Ever get sucked into a horrible movie on TV. Even if you only watch for a few minutes, you change the channel thinking, there is ten minutes I’ll never get back! This happened to me with a movie called ‘Hydra’. (If you are really brave, check the trailer out on YouTube) A Hydra is an out of control, multi-head, snake like creature. In the movie a group of people stumble across one on a deserted island and have no idea how to deal with it. One by one they get eaten up. In the real world, it is getting very interesting out there.
In a way, we are creating Hydras of our own. Health Systems continue to expand and with a literal desire to serve patients from the cradle to the grave. They constantly are looking for holes and acquiring or building to fill them.
Doctors and independents continue to expand their footprint and offerings to compete. As you add more heads to the proverbial monster, it becomes more and more difficult to keep the beast going in a straight line. For a while now the term systemness has be bandied about as the next phase of integrated health delivery. As systems get more complex and services are added, the ability to provide a consistent experience becomes more and more critical. Too often the concern is around things like IT integration, vendor consolidation, billing, staffing, and logo’s. While all that stuff is important, always remember that patient care is at the center of the ‘consistent experience’ you should be seeking. You have to double down on things like core values, training, hiring standards and verification that it is all happening. Never forget that you are dealing with a Hydra and pointing all the heads into the direction of patient care will give you and your team the direction you need to be successful.
