What are Hospital CEOs Top 3 Issues

How does the CEO of a best performing hospital, according to Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals, manage priorities? Hospital CEOs from a wide range of hospital types consistently rate three items as the ones they are most concerned with:

• Quality Measurement
• Physician Medical Staff Alignment
• Cost Reductions

Quality Measurement: 

Quality measurement is a broad goal encompassing not only patient results but the efficiency and effectiveness of staff members and departments working cohesively to uphold the highest commitment to quality.

• CEOs mention diving into every department to determine which areas are strengths and which areas need to be improved upon.
• Informing staff members of how they rank on a state wide and nation wide scale is a great way to put team members’ roles and expectations in perspective.
• Quality endeavors also extend outside hospital walls such as with the patient-centered medical home which aids in reducing unnecessary readmissions, thus promoting quality of care.

Physician Medical Staff Alignment: 

On par with quality measures is aligning the right members to bring that commitment of quality to fruition. Clearly building strong relationships is key, but what CEOs specified was quality physicians needed to not only align with staff but work jointly with management to develop and implement quality initiatives.

• Utilize physician leaders experience and involve them in designing quality metrics.
• Have honest discussions to ensure administration and hospital staff are aligned and goals are on the same page.

Cost Reductions: 

One of the most serious issues on any CEO’s mind is ensuring the financial viability of their organization. As more hospitals begin adopting value-based purchasing, leaving the old model of fee-for-service will be a delicate transfer involving everyone in the organization to provide assistance.

• There’s a movement toward accountability as patient satisfaction and readmissions scores have a say in financial incentives awarded.
• A big challenge will come from the increased number of performance measures which, if not executed properly, will have a trickle down effect on reimbursement, staff and patient perceptions.
• Dig deep into processes and systems to see where more efficient tools can be put in place. Reducing health care-associated infections is one of many areas that hospitals can investigate to reduce avoidable errors.

ICT Sustainability Global Benchmark Index 2011

ICT is a large consumer of energy, and is globally responsible for 3 per cent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. At current rates of growth in ICT usage, this is forecast to grow to 6 per cent by 2020. More importantly, ICT is responsible for 5 to 10 per cent of the typical economy’s total electricity consumption. In some organizations that rely heavily on ICT, such as banks, government and in many other administrative industries, ICT can account for up to 75 per cent of all energy consumption. 

The ICT industry must decarbonize itself to the greatest extent possible and exploit its unique opportunity to build and deploy enabling technologies. The application of ICT in areas such as smart grids, smart logistics, smart transport systems, smart building systems, cloud computing and the supporting societal applications will enable significant reductions in emissions in other industry sectors, and support the transition to a prosperous low carbon economy. 

In a recent survey by Fujitsu, not only is the maturity low, the overall index has declined slightly from 2010, indicating that some of the buzz has gone from Green ICT and that it is not being given priority or initiatives have begun to come unstuck. 

Not only is the maturity low, the overall index has declined slightly from 2010, indicating that some of the buzz has gone from Green ICT and that it is not being given priority or initiatives have begun to come unstuck. On the positive side we have seen an increase in ICT solutions that include ICT Sustainability at the core, such as Cloud Computing, the design of sustainable data centers and the increasing use of renewable energy onsite.

Some key findings 

• 54.3 - The average ICT Sustainability Index in 2011, measured across all countries and all industry sectors.
• 2.7 - The decline in the Index from 2010 to 2011, indicating that the maturity of ICT Sustainability has decreased over the last 12 months.
• 19.6 - The difference in the average index for those organizations that have total control over and responsibility for their ICT power consumption 65.1, and those who have never even thought about it 45.5.
• 14.2% - The proportion of ICT departments who include the cost of ICT’s power consumption in their ICT budget.
• 64.6 - The highest Index for any industry in any country: Manufacturing in Canada.
• 80.0 - The ICT Sustainability Index score considered to be best practice, or close to it.

Read full report here.

A 5-step primer to entering an international market

Here are five tips to help prepare your business to enter the international market:

1. Educate yourself on the customs and business etiquette of the international market. When entering a foreign market make sure you know the country’s history, the proper way to greet someone, the ordinary times for lunch (or prayer in many African, Asian and Middle-Eastern countries). Make sure you are communicating with them in the expected way within their society — e.g: with the appropriate salutation.
2. Gather historical data on the country’s currency value fluctuation and import/export timelines. This is crucial. The deal you discuss today may not be executed in time to reap the full potential of the opportunity. You could be negotiating a deal that may cost 15 percent more in a few months when the transaction is finalized. Worse yet, you may offer a promotion that costs you significantly more a week into the offering. Lock in currency rates and delivery dates in advance whenever possible. The less speculation, the better.
3. Become an expert on the country’s laws governing business. Have local representation if possible, someone who can help you navigate any unforeseen obstacles and explain all contract provisions and terminology. Know and understand the laws and legalese of the jurisdiction that governs your contract before it becomes legally binding.
4. Conduct focus groups to test the waters in the prospective international market. Understanding each country’s culture means you have to find ways to reach what would otherwise be the same demographic but in a different location. A new approach may be needed to make your product or service suitable to the needs and expectations of the potential foreign market and its culture. Studying these countries, including their professional and personal customs, will ensure that you conduct yourself in a respectful way. This will also signal to the business leaders and potential customers in the new market that you know their protocol and you’ve take the time to adapt to it.
5. Find out what your competition has done in the same territory. Has one of your competitors tried to enter this market before? What obstacles did they face? How did they approach the new market? And most importantly, what would you do differently?

Read the full article by Lauren Maillian Bias, Founder and CEO of Luxury Market Branding featured in Forbes.com.

The true cost of mismanaged tech projects

To top managers at Levi Strauss, revamping the information technology system seemed like a good idea. The company had come a long way since its founding in the 19th century by a German-born dry-goods salesman: In 2003, it was a global corporation with operations in more than 110 countries.

But its IT network was antiquated, a balkanised mix of incompatible country-specific computer systems. So executives decided to migrate to a single SAP system and hired a team of Deloitte consultants to lead the effort. The risks seemed small: The proposed budget was less than US$5 million (S$6.4 million).

But very quickly, all hell broke loose. One major customer, Walmart, required that the system interface with its supply chain management system, creating additional hurdles. Insufficient procedures for financial reporting and internal controls nearly forced Levi Strauss to restate quarterly and annual results.

During the switchover, it was unable to fill orders and had to close its three US distribution centres for a week. In the second quarter of 2008, the company took a US$192.5 million charge against earnings to compensate for the botched project - and its chief information officer, Mr David Bergen, was forced to resign.

A US$5 million project that leads to an almost US$200 million loss is a classic "black swan". The term was coined by our colleague Nassim Nicholas Taleb to describe high-impact events that are rare and unpredictable but in retrospect seem not so improbable.

Indeed, what happened at Levi Strauss occurs all too often and on a much larger scale. IT projects are now so big and they touch so many aspects of an organisation that they pose a singular new risk.

Read the full article by Bent Flyvbjerg, BT Professor and founding chair of major program management at Oxford University's Said Business School and Alexander Budzier, a consultant at McKinsey & Co.

Spurring the market for high-tech home health care

A daunting array of financial and operational barriers is holding back growth. What can be done? 

On the surface, technology-enabled home health care should be thriving in the United States. The country’s aging population and the transformation of acute illnesses such as heart failure into chronic diseases mean that the number of patients is growing. In addition, new medical-technology devices could help keep patients at home rather than in costly institutions, such as assisted-living facilities or nursing homes—leading to potentially big savings for the health care system.

Instead, the full potential of the technology-enabled home health care market remains to be tapped. In the United States, home care accounts for about 3 percent ($68 billion a year) of national health spending. The market is increasing by about 9 percent annually, solid but hardly booming growth, especially since labor (mainly nurses and aides) accounts for about two-thirds of the expenditure and home-monitoring technology represents a small fraction of it. 

To understand what’s holding the market back, read the McKinsey report.

South Korea’s discerning devotees of deluxe

South Koreans spend a higher percentage of their household incomes on luxury goods than the Japanese do, McKinsey research shows, and the South Korean market looks to sustain strong growth for several years to come. But the country’s thing for bling is evolving: buyers are beginning to think more about brand differentiation than about ostentatiously displaying famous logos.

Read about this changing landscape in “Korea’s luxury market: Demanding consumers, but room to grow,” a write-up of the results from McKinsey’s 2011 Korea luxury consumer survey, available on the McKinsey & Company Web site.