for students and faculty and staff to continue to advance cultural competency training.
We have all these resources here at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, and work and invest in the Near East Side, which has traditionally been the community that has been underserved and predominantly African American and minority, and expanding access to care. We purchased the community hospital there, we put major facilities into it including service lines, built a large outpatient facility there, to serve the underserved.
We invested millions of dollars in creating something called Partners Achieving Community Transformation (PACT) to address socioeconomic factors that influence health. For example, we launched something in 2010 called our Moms2B program where we went into high-risk neighborhoods in the Near East Side and elsewhere to provide access to safe cribs, healthy meals, education about prenatal care, nutrition, smoking cessation, breastfeeding, because that was our effort to reduce infant mortality. We saw a fivefold reduction in mortality.
We're doing more now. We serve different communities with that program. We launched something called the Mid-Ohio Farmacy, which is a partnership with the Mid-Ohio Foodbank, to make sure that patients are prescribed access to fresh produce. We've launched a community health day, which provides free health screenings. Our College of Dentistry provides free dental care through its service learning programs to underserved populations.
One of the things I'm very proud of is our Community Care Coach that we launched this year, where
[healthcare professionals] go into underserved neighborhoods to deliver primary care and OB/GYN services. And since the pandemic started, we've repurposed that to focus on addressing needs in those communities around the pandemic. We've distributed over 9,000 COVID-19 Community Care kits in those neighborhoods. That includes a mask, soap, hand sanitizer, and educational material targeted to these vulnerable zip codes, because we know that there's a disproportionate number of individuals from those communities who are impacted by the pandemic.
HL: What would you say to other health systems that want to implement changes like this, but don't know where to start?
Paz: I would say that it starts with conversations in the community because all of us serve diverse and broad communities. And to invest in communities that have tremendous need and reflect our underserved and the challenges that we just spoke to. This creates huge opportunities to better engage with the community, to create surface-learning experiences for the students, and volunteer opportunities for the faculty and staff.
[And] to internally look at the data. Look at opportunities for diversity and inclusion; focus on [those] as part of workforce practices and hiring in leadership roles. Make sure that leaders continually speak to this and emphasize it, and that there's good data that is publicly available to track the progress that our organizations are doing to make sure that we achieve our responsibilities.
A survey from Premier found 88% of acute care provider members are stocking 'critical' medications in preparation for the next COVID-19 patient surge.
According to a new survey from Premier Inc., 88% of the company's member hospitals and health systems are "building up safety stocks" of medications to prepare for another coronavirus patient surge.
The survey was conducted from June 11 to 29 and surveyed almost 90 health systems in the United States.
Fifty-one percent said they are building at least a one-month supply, while 25% of members say they are planning to stock up with a two-month supply.
The following drug classes used to treat COVID-19 were cited as part of the drug supply stocks:
92% said they will stock sedatives such as midazolam and propofol
91% said they will stock neuromuscular blockers such as cisatracurium and vecuronium
88% said they will stock controlled substances such as fentanyl and morphine
81% said they will stock agents for rapid intubation such as rocuronium and succinylcloline
75% said they will stock vasopressors such as norepinephrine and vasopressin
And 51% said they will stock up on induction agents such as etomidate
A different survey from Premier in June found that "nearly 90% of healthcare providers are contributing to stockpiles of critical medical supplies and drugs intended to last as long as 90 days," and that stockpile efforts should be a national and regional effort.
Additionally, Premier released "Reflections and Recommendations on Preparing for the Next Surge of Pandemic" in June, where it offers guidelines on factors it thinks will help in the future, what has worked up to this point such as fast-tracked regulatory flexibilities and waivers from the CDC, FDA, CMS, and the events that led us to the current situation.
Dr. Carladenise Edwards shares how she hopes to implement strategies for equitable, accessible care for the health system's diverse communities.
Healthcare disparities is an important topic at Michigan-based Henry Ford Health System, which has a research collaborative focused on "understanding both the mechanisms by which provider and patient-related factors contribute to health disparities and how health care systems can be the driving force in developing and implementing methods for their elimination."
Just last month, the health system announced it signed a letter of intent with Michigan State University to expand its current partnership to collaborate on healthcare disparities.
This focus is also important to Henry Ford's new Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Dr. Carladenise Edwards, who is passionate about providing equitable, accessible care to the diverse community the health system serves.
Edwards has worked in and out of the public sector on healthcare policy for almost 30 years. In her most recent role, she served as executive vice president and chief strategy officer at Providence St. Joseph Health. In the past, she's also served as chief strategy officer for Alameda Health System alongside Henry Ford Health System's current CEO Wright Lassiter III.
Edwards, who starts her new role with Henry Ford Health System on July 13, recently spoke to HealthLeaders about what she hopes to accomplish and how her education and career background helped prepare her for this role.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Carladenise Edwards, senior vice president, chief strategy officer, Henry Ford Health Systems (Photo courtesy of Henry Ford Health Systems)
HealthLeaders: What has your experience been working in healthcare leadership as a woman?
Carladenise Edwards: It can be challenging at times, particularly for me because of the role that I play. As a person who's been on the transactional side of healthcare, I am almost always the only female in the room in a negotiation, or when facilitating a strategy session with executives and board members; often the only person of color.
What it requires is to be on your A-game all the time. We have no choice, as women and people of color, other than to be exceptional. Often be ‘overqualified and credentialed,’ just to get your foot in the door. But then at the same time, we also have to be incredibly thoughtful about how we represent our gender and our race, and to be intentional about the relationships we build with a diverse group of people who can be supporters and advocates for us in our work. That often includes men, and white men, and building strong relationships and allies is so important to being successful.
It's a challenge at times, but I don't think it's insurmountable. I do find there are times where women want to retreat and I say "don't retreat; don't retreat, don't quit. Get back in there. Keep going." Because I'm cheering everyone on, and I am managing my female colleagues up, and I'm trying to create opportunities for them and the next generation of women that's behind us.
HL: What is your healthcare background and what inspired you to work in healthcare as a leader?
Edwards: I'm actually an epidemiologist. I studied medical sociology at the University of Florida, which is where I got my PhD. And then I [finished] two additional certifications: one in neuroscience at the University of Leuven in Belgium and the other one in life course development at UCLA.
My intention was to be in the policy arena to understand, and then appreciate, how politics, economics, and the environment influence health and well-being, and what kind of policies need to be put in place so that we can eliminate the disparities that exist between us.
It was my thesis that those disparities were not innate based on biology, but they were based on all these external factors. So that was what I thought I was going to do when I grew up; I was going to be an academic and do research that influenced policy and push for agendas that would change the trajectory in the life course for primarily people of color. Then I got tapped to work in Washington D.C as a Presidential Management Intern to work on healthcare policy specifically focused on mental health and aging.
From there, [my journey] just weaved up, down, and all around.
I've been in and out of government doing policy work. I've been in and out of the private sector doing strategy and business development for both technology companies and healthcare companies that wanted to implement new ways of managing and delivering care. Then I've been in the delivery system. My work has always been around health in life course development.
What's exciting about Henry Ford is that I get to do all of that. It's a not-for-profit organization that's well-positioned to influence policy because of their reputation and the way in which the Fords influence our economy and government. It's also an opportunity to do some real strategy around community health and how care is delivered in such a diverse community, from Detroit all the way up in Ann Arbor; from Lansing and across.
I'm excited because I find that I'm in a place that I can actually do a little bit of everything based on all the skills that I've acquired over the course of my career. I'm an academic as well, so they have academic affiliations, a strong research institute, and they recruit some of the brightest scientists and physicians and clinicians around the world. I'm giddy just thinking about it.
HL: What are you most excited for with your new role as senior vice president and chief strategy officer of Henry Ford Health System?
Edwards: The first thing that comes to mind is the word "innovation." It's being in an organization that is committed to discovering and implementing new ways of delivering care, addressing healthcare inequity, and trying to eliminate disparities and outcomes. Being in an organization that is committed to doing things in new ways, which is the history of the organization, is what has me excited.
The other thing is the people. CEO Lassiter, [who] I have had the benefit of working with in the past, is just an incredible leader. Kind, just, integrous, and fully committed to success into excellence. He's inspired by helping people be their best selves, so, the leadership team is a reflection of that.
HL: With starting this new position during the COVID pandemic, how has that affected the interview process?
Edwards: Well, if it weren't for COVID, it's likely I wouldn't be making this transition. I'm fortunate and blessed that an opportunity to do what I do, and love, became available at this time. It's a blessing and a curse for me. The curse being that the department that I ran at Providence [St. Joseph Health] was eliminated because of COVID-related budget constraints. But then a new opportunity presented itself at Henry Ford, an organization that believes that strategy is imperative to helping them figure out how to get through the implications of COVID. And then you just add on top of that the civil unrest, which makes it even more critical that we are sensitive, empathetic, and action oriented around coming out of COVID and through COVID in a way that doesn't further disenfranchise and disadvantage the poor and the vulnerable.
HL: What are some short-term strategic initiatives you're looking forward to implement related to the pandemic?
Edwards: One of the things that I strongly believe is that the outcomes we want to achieve have to be clearly defined based on the circumstances. From there, you identify the right strategies and approaches to get to those outcomes. I'm coming into an organization that's grounded, mature, and has achieved a certain level of excellence, and so for me, my starting date is finding out where we are now, what are the goals that the organization has put forth pre-COVID and now since we've experienced COVID. Then, how do we go about implementing the right strategies to achieve those goals?
Personally, [I want] to make sure that, nationally, this country is on a trajectory to live with the current infectious diseases and to be able to better manage and cope with the threat of future infectious diseases, because this is not the end. It's the beginning of a series of events that will become a normal for the planet, which is how do viruses and humans cohabitate in a planet where resources are becoming more and more scarce.
Our global economy is driving much more interaction and connectivity between people and people, animals and animals, humans and animals, than we've ever seen in the past. Personally, I am excited about thinking through how Henry Ford positions itself in a global economy, so that we can be part of the solution as it relates to the country being able to prepare itself to fight future viruses and prevent future pandemics from occurring.
HL: You mentioned healthcare inequity and disparities and outcomes of health. Are there other topics that you're personally interested in and invested in as well?
Edwards: Healthcare economics. In addition to making sure everyone can get equitable access to care that results in outcomes that are consistent with the treatment that they receive, and racism, and poverty, and disparities, I'm interested in ensuring that we think deeply and critically about how do we sustain that healthcare system that provides equitable, accessible care. Our current healthcare economics are broken. The system of healthcare does not exist in a way that delivers on what our country should be able to deliver on, which is a healthy workforce. It just doesn't make sense that we can be one of the wealthiest countries in the world, with some of the wealthiest people in the world, but we can't figure out a way to have a healthy citizenry in a workforce and healthy environments.
After a recent rise in coronavirus cases, the three healthcare associations are recommending Americans to continue to take precautions to stop the spread of COVID-19.
The American Hospital Association, American Medical Association, and the American Nurses Association released an open letter Monday morning urging Americans to continue to take precautions during the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic as states reopen.
These include the "simple steps" of mask-wearing, maintaining social distance, and washing hands to stop the spread of the virus.
"… as physicians, nurses, hospital and health system leaders, researchers, and public health experts, we are urging the American public to take the simple steps we know will help stop the spread of the virus," the letter said.
According to The New York Times, there are currently nine states that have reopened, 22 states that are in the process of reopening, and six states that are reversing their opened status.
The letter continued: "… in the weeks since states began reopening, some of the steps that were critical to the progress we made were too quickly abandoned. And we are now watching in real-time as a dramatic uptick in COVID-19 cases is erasing our hard-won gains.”
On Sunday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released data that showed an increase of 52,228 new coronavirus cases from the day before were reported in the United States, with a total case count exceeding 2.8 million.
The letter mentions Dr. Anthony Fauci's comment to Congress last week warning that "the U.S could see 100,000 new coronavirus cases each day if we do not take more precautions."
"Moving forward, we must all remain vigilant and continue taking steps to mitigate the spread of the virus to protect each other and our loved ones," the letter said in closing. "There is only one way we will get through this – together."
Tampa General Hospital President and CEO John Couris shares strategic and collaborative approaches the health system has taken to ensure the care of its communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Coronavirus cases reached a total of 2.5 million in the United States, with Florida cases reaching over 138,500 cases, this past Sunday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to The New York Times, Florida's coronavirus cases have gone "up fivefold in 2 weeks."
With this rise in cases in the United States and in Florida, hospital leadership must be ready to deal with a second wave of patient surges. To meet this challenge, President and CEO of Tampa General Hospital (TGH) John Couris shares with HealthLeaders the ways the hospital and its partner health system, USF Health, have collaborated with competing health systems to help their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This script has been edited for clarity and brevity.
John Couris, President and CEO, Tampa General Hospital (Photo courtesy of Tampa General Hospital)
HealthLeaders: Can you talk about TGH's collaboration with other Florida hospitals to exchange COVID-19 clinical data? What has that been able to accomplish?
John Couris: We've got a collaboration of the big four systems in the marketplace, and they are BayCare Health System, AdventHealth, and HCA West Florida. We agreed that we would share information, share messaging to the public, coordinate activities, share resources, and collaborate with resources if necessary. The other health systems that represent that dashboard is Lakeland Regional Health, Lee Health, and Manatee Memorial Hospital.
We all agreed that when it came to a public health crisis, we were going to collaborate and innovate together and support our communities together. Prior to that, we were competitors. We still are. But when it comes to safeguarding the health and wellness of the community, you kind of have to transcend competition and collaborate. That's essentially what we're doing.
When we opened up testing facilities early on, we all collaborated and provided resources to the [COVID] testing facilities. That was a collaboration because no one health system could handle that, and it was also a collaboration with the city of Tampa, Hillsborough County, and all of the entities that are in those counties.
HL: Would you suggest other hospitals and health systems adopt this kind of collaborative effort?
Couris: Absolutely. It has been wonderful. It's not perfect; it's a little clunky, sometimes, but that's to be expected because we've never done anything quite like this. I would describe it as the esprit de corps amongst the health systems is high. This kind of crisis requires a regional response. … This COVID crisis shows that collaborating amongst each other can work, and it's the right thing to do.
HL: How has Tampa Genera Hospital utilized AI in its collaboration effort?
Couris: We have something in our organization called CareComm. We're about two years into the project, and CareComm is an 11,000-square-foot command center in partnership with GE Healthcare. It allows us leverage, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and modeling to run our institution.
It anticipates needs and issues before it becomes a need or an issue. It allows us to look intuitively at staffing quality, clinical outcomes, patient safety, and service. It literally monitors the ebb and flow of patients in the institution. It also monitors the safety of those patients and team members in relationship to the work that we do.
What we've been able to do out of our CareComm center is we are collaborating with six other health systems in the region. Those six health systems feed [individual intelligence apps or "tiles"] every day of what their capacity is for ICU beds, or COVID beds, for ventilator usage. That gets all fed into a tile that we manage at TGH through CareComm, and we're able to see what the capacity is of these health systems. If any one hospital were to surge and get into a situation where they needed help, other hospitals could step up [and take patients]. That kind of transparency across health systems—that otherwise would be competitors—is a big deal.
That has been extremely helpful to us, particularly with patients coming out of nursing homes. Let's say there are 10 residents coming out of nursing homes; one hospital can't handle that. So, what happens is a team of people—our chief operating officers and our chief medical officers—get together and they discuss the placement of those patients based on who has what. They use that dashboard to help them make the decision on where patients go.
CareComm command center displaying real-time data (Photo courtesy of Tampa General Hospital)
HL: TGH has a consulting service, TGH Prevention Response Outreach, or TPRO. It seems like a great solution to help the Tampa community. Can you talk about why it was formed?
Couris: I brought this up to our COVID Task Force. I said, "As businesses start to open up a little bit, they're going to need help opening up safely and responsibly because they're not infection prevention experts."
I'm on the board of The Florida Aquarium here in Tampa. And I was with the CEO, and he was sharing some of his concerns about opening up safely. [TGH was] thinking about starting this consulting service to help businesses that want help to open up. [I suggested] we do a proof of concept [to] see if it's even practical.
We consulted for the aquarium and it went great; the aquarium loved it. We went through all the different displays and ecosystems and habitats to make sure appropriate space was being given to people.
So, then we decided, why don't we open this up to the broader community? We charge for it by a sliding scale, somewhere between $150 an hour to about $300, depending on the type of business it is and depending on how big a project it is. It's not designed to make a windfall of money; we have to cover our costs, though. Because we're moving resources from other places to provide this service, at the very minimum, we have to cover our costs. And so now we have all sorts of clients. It's really taken off. We also do work with small businesses.
When the [businesses] get certified, we give them a little sticker to put on the front door that says, "We've been helped by TPRO," which is a collaboration between Tampa General Hospital, USF Health, and some of our private practice physicians who are infectious disease doctors.
We just want to be helpful, because this is all about humanity. We're trying to do our part and we're trying to be innovative. We want to be part of the solution. And we have a responsibility to care for people that are sick with this terrible virus; we also feel like we have a responsibility to extend ourselves into the broader community and help them.
The insurance company is offering LabCorp's at-home testing kits and Walmart drive-thru testing options to members.
Humana Inc. announced collaboration plans today with LabCorp for at-home COVID-19 testing, and plans with Walmart and Quest Diagnostics on drive-thru testing.
Patients may utilize the at-home testing or the drive-thru testing based on preference. This is the first insurance company to offer members LabCorp's at-home testing kids and Quest Diagnostics' drive-thru testing at Walmart locations.
"Our members continue to be worried about COVID-19—including the anxiety about possibly having it and not knowing it," Humana Senior Vice President of Clinical Strategy and Quality Mona Siddiqui said. "We want to help alleviate that stress. This is an additional step we can take to help address their concerns—whether testing from the safety of their own home or using the drive-thru option."
The at-home test allows members with COVID-19-like symptoms to do a "self-collect nasal swab" in the comfort of their home.
"Our at-home collection kit, the first to receive emergency use authorization from the FDA, is another example of how we are making testing easier, faster and more readily available to people who need to be tested," Chief Medical Officer and President of LabCorp Diagnostics Brian Caveney, MD, said.
Drive-thru testing will be available at "hundreds" of Walmart Neighborhood Market locations, where Quest Diagnostic tests will be offered through the pharmacy drive-thru windows.
"We’re pleased to work with Quest Diagnostics to bring testing access to Humana members and others at our Neighborhood Market pharmacy drive-thru windows, creating a convenient way for Humana members to be tested and protect themselves, their families and their communities," Walmart Chief Medical Officer Thomas Van Gilder, MD, said.
"Our lab insights will help foster safer and healthy environments as our nation begins to reopen our economy," Quest Diagnostics Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Jay G. Wohlgemuth, MD, said.
Humana Inc. has ongoing pandemic programs for members, including:
Suspending prior authorization for coronavirus-related patient care during the pandemic.
Eliminating out-of-pocket costs for all office visits and offering cost-share waivers for telehealth visits.
Sending "safety kits" to members, which include face masks and health information.
The two health systems aim to expand digital medicine services to personalize care for their patients.
New Orleans–based Ochsner Health and Pascagoula, Mississippi–based Singing River Health System have signed a strategic partnership agreement, the health systems announced on Wednesday. The goal of this strategic partnership is "to advance quality of care and increase access to healthcare technology, critical services and more for communities along the Gulf Coast."
The partnership will focus on a number of initiatives, including:
Expanding healthcare innovations in telehealth and AI
Increasing access to clinical research trials and clinical education to help advance innovation
Expanding access to care for patients in Louisiana and Mississippi
Sharing patient data to enable patient continuity of care
Leaders from Ochsner and Singing River will form a Strategy and Oversight Committee to manage the strategic partnership.
The partnership is strengthened by the health systems' previously established relationship.
“We have worked with Ochsner on a number of successful clinical and operational initiatives, and this strengthened partnership is a natural next step. We have a lot of things in common, including strong reputations as leaders in providing high-quality, compassionate care," Singing River Health System CEO Lee Bond said in a statement.
“We have tremendous respect for Singing River Health System, its Board of Trustees, and CEO Lee Bond. We admire what they have done to advance healthcare in coastal Mississippi, and we are honored and excited to work together to expand services and improve the health and wellness of the communities along the Gulf Coast," Ochsner Health President and CEO Warner Thomas said. "This partnership is a natural progression of Ochsner’s relationship with Singing River, and we look forward to enhancing access to high-quality, cost-effective, and innovative care.”
On June 15, Singing River Health System also signed an asset purchase agreement to acquire HCA Healthcare's Garden Park Medical Center, according to an earlier announcement.
Chief quality officer and practice leader Jim King shares succession planning and diversity best practices for hospitals and health systems, especially during times of crisis.
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought succession planning to a new level. Amid the chaos, what happens if someone on the board of directors or a C-suite member contracts the coronavirus? And what if the successor also falls ill? Or what if a CEO abruptly quits during a crisis, such as the pandemic?
To offer solutions for these issues, HealthLeaders recently spoke with Senior Partner, Chief Quality Officer, and Board Services Practice Leader James (Jim) King at WittKieffer, an executive search firm, about what strategies hospital and health system C-suite members and boards of directors can implement for successful succession planning. King also shared diversity and inclusion recruiting best practices.
This transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Jim King, Senior Partner, Chief Quality Officer, and Board Services Practice Leader, WittKieffer (Photo courtesy of WittKieffer)
HL: If a CEO gets the coronavirus or is afflicted by another sickness or disease, what are some strategies that boards of hospitals and health systems can put into place to ensure continued operations for the organization?
Jim King: One of the things I constantly talk to board chairs and governance committees about is, you need to ensure that you have a succession plan. If your CEO became incapacitated in any way, who can step in in the interim to lead the organization?
What we found is, with a pandemic like COVID where there was really no playbook, it has required boards to plan for succession several layers down in the organization. A lot of boards … did have an initial successor identified. But … if that individual became sick with coronavirus, where were you going to go? It's caused boards to look well beyond just that initial line of succession and typically go at least another line back, and possibly another line back as well.
Also, most of the boards I work with do a good job from their governance committee standpoint of making sure that they know where's the next succession of board leadership coming from—who's in line to be the next chair, who's going to be vice chair, who's our secretary, our treasurer, and so forth. They're building that pipeline of board leadership governance leadership.
I'm starting to see a lot of them say we need to be thinking two to three layers deep around our governance leadership. And I can honestly say before COVID hit, those weren't conversations I was seeing governance committees having, but they seem to be having more now.
HL: How can interim leadership help during a pandemic or crisis, and how do boards go about choosing that interim leader if a CEO is unable to lead?
King: When you're doing succession planning, the board is going to be looking within the current C-suite, to identify: Do we have a couple of individuals that, if needed, could be called upon to step in and provide interim leadership at the CEO level? And what they normally are looking for [are] people that are on the C-suite team that have had a lot of exposure to the board through various committees. They want to make sure that they're very involved in the development of the strategy for the organization, and that they're in that inner circle with the CEO at all times. Most boards, if they're doing good governance, have that shortlist identified.
I've seen a board member who has CEO experience agree to step off of the board and step in as the CEO for that interim period of time. In other cases, I've seen organizations work with our firm with our interim practice [to] help them find an appropriate interim CEO to step in for a set period of time. It could be six months, nine months, up to a year to provide that leadership. As we go through that process, the board has to decide, is there an opportunity where [the] CEO will … be able to take the reins again, or are they going to have to name a permanent replacement?
HL: What are recruiting and hiring best practices for boards if they're looking for a permanent CEO during a crisis?
King: Before the pandemic hit, most of the boards wanted to make sure that they had CEOs that were experienced in creating a vision for an organization, being able to work with the board to develop a strategy and [work with] the executive team to develop that strategy to bring that vision to light, but they wanted to make sure that they had significant experience managing large P&L. If this is an organization that was looking to grow, [they wanted to ensure] the CEO had merger and acquisition experience and understanding how to grow the organization in that particular way.
What I'm finding now is as I talk to boards, do my candidates that I would be looking at to be the next CEO for an organization actually have experience when it comes to disaster preparedness? Have they found themselves leading an organization through a time when there was a crisis? And so, that has now often become the No. 1 thing that boards are looking at.
It takes us back to looking at candidates that possibly were in significant leadership roles back in the '08–'09 recession, potentially even looking at candidates that were in leadership roles earlier in their career when 9/11 hit. Things that nobody was quite expecting [to] happen.
HL: How often should hospital and health system boards update their succession plan?
King: Once a year. The Governance Committee of the board should take a look at the succession plan, and make sure it's current. I believe that pandemic has proven to us that boards that are doing that were well prepared and had appropriate succession identified. Boards that maybe were only doing it every two or three years, we're finding, might be a little light on who the next successor is going to be.
Once a year … have your governance committee make sure that you know all of the key positions in the organization that need to be filled to sustain the life of the organization, [and] you've identified appropriate successors.
HL: What about retirement delays or pulling previous leaders out of retirement as a strategy of leading a health system through a crisis?
King: As COVID hit, what we're finding is a number of those CEOs that had told their boards their intent was maybe a year to three years away from retiring, a number of them are making a decision to delay that. Partly because they feel loyalty to the organization and they feel, "I need to shepherd an organization through this. I've got to get them to the other side." And they don't want to walk away. I've also seen a few that have said, "As soon as I get my organization through this, I am going to retire, because it's just taken a toll on me."
I've had a few organizations talk to me about [putting] a response together for COVID, depending on where they were in the country. Some of them have gone back to recently retired executives in key roles and asked them if they would come out of retirement. A lot of it just depends on the role; is it mission critical? In a few places, I have seen organizations go back to their recently retired Chief Medical Officers or Chief Clinical Officers, Chief Nursing Officers, and asking them to come back because they needed more hands on deck, more leadership.
HL: Outside of the pandemic, what are some diversity and inclusion best practices that boards can follow while recruiting?
King: It is absolutely a board's responsibility to be focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion. And I think it is incumbent upon boards to make sure that the representation of leadership in the boardroom is more representative of the communities that their organizations are serving. I personally believe that it's important for boards to keep diversity, equity, and inclusion permanently on that board agenda. It's something that has to be at the forefront.
I think at the end of the day, it's important that the board and the CEO embrace diversity, equity, inclusion because everything starts with leadership at the top. I think they have to model it. I believe we have to work closely with the CHRO (chief human resources officer) and other key leaders to develop short- and long-term objectives for how can their organization continue to grow and be more diverse and more inclusive. I think it's something that, in light of everything that we're seeing going on right now in the country, is incredibly important that boards are focused on creating the most diverse, inclusive leadership boards possible.
HL: What ways can boards show they're openly recruiting women and diverse leaders?
King: There's a lot of conversation [with boards] about [wanting] to see candidates that are underrepresented minorities [and] strong female candidates.
Have the board go through unconscious bias training and have the executive team do it as well, because then it will help [them] to see the world from the other person's point of view. And it will also help [them] understand where you might have biases that you didn't even realize. The feedback we've received thus far [about the training] has been phenomenal; … it's really opened their eyes to look at certain candidates that they honestly said they probably would have overlooked.
I personally think the way that you have the greatest success in recruiting diverse leaders, it's by [creating] an environment in the organization that is absolutely welcoming to all … To be successful, it starts with your CEO. They have to live those values every day. And you have to have a board that's attentive to it, deliberate about it, and sees it as a top priority for the organization.