Skip to content

Making the Healthcare System… Healthy!

Photo of a doctor writing on a clipboard with a patient
October 27, 2022

Geoffrey Glaser

Healthcare Systems are sick... And tired. Patient volumes are still low compared to pre-pandemic levels, systems are behind in meeting the new transparency regulations, and buzzwords like HealthEquity, Patient Experience, and Patient Journey are not being materialized in a way that increases an organization’s margins (Healthy Hospital). The lack of executional impact on patient care and outcomes is a direct reflection of getting caught up in the unrealistic premise that we need disruption to change.

We are at a flexion point in healthcare where we need to stop using language to impart fear and urgency, but utilize pragmatic terms that set a realistic expectation of evolution and value. Below, we have broken down the dynamic changes that can be affected in a systemic way which allows change without tipping over the applecart: 

The Current System

The opportunity that presents healthcare executives is great, manageable, and achievable if we can look at helping healthcare organizations departmentalize the transformative process and deliver on a realistic roadmap that is focused on both new payment models and, most importantly, the patient. A good example is the Value-Based Payment Model: 

Value-Based Payment will only be successful if it is explicitly designed to support value-based care. Providers deliver care, not payers. Value-Based Payment must be designed to ensure that providers are able to deliver high-value services to their patients. 

4 steps are needed to achieve this

  1. Identify “potentially avoidable spending” i.e. specific types of healthcare services or spending that can be reduced without harming patients; 
  2. Design an approach to delivering services that is expected to reduce the avoidable spending; 
  3. Create payments that give providers the ability to implement and sustain the new approach to service delivery, and; 
  4. Hold providers accountable for delivering appropriate, evidence-based services in return for the evidence-based payment. 

To make today’s Healthcare System healthy, we need to stop trying to disrupt it and help it evolve. We need to partner with executives and understand their priorities and how they match up with the patient’s safety, patient outcomes and their satisfaction. 

At Levio, the Patient is at the center of everything we do and how we help construct The Healthy Hospital. 

Want to learn about what defines values in Healthcare?