Hospitals and physicians need to seek out entrepreneurial partnerships beyond the once-narrow world of the healthcare industry to foster better patient experiences while harnessing the latest technology, such as telehealth, that can lead to better treatments and a more engaged patient.
That was among the key takeaways from Dr. Stephen K. Klasko, president and CEO of Thomas Jefferson University and Health System, delivering the keynote speech at MedCity News’s CONVERGE conference in Philadelphia today.
“In healthcare, we were still going based on our experience, on anecdotes, but we really didn’t know what was best. Some of the things we started doing…already existed in so many industries,” he said, noting partnerships that Thomas Jefferson undertook with airline, telecommunications and sports companies, among others.
It’s of particular importance for health systems now as the Affordable Care Act comes into full swing, bringing with it new challenges of bending the healthcare cost curve by reducing re-admission rates and creating consumer-driven models long absent in the healthcare world.
“Our number one job at Jefferson is to make people healthy,” he said. “And the hospital is where they go, in many cases, if we’ve failed them.”
And if a physicians group or health system wants to thrive through the next 10 years, it needs to start planning now – if it hasn’t already – for a significantly altered, consumer-driven landscape that won’t tolerate the autocratic ways of the late 1970s that have persisted.
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth,” he said, referencing a quote from famed boxer Mike Tyson. The ACA, he said, is the proverbial punch in the mouth to hospitals with its reduced reimbursement rates for preventable hospitalizations.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
For Thomas Jefferson, a key part of dodging the punch – and getting ahead in the shifting landscape – has been its growing emphasis on telehealth. Dr. Klasko noted that the use of such technology can virtually eliminate the antiquated ways patients engaged with doctors for seemingly minor issues – why should a patient with, say, a stomach flu have to wait more than a week for an appointment when technology exists in every other industry that could connect the two electronically?
Likewise with patient discharges, which could easily be done by way of a chat or video conference between providers and patients.
“You had hospitals taking care of complicated patients , the patient gets discharged, something goes with wrong, then they’re back in the hospital. The family physician’s office is a vital part of the discharge,” he said. “Telehealth can dramatically improve readmission rates.”
Physicians themselves need to become more transparent in how they renew their own skill sets, Dr. Klasko said. Physicians aren’t held to the same rigorous standards as, say, a commercial airline pilot, even though a surgeon or an OB/GYN doctor performing a complex delivery are often working in similarly high-stakes conditions.
“Healthcare can’t be the only area that doesn’t get assessed for competency,” he said. “We looked to the aviation industry and looked at how pilots are kept trained with competency tests. That was not the case in healthcare. Hospitals were helpless when it came to physicians with complications. We recognize that needed to change.”
Seeking out startups and technological advances need to be a part of any hospital’s future planning, he said.
“Instead of looking at what hospitals system or physician’s group can I merge with, it was what startup can I work with, what technology can I use?” he said of Thomas Jefferson’s approach in 2014. “We started to attract physicians and new companies into Philadelphia because of this.”
