It’s no secret that the healthcare industry is in dire need of some changes. The pandemic laid bare some of the issues that the industry faced, from the lack of healthcare resources in rural areas to billing, scheduling issues, and staffing.
Over the past several years, technological advancements have allowed forward thinkers to bring about some of this needed change. Innovators from SCALE Healthcare, an organization providing creative solutions and performance elevation for healthcare leaders, are poised to bring about this needed revolution in the industry.
“Historically speaking, the healthcare industry has experienced a pattern of minimal cooperation,” says SCALE’s CEO Roy Bejarano. “This has created an ‘us vs. them’ mentality in the industry — a view of healthcare that is very antiquated.”
The barriers keeping healthcare managers and leaders from collaborating are keeping healthcare, as a whole, mired in the past. SCALE is on a mission to enact change and bring the industry into the future.
Barriers to collaboration
According to Bejarano, collaboration will be a necessary facet of the healthcare industry’s revolution. He and his team at SCALE have taken on the challenge of breaking through the various barriers to collaborative efforts.
“There exists a notion that the healthcare industry does not possess the time or other resources necessary to foster genuine collaboration,” says Bejarano, “but this has proven time and again to be false. Our team regularly works with organizations to show them how to fit collaboration into their schedule and find the resources necessary for collaborative efforts.”
Another barrier that SCALE aims to overcome is a lack of experience. In this experimental phase of value-cased care, SCALE seeks to lead healthcare organizations through the experiment into full adoption.
As Bejarano explains, barriers to cooperation within the healthcare industry exist because organizations and leaders become comfortable, and then complacent, in the old ways of doing things. “The pandemic showed that new ideas could help bring healthcare to more people and improve outcomes through collaborative solutions and technological advancements, such as telehealth,” he says. “By embracing change, barriers can be brought down and more people can reap the benefits of a modern, collaborative system.”
Change the SCALE way
SCALE Healthcare is bringing collaboration to the forefront with several initiatives. The first is a unique, case study-intensive conference program. Through this program, SCALE has invited government leaders, clinicians, payors, health systems, MCOs, and investors together to share knowledge, create ideas, and solve problems. Both face-to-face and virtual collaboration allow these innovators from all corners of the healthcare system to better identify and address pain points for both providers and patients. These collaborative efforts highlight what is working, and what is in need of change.
Additionally, SCALE also hosts a leadership series, webinars, and a first-of-its-kind global healthcare executive dashboard. This network of professionals has created not only a sounding board for one another, but an idea-creation incubator.
“Our network is transforming the industry every day,” Bejarano remarks. “The goal of this network is to create leaders all over the globe and create a constant state of revolution for the healthcare industry.”
However, Bejarano says that the greatest changes in the industry are still going underreported. “Regardless of changing facts, the industry still largely remains overly committed to perceptions and bias anchored in outdated statistics,” he says. “We need to make decisions about the industry’s future direction, about what’s working and what isn’t, and this mindset hurts us all.”
As Bejarano notes, even positive shifts are not making headlines — a fact he would like to see changed by his network. “The role private sector healthcare/non-government healthcare played in responding to the COVID crisis is under-reported,” Bejarano explains, “not just vaccine development, but also testing, staffing, equipping, supplying, continuing to provide essential services, and — frankly — staying in business.”
Through the collaboration of some of the greatest minds from all areas of the healthcare system, Bejarano is hopeful more people will become aware of the changes that have been enacted, and the positive shifts that have taken place within healthcare. For example, the rise of telehealth has been a benefit for many, especially those who live in rural areas or healthcare deserts. While nearly 85% of providers have jumped on the telehealth bandwagon, use among patients has stayed relatively low — around 37% as of 2021. The factors behind these statistics could vary, but a lack of reporting on the benefits and proper use of telehealth could come into play.
Being a part of the community
SCALE Healthcare is hopeful that participation in their community will be a benefit to all areas of the healthcare system. “Based on in-field lessons learned from working with hundreds — soon thousands — of healthcare companies and professionals throughout the industry, our community will continue investing in sharing information at the highest possible level.”
The knowledge sharing and lessons gleaned from the various participants have allowed SCALE Healthcare to disseminate information across all systems, leading to necessary change and improvement. “Of course, we recognize the value other healthcare associations bring to the industry,” Bejarano notes. “But having spent time with so many of them, we know there is value to be gained from collaboration amongst all facets of healthcare professionals in an environment that prioritizes highly enjoyable and time-efficient learning/knowledge sharing.”
Through their network, SCALE offers practical solutions for healthcare management leaders the world over. These practical solutions are taking into consideration every technological advancement, new management approach, and everything that the pandemic changed about healthcare. With a focus on collaboration, the SCALE community is bringing about necessary change and remarkable innovation that will follow healthcare into the next generation.
Credits: https://www.imcgrupo.com/scale-community-is-the-healthcare-network-revolutionizing-the-industry/