Walnut Creek, Calif.-based John Muir Health
partnered with Optum earlier this year, and former CIO Jon Russell sees a big
opportunity to affect quality of care and the patient experience as a result.
Here, Mr. Russell describes how to balance
managing costs while improving data analytics and management for the system, as
well as potential benefits from the health system's Optum partnership in the
coming years.
Question: If 2020 is a successful year for IT
leaders, what will it look like?
Jon Russell: One of the most important things that healthcare is faced
with is how to manage costs effectively. A successful 2020 will depend on how
well you manage costs in the area of your responsibility to improve margin
effectively. As more health systems have neutral to negative margins, there
will be a focus on reducing the overall administrative services costs.
Q: From the IT department, how do you manage
costs?
JR: The effectiveness as a leader depends on managing costs to
maintain a strong margin while also providing access to data clinicians need to
maintain and improve quality. Clinical quality is extremely important and you
have to support the organization's quality goals while also managing costs.
That will be the real focus for IT and organizations in the coming year and
beyond.
Q: I'm sure many new technologies and
platforms come across your desk. How do you decide what to invest in as you are
trying to control costs?
JR: It depends on your organizational needs. You have to have a
successful data and analytics strategy, so the platform and solution you select
has to provide the actionable data your health system needs. You have to have a
well thought out strategy, governance program and supporting platform. There
are many tools available to manage your operations and data, but you have to
figure out which ones to keep and which ones are not going to be pursued
further. Those will be critical conversations among a leadership team overall.
There has been hesitancy in healthcare to have those conversations around what
we aren't going to do, but it's necessary going forward.
Q: Where is John Muir focusing most of their
attention next year?
JR: Most of the time will be spent executing on partnerships.
John Muir has a stated strategy for scale that has hinged on affiliations and
partnerships. They have been successful in partnering with Stanford Children's,
Tenet, UCSF and most recently a partnership around smart sourcing with Optum.
In 2020, the real focus is going to be implementing the smart sourcing strategy
so it is successfully executed. There are also a few more potential
partnerships on the horizon, so John Muir will need to be sure to set their
goals at the beginning of the year to achieve return on those partnership
investments.
Q: Could you provide a bit more detail about
John Muir's partnership with Optum. What will they be able to do after
executing the smart sourcing strategy?
JR: The Optum partnership brings incredible care management
capabilities. There is a huge potential upside to the partnership with Optum in
care management as well as improving care quality and managing patient
relationships more effectively. The next step is to take the capabilities from
the partnership and improve the care of the community in a way John Muir Health
could not do on its own.
Q: What is the biggest potential threat to
John Muir Health?
JR: The biggest threat is the same that everyone is facing:
there is a lot of risk around the cost of care because of the uncertainty about
how the industry will move nationally. Organizations have to continue to become
more cost effective as an attempt to manage the uncertainty and risk about how
health system will be reimbursed for the care provided. The biggest risk I see
is the inability to become more flexible and cost efficient, which could put
the system at risk if the reimbursement model changes significantly.
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