By John N. Kastanis

After watching a 60 Minutes segment, aired on December 13, 2020, regarding Sutter Health’s domination of the healthcare market in northern California, I was prompted to reassess the justifications of hospital mergers and acquisitions that continue to transpire across the country.

By Charles "Chuck" Taylor

As a young person entering the Air Force, working as an operating room manager, my goal was to learn as much as I could about a doctor’s work and the operation impacting it.

After four years of college at one of the best universities in the U.S., I completed an Executive Master’s in Health Administration (EMHA) and became a consultant. My challenge at an older age with limited Microsoft Office skills was learning the analytics.

By Dr. Seleem R. Choudhury

The term "patient-centered care" is in vogue and utilized by health system administrators, marketing gurus, hospital staff, and clinicians alike. It's a catchy phrase that resonates with stakeholders, and it sounds like something every healthcare organization would heartily embrace. However, the heart of patient-centered care and its implications for how care is actually provided to patients is not well understood.

By Renee Jensen

Have you ever found yourself in a situation like this:

You’re in a meeting where everything is going along smoothly. You are feeling optimistic—you may get done early so you can get back to your office and have a few minutes back in your day! All of the sudden, someone in the room derails the conversation and direction of the meeting causing a flurry of discussion, debate and disagreement.

By Pamela J. Gallagher

Hospitals and health systems have spent the past decade responding to patient and government demands for increased price transparency, and the demand only continues. While the healthcare industry has made strides in ensuring patients know the cost of their care up-front, consumer expectations are growing to include that hospitals should be able to explain how their costs are determined.

By Charles "Chuck" Taylor

Healthcare is starving for individuals who can handle the day and age of “every minute counts to fight for the quality and cost” mission of the healthcare system. Every dollar saved is a dollar toward more jobs, not fewer jobs! Of course, this is the mentality that will always be needed. But, what is the necessary skill set to be the vice president of a hospital’s supply chain?

By Rodney D. Reider

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.”
-Plutarch

By Rand O’Leary

If there's one thing that 2020 has definitely called for, its resilience. We're living in turbulent times and COVID-19 has impacted every aspect of American life – from health to work to childcare to education and even exercise. Add to that a fragile economy, a smattering of natural disasters, and widespread political and racial unrest, and you've got all of the ingredients needed to keep most people in a state of near-constant stress.

By Renee Jensen

If you are part of your hospital’s front-line staff, think about the last time a member of the executive team rounded in your department. Did the staff scatter, hide behind the computer, and hope to not be noticed, or pretend to be too busy to be interrupted? Did you take one for the team and entertain the executive until they finally left?

As a CEO performing my rounds, this is sure how it felt to me.

By Dr. Seleem R. Choudhury

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, healthcare workers face unprecedented levels of stress, fear, and anxiety. Situations that trigger chronic stress have always been present within the important and weighty work of caring for patients, but routine stressors are now intensified by the serious risks of working on the frontlines of a pandemic. Together, this creates a perfect storm of heightened risk of burnout.

By Clay Holderman

In the trough between COVID outbreaks, my mind has been occupied with how to support our workforce in recovering from the traumas inflicted by this pandemic. In debriefing sessions, Schwartz Rounds and personal conversations, clinicians have shared with me their stories.

By Michael J. Zappa, MD, FACEP

Try to imagine a list of topics that you could introduce into almost any conversation that would be free of controversy. Top on that list would have to be the value of life, the wonder of the gift of life, the exhilaration of saving a life, or helping truly transform someone's life.

By E.W. Tibbs

Mindset addresses the beliefs and attitudes in which we experience the world -- expected and unexpected.

All too often, the media are focused on poor behavior, often aggressive and mean behavior, name calling and other things that if our mothers were watching, things they would not be proud of if we were the ones displaying that behavior.

The Civility Mirror means when I am preparing for an interaction and thinking about the words I choose, I think carefully, especially when it comes to how it might make another person feel.

By Rand O’Leary

While individual resilience is important, especially in turbulent times, organizational resilience is also crucial. According to BSI, organizational resilience is “the ability of an organization to anticipate, prepare for, respond and adapt to incremental change and sudden disruptions in order to survive and prosper.” This goes far beyond risk management and is in fact a key trait in an organization that not only survives but thrives in times of crisis.

By Pamela J. Gallagher

Patients have been begging for affordability for decades, and the healthcare industry’s reluctance to innovate and adapt to patient demands has left a door open for retailers to move into the healthcare business. I believe this will be great for healthcare, but potentially disastrous for health systems.

By Michael J. Zappa, MD, FACEP

STOP making excuses for yourself….

STOP believing "If I had been luckier or just had the money to pursue my ideas then I would be…"

START daydreaming!

By Dr. Seleem R. Choudhury

As a society, we have been enduring life in a pandemic for over half a year. Though we have been feeling the effects of COVID-19 for a long time, medically speaking the disease is still very new to us. It is important to remember that our knowledge is still developing regarding the virus and much remains unknown—specifically the long-term effects of the disease.

By Michael J. Zappa, MD, FACEP

Imagine any advice that could be considered wisdom; whether it seems like common sense or a profound revelation, it is probably not complex. Now think about how long it may be applicable…wisdom actually has no expiration date.

By Renee Jensen - When was the last time you evaluated your own risk tolerance? In life there are all kinds of risks to consider: financial investments, adventures, personal relationships, professional decisions; the list could go on and on…