FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Former Healthcare executive, Brian Paradis, hopes to inspire imaginative leadership amongst his colleagues and peers at the helm of America’s health systems. “For those of us working in the healthcare industry, particularly as leaders, we are faced with a daunting obstacle. Our patients (or customers) have higher expectations than ever when it comes to their healthcare delivery, and our industry has consistently struggled to meet them despite its best efforts. Regardless, it is critical that we remember that our communities still want to see us succeed – and it is a challenge worth rising to, not to mention that in many ways, we owe it to them to do so. In everything we do as leaders of hospitals and health systems, we ought to consider earning our patients’ loyalty as a top priority, making it more important than ever to keep a few things in mind as we make impactful decisions,” says Paradis.
First and foremost, in fighting for our communities’ support, health system leaders need to keep community impacts at the forefront of their decision-making. At the end of the day, healthcare is local. Hospitals and health systems are collectively tackling a changing landscape and are faced with the challenges of acquisition, consolidation, integration, centralization and standardization. Often, in working to surmount these obstacles, leaders may be failing to check the temperatures of the communities they serve, and in turn, not understanding how their local markets will react to such change.
Ultimately, forgetting to consider our communities can be detrimental to hospitals and health systems, coming at the cost of their organization’s brand and mission. If health system leaders aren’t remaining attuned to the needs of their communities, they aren’t able to optimally follow through on the role in serving those communities. If the care teams and overarching organizations aren’t free to adapt to the needs of their respective communities, we are creating a void for another organization to fill because if we aren’t making it work for those we are supposed to serve, someone else will.
That said, it is imperative that as leaders evolve with the industry and its larger-scale trends, and always important to keep in mind the maxim to “think globally, but act locally.”
Another consideration to keep top-of-mind is the important and unmistakable role that love and compassion play in the business and delivery of healthcare. It is easy to lose sight of this as technology becomes more integral in our day-to-day processes and protocols. However, big data, predictive analytics, evidence-based treatments, care coordination, and case management cannot replace all the functions that the care teams and leaders perform – they are more meant to supplement those functions. While these technological tools have a programmed purpose, they are not nearly as profound, nor do they run as deep, as the “why” that connects us to our careers in the healthcare industry. For most health system leaders, that “why” ties back to the desire to positively impact the lives of those they serve and to improve quality of life.
“This is where love comes in, along with applications of the “golden rule.” If we aren’t treating people the way we would want to be treated in their situation, we are not providing the care they deserve,” says Brian Paradis. “No one wants to be treated like another bed or statistic – and almost no one will remember the skill of those who treated them over HOW they were treated. Therefore, we need to consider the importance of love in all patient interactions, as well as ensure those we are hiring and the processes we set in place for our health systems take it into account. If we do, our patients, our organizational cultures and our bottom lines will thank us.”
Finally, Paradis urges health system leaders to take a hard look at their organizations and identify facets that might be unsustainable in the long run. Today, there are over 25 million people (and likely the numbers are increasing) without insurance, gross cross-subsidies between commercial and government payers, an estimated 20-25 percent waste, unexplained variations in practice by geography, lower health outcomes than many other developed nations, and the highest cost per capita, to name a few.
When all is said and done, healthcare leaders cannot succeed in this industry without considering whether they are listening to their people and the communities they serve. To do this effectively, imaginative leadership must make it a basic standard to seek feedback from the staff and patients, and then take the next step to act on those insights. Leadership and healthcare executives cannot hope to achieve the organizational missions and ambitions without instilling love as a core value in the institution, nor can the best care possible be delivered without holding leadership and staff accountable for the cost and quality of performance.
About Brian Paradis
Brian Paradis is currently a Senior Partner and Advisor with CSuite Solutions. Brian has over 25 years of healthcare delivery experience and brings a broad spectrum of best practices to help our clients meet their goals. Brian is known as a creative idea generator and consensus builder who uses thought leadership to foster innovation within healthcare delivery teams. By using the concept of systems theory, he inspires and coaches executive and physician leaders to build cultures that execute strategy and achieve sustainable performance excellence. Brian Paradis’ practice specialties include strategic planning, operations and financial performance.
Prior to his role as President of West Florida Health, Brian served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Florida Hospital’s Central Region, a $4 billion enterprise with more than 25,000 employees and 2,000 physicians. Under his leadership, Florida Hospital was ranked as the #1 Hospital in Florida by U.S. News & World Report for three consecutive years, and was a 2014 finalist for the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. Previously, Brian was the Chief Financial Officer for the Florida Division of Adventist Health Systems.