The Healthcare Leadership Experience  By  cover art

The Healthcare Leadership Experience

By: Lisa T. Miller
  • Summary

  • Healthcare management is ever-changing. Join Lisa Miller and Jim Cagliostro where you will hear from innovators and leaders within healthcare and from other industries. Lisa and Jim will bring you topics on the business and clinical sides of healthcare on strategy, finance, managed care contracting, nurse engagement, physician engagement, new patient care models, patient satisfaction, innovation, leadership, communication, marketing, plus much more. This show will challenge you to think differently through proven strategies and innovative approaches that will help you to elevate your healthcare management and healthcare leadership performance for the ultimate goal of providing exceptional patient care. Enjoy diverse and thought-provoking conversations. Lisa and Jim will present best practices, new strategies, and ideas for you to think about and to implement in your career and your healthcare organization. To contact Lisa Miller, please email: lmiller@viehealthcare.com and on linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisamiller/ . To contact Jim Cagliastro, please email: jcagliostro@spendmend.com and on linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimcagliostro/ This show is sponsored by VIE Healthcare Consulting; https://viehealthcare.com
    The Healthcare Leadership Experience Radio Show 2021
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Episodes
  • Ideas Worth Pursuing | E. 108
    Apr 17 2024
    Tech startups are predicted to disrupt US healthcare in 2024. Scott Nelson, co-founder, and CEO of venture backed FastWave Medical, offers his strategies for success in innovation with Jim Cagliostro. Episode Introduction Scott reveals the two signs that an idea has potential, why market trumps everything in innovation, and why leaders should focus on eliminating pain points for their end users. He also advises innovators to connect with potential strategic acquirers at an early stage and explains why leaders of startups shouldn’t put all their eggs in the venture capital basket. Show Topics Two signs of a good idea Market ultimately trumps everything in innovation Engage with potential strategic acquirers at an early stage Finding investment in your community Flipping the script: eliminating pain points Effective ways to raise capital Leaders of startups don’t have to be the CEO 05:49 Two signs of a good idea Scott said there are two things for leaders to consider in innovation. ‘’I guess to answer your question in a little bit more long-winded way, I would say if you've got an idea that you can't seem to shake a little bit… It's sticky and you find yourself maybe waking up at night thinking about it or you thought about it and then two weeks ago you're still thinking about it, maybe a month goes on, you're still thinking about it, that's usually a good signal. Maybe there's something there, but the most important point from my perspective is before you go too far, before you get too latched onto this idea, you really need to think about two things primarily. One, does it solve a real glaring problem? Is it a painkiller? I remember interviewing Dan Hawkins way back in the day. He was actually the founder of Shockwave, the company I mentioned previously, was very early at Intuitive Surgical, was the founder of Avail Medsystems, et cetera, serial entrepreneur. And he phrased, this was back in, I think 2016 or 17, but he mentioned finding a painkiller, not aspirin, not Tylenol, but a real painkiller, something that really causes a lot of pain, whether that's from a cost perspective, whether that's from a workflow perspective, but something that's like, there's a lot of friction there. That's what your idea hopefully solves for, a real painkiller. And then secondarily, if you think you're onto something that solves that real pain point, secondarily, you need to think about this as early in the process as possible. Who's going to pay for it?’’ 09:03 Market ultimately trumps everything in innovation Scott explained why market is the #1 factor for potential entrepreneurs. ‘’I sort of fundamentally believe that market ultimately trumps everything else, right? Now, don't get me wrong, you could have a great product and a great team, but if it doesn't serve a huge market, you're going to have to think about other ways to fund that, right? Maybe it's a product that you can invest your own money in. Maybe it's a product that you can get to market quite quickly and use revenue and profits to support the company's growth, etc. But the reality is you need a big market to serve in order to give you optionality to capitalize and fund your idea or fund the company moving forward. So I do kind of think market trumps everything, because again, you could be working on a great product, have an awesome team, but if the market just doesn't support it, it's likely not going to have a lot of substance there. On the flip side, you could have an awesome market and maybe a decent product and a decent team, but it's probably going to do fairly well because the market supports that need. So, long story short, there's a couple of different ways to think about it. They're all important. ‘’ 12:38 Engage with potential strategic acquirers at an early stage ‘’Obviously you need to be careful and cognizant about not disclosing too much, but the imperative is really to start engaging early on with those, what you perceive as potential strategic acquirers, really under the guise of just an introduction. You're not trying to sell them anything. It's a dating process. You're trying to get to know them, inform them of what you're building, what you're working on, so at least have a high-level idea. And as you continue to make progress against your idea and against your milestones, keep them informed. Not just them, but hopefully potential investors, people that... stakeholders within your community. You want to be communicating the progress that you're making against the idea or the product that you're building. So I can come full circle on your question. I just think it's really sometimes underappreciated, and it's actually a tip that I picked up on from Duke Rohlen, he's the founder of Ajax Health, serial entrepreneurs, had multiple exits under his belt, but he mentioned this, in an interview maybe close to 10 years ago now that I had with him. That was one of the things ...
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    28 mins
  • Managing Purchased Services Contracts | E. 107
    Apr 10 2024
    Purchased services is often the most overlooked expense in healthcare yet offers opportunities for cost savings. Brian Bartel shares his best practices for effective contract management, with Jim Cagliostro. Episode Introduction Brian explains the unique challenges of purchased services, why a centralized contract repository is the first step to successful purchased services management, and why hospitals should never allow contracts to auto-renew. He also explains why ‘’red flags’’ aren’t always necessarily malicious and why it’s vital to question the line-item details of your purchased services invoices. Show Topics Purchased services present a unique challenge in healthcare #1 tip: Create a centralized contract repository Review your contracts on a minimum annual basis Don’t assume all red flags are malicious The hidden cost savings in your line-item details Be inquisitive, be patient, be strategic – and build relationships 06:35 Purchased services present a unique challenge in healthcare Brian explained the difference between supplies and purchased services. ‘’…When you're talking about supplies, it's pretty easy. You've got a specific item number, you've got your power set, your requisitions, everything is very orderly. So things are coming in, you can track it, you've got the data behind it, there's a contract with that line item pricing. And then when you get confirmations back, usually people are using some form of EDI, which makes it relatively easy, and you can track that. Item A is item A, item B is item B. Purchased services is different because it typically is not on a PO. Again, I've worked places where it is, but that comes with its own challenges. It's very department specific, so you've got usually a department manager or leader that's kind of running that point with it. We don't have as much interaction on the supply chain side of this either. Communication is usually kind of sparse between supply chain and a purchased service provider as compared to a typical supply vendor. And again, the data is just, it's more difficult. When you start looking at how things are being invoiced because there's no PO line, it gets very challenging to try to figure out, "Okay, what's actually happening with this spend?" Typically, an invoice will come in, the department manager signs off on it, it gets paid, and that's it. So a lot of opportunity there.’’ 08:30 #1 tip: Create a centralized contract repository Brian said a centralized contract repository was the essential first step to successful purchased services management. ‘’I think that at square one, I think the biggest thing you can do is if your organization or your hospital, your ASC, your clinic, whatever it is, if you don't have a centralized contract repository, that's step one. Again, stepping into certain roles in my past, you've got contracts that might be down in admin. You've got department managers that have signature execution authority and they've got them in their files, and then you realize three years later that there's been this contract that nobody's really paying attention to because it's just a paper copy. Really I think that that's the biggest thing for me is getting your hands around it. Number one, you've just got to have that centralized repository. Again, that doesn't mean that you need to use software. Software obviously makes things easier. I'm a big proponent of that. But again, even just saying, "All right, nobody can sign contracts except for," whether it be your CEO, your CFO. "Send all these down and we're going to put them in a file cabinet." At least then you can go and try to find where those contractual documents are.’’ 10:07 Review your contracts on a minimum annual basis Brian said it’s important not to let contracts auto-renew. ‘’It’s always good to have that check-in annually, even if it’s just pulling the contract, making sure when does this contract terminate? That’s the other thing about automated systems through contract software is that you can set those flags. “Hey, something’s coming up 180 days later.” Again, with things that are just auto-renewing, that’s an issue too. If you miss that window to terminate something that you do want to go out to bid for, or maybe it’s a contract that you don’t need anymore. And I’ve seen, you’ve probably seen it too, 180 day out clause, some of these things. So if you miss that, that’s going to be a problem. As far as reviewing, it depends too on the type of service. Some of them are much more important, and so having a quarterly business review or a semiannual business review is important, and that gives the vendor time to come and showcase what it is that they’re doing too, because at the end of the day, sometimes these people are coming in, they’re doing great work, but nobody really knows except for that department or specific area that they’re there too. ...
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    21 mins
  • Supplier Relationship Management | E. 106
    Mar 27 2024
    Flourishing supplier relationships can transform healthcare organizations. Samer Haddad, shares his experience of building and navigating successful partnerships with Jim Cagliostro. Episode Introduction Samer explains why trust is the foundation of all successful supplier relationships, the importance of human-to-human connection and why a partnership sometimes means giving your partner the benefit of the doubt. He also outlines the key to a successful exit strategy (plan, plan, and plan) and why solid leadership means treating others as you want to be treated, and leaving your ego at the door. Show Topics Supplier relationship management isn’t just a keyword Trust is the foundation of successful relationships Managing multiple suppliers is about more than spend ‘’Partnership is a partnership’’ Managing a successful exit strategy Leadership tip: keeping your ego out of the way 04:33 Supplier relationship management isn’t just a keyword Samer explained how the impact of Covid revealed the importance of strong supplier relationships. ‘’When the world went into COVID and all the crises that came after that, in terms of shortages and everything, I can make a pretty easy judgment that there was a big differentiator between companies who made it and who maybe struggled mainly was supplier relationship management. Because when the real challenge came to the world, companies that invested in relations, companies that had deepened their relationships, especially with the significant suppliers to their production or to their delivery, whatever that is, made a difference. Those were the ones who were able to actually leverage that challenge to their benefit in the market. So they gained market share. The ones who had superficial relations, maybe more towards purely commercial kind of dealings, I think they struggled because, at such a moment, that kind of... I can't call it a human-to-human relation, or personal relation is where things are tested, and when companies need to make decisions, that's always an element. The trust between those organizations is essentially trust between humans that are doing business for years together. So if you just... we learn from the past two to three years it is I think many of my peers in procurement supply chain will vouch to the importance of supplier relationship management in general and not just like a keyword that you use and throw around…’’ 07:09 Trust is the foundation of successful relationships Samer said KPIs can help to measure progress and build trust. ‘’It takes time to build up that trust. So it is very important when we start a relationship that we create the proper agreement because this is why contracts are there. Contracts manage the relationship between parties. And you're establishing basically a baby kind of relation that has no trust yet, and you need to monitor it and start putting in the building blocks of that relation. Usually, in my opinion, that is established by having mutual mechanisms to judging how companies are engaging with each other. That could be the KPIs that you set. And it's not fair only to set a KPI for the supplier that you're establishing a relationship with, especially if you're looking long-term. Some KPIs should be set, maybe not in the contract, not necessarily, but self-imposed as you manage that important relationship that you know about. So you can even monitor internally how you're engaging with that supplier. Now, if you do that kind of fundamental layer of developing that relationship and you start building upon it, with time, trust starts getting improved and starts growing. It's like a baby, and it grows. It becomes an entity.’’ 10:24 Managing multiple suppliers is about more than spend Samer said organizations need to understand how suppliers can impact their business. ‘’…... But let's say what are the top 10 suppliers that basically can make or break your business? Because each business needs to know these kinds of suppliers. What are the suppliers that, if they don't deliver, you're going to have challenges actually delivering to your customer, or it'll affect your quality, or it might basically put you in a different pricing position in the market, which could basically hurt your business? So you need to understand those really well. And what I see as a common mistake is people treat category management as just a function, just an area. Like supplier relationship management. "Oh, you're a procurement person, so you do the procurement, invoicing, all of that. And by the way, you need to just take care of categories. Also, take care of the supplier relationship." It doesn't work. So especially when it's big business, when there's lots of money being moved around, you need people to focus on those suppliers and those categories. So I would recommend that you really understand the suppliers that drive the goals of your business and, at the ...
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    24 mins

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