Breaking Out of the Health Care Abyss

It has become routine to see in various health care magazines, e-mails to leaders, and executive discussions on social media internet outlets, a listing of the ten top challenges that CEOs believe they are facing in the health care industry today. They often call this list the "what is keeping me up at night" list. Although the recognition of their current challenges is important for health system leadership teams and board members, just knowing them is not enough. To be successful in this extremely challenging and complex health care environment today, implementation of action plans is key. The recognition of this critical need to implement a successful road map to the future in order to address the disconnect between knowing and doing has driven the content of this book.

Based on the less than positive performance, both clinically and financially, of many health care providers, it seems obvious that the implementation of successful action plans is sorely missing in many boards' and leadership teams' processes. The proof that such is the case lies in the fact that the yearly challenge list provided by a wide array of CEOs from small, medium as well as large complex health systems and across the broad health care sector has changed very little over the last decade. We hear and read over and over again about the lack of primary care providers, the declining inpatient volumes, the decrease in profitability, the variability in clinical outcomes, the lack of strong clinical integration and collaboration, and the fragmented care due to a lack of case coordination across the continuum.

The authors of this book worked together since 1999 in leadership/governance/management challenges domestically and internationally. They predicted, decades ago, what most would never have dreamed could become reality in the health care world. It is their intent to help readers successfully lead their organizations through a transformational journey in the current turmoil in the health care industry.