"The Ronan Report" provides insight about the activities at the Western Maryland Health System in Cumberland, Maryland, and about the changes taking place in healthcare today from a CEO's perspective.

Friday, January 31, 2014

A Pretty Fascinating Week Comes to a Close

As I prepare to leave Florida after what has turned out to be a pretty fascinating week, I want to reflect on some of the highlights.  First the venue: South Beach on Miami Beach is very nice.  Then the weather: for at least three days it was beautiful.....sunny and 80 degrees.  Rain and "cooler" temps for the rest of the week.  By the way, those cooler temps were 70 to 75 degrees.  This was a nice escape from the frigid temps up north.  Then, the opportunity to tell the story of the Western Maryland Health System by presenting to the American Hospital Association's Board of Trustees at their retreat.  That presentation went extremely well and appeared to have been very well received by those in attendance.  

I then presented twice to board members, physicians and C-Suite members from across the country at the Premier Governance Education Meeting.  All presentations were on the same subject - our successful transition from volume based care delivery to value based care delivery.  For the Premier sessions, Kim Repac, CFO; Nancy Adams, COO/CNE; and Rolf Haarstad, a WMHS Board Member, join me for the Q&A.  Their  presence was invaluable in that there were a lot of questions that Kim Repac in particular could answer without hesitation.  

There are so many nuances with our Total Patient Revenue payment methodology as well as the new Medicare Waiver in Maryland and our rate system.  Nancy provided a great perspective on the clinical intricacies of value based care delivery and Rolf gave more of a perspective from his professional role as an architect. (What do you do with all of that inpatient space that needs to be repurposed?)  We were very fortunate to have six board members in attendance for the Premier Conference and they attended at least one of my sessions.  It was great for them to hear from others as to how we are trendsetters in the health care industry through our new care delivery model and how we have been successful in implementing it in western Maryland.  

At the end of the second presentation, Derek Feely, who presented two years ago at the same conference came up to me to congratulate me and WMHS on our stunning achievements in value based care delivery.  Derek was previously the Kathleen Sebelius of Scotland.  He was their Health Minister.  He is now with IHI (the Institute for Healthcare Improvement) and asked for my contact information so they could contact me.  Derek said that we have made some remarkable achievements and our story needs to be told to every US hospital as they wrestle with their transition from volume to value.  All in all it was a very good week. 

No comments:

Post a Comment