by Andrea J. Simon

I have been conducting innovation games with consumers for a healthcare system client and have been struggling with the huge disconnect between what patients really want in the care and caring that physicians and healthcare systems are supposed to deliver, and what they're getting.

As I help patients deconstruct the healthcare system, they readily express their total frustration with a system that is broken. What are they saying? Some of the common threads went like this:

• The overwhelming disconnection - "This doctor doesn't talk to that doctor, or this office is not part of my insurance network so I cannot go there but that is where my records and past physician relationships were created."

  The degree of confusion and lack of integration seems out of control to these smart, insured consumers.

Read more!

by Gienna Shaw, FierceHealthIT

In past years, it was pretty easy to pluck out a theme for the annual meeting of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. Over the years, the big topics of conversation centered around electronic medical records implementation, for example. (Remember the big bang versus slow rollout debate?)

There were years where CIOs were worried about projects such as installing wireless systems, investing in big ticket equipment and devices and using RTLS to track it. More recently, it's been about the ICD-10 coding system overhaul or Meaningful Use.

This year felt a little different to me. Sure, CIOs were talking about EMRs, Meaningful Use, information exchange, interoperability, and data analytics. But in a number of interviews I conducted during the New Orleans event, they also were talking about change management, strategic plans, staffing needs, quality and patient safety. Clearly, CIOs are concerned not only with information technology, hardware and software, but they also are paying more attention to leadership issues.

During the conference, I sat down with College of Healthcare Information Management Executives CEO Russell Branzell to talk about the changing roles, responsibilities and core competencies of today's healthcare CIO--and what it takes to be an effective leader.

To hear what he had to say about the role of the CIO in healthcare, read the full interview.

by Raymond Hino

With the looming changes in healthcare, it is more important than ever that the three-legged stool of hospital operations--board of trustees, medical staff and executive management--works seamlessly together for the good of the hospital organization and the community as a whole.

Many hospitals and health systems now believe the key to future success will be our ability to develop integrated delivery systems. At the core of such systems is the ability to achieve hospital and physician alignment.

Recently I began working with a hospital that was struggling to find common ground among the board, medical staff and administration. The publicly owned hospital had experienced very high CEO turnover over the years, as well as had 100 percent turnover in the board of directors within the past two years.

Read more!

by Doug Della Pietra

Recently, I made a large purchase from a well-known wholesale photo/video company. Long story short, the experience was extremely disappointing and frustrating. I even had to go to the UPS Store while on vacation after discovering the newly purchased camera was defective.

While highly trained phone agents apologized at several "moments of truth" along the customer journey, company policies and department silos prevailed in the end.

For my inconvenience, the company emailed me a coupon for a free tote bag, backpack or disposable camera. Unfortunately, not only were the gift offerings unrelated to my specific experience as a customer but the coupon could only be redeemed in their store some seven hours away!

Hospitals often make similar service recovery efforts. When free parking or meal tickets are offered for patient or family experiences not related to parking or food issues, the service recovery may be perceived as generic and impersonal, and only make matters worse.

Read more!

by Anthony Cirillo

This illustration from the company Root does a good job in summing up today's healthcare environment. Notice the people in the raft--those are patients struggling to hang on in the turbulent tides of healthcare.

I once went rafting in Alaska and the preamble to the trip was filled with all of the what-if scenarios that could happen, like if you capsize. My mother-in-law was terrified and didn't want to be there.

You see, with bundled payments, value-based purchasing, readmission penalties and more, outside forces are saying "move care outside the hospital; we don't want patients there." The same forces in long-term care are moving services to the home with aging in place. And like my mother-in-law in the raft, people are terrified to become patients.

Read more!