The Nashville Health Care Council Fellows class of 2018 gathered 31 industry leaders to spend 64 classroom hours dissecting the most pressing issues in healthcare.
In their 2018 year in review white paper, this year's fellows outlined the eight most important takeaways from their conversations.
1. Fellows have to fix healthcare because Washington won't. While Congress has been slow to pass the kinds of healthcare reforms they have discussed, individual organizations can drive change by collaborating with one another.
2. We need a new perspective to solve the opioid crisis. Part of what has contributed to the opioid crisis is a fundamental misunderstanding of the science behind behavioral health treatment for opioid addiction.
"If you don’t understand the science, no matter how much you try to treat just the acute episode itself, you’re going to fail," said Bill Frist, MD, founder of the fellows program.
3. The American social compact is broken. The inequity within the U.S. healthcare system, compared to other highly developed nations, demonstrates that our government must forge a new understanding about its role in healthcare with those it governs.
4. To make medicine more effective, physicians must redefine it. Only about 20 percent of the average person's health is determined by care, and physicians must change the definition of what healthcare is and how providers can begin to tackle the remaining 80 percent, including social determinants and diet.
5. Listening is key to leading in healthcare. Top-down leadership will no longer cut it in healthcare, and in order to promote integration among many moving parts, leaders must solicit feedback from all organizational stakeholders.
6. The outsiders are already here. Healthcare leaders often talk about disruption as if it is a future threat, but outsiders are already in the industry. Providers and payers must prioritize innovation to the same degree as their new competitors.
7. Sometimes the best innovation strategy is to get out of the way. Technology companies are creating many innovative services, and in order for them to have a positive impact, providers must give them the time and space to develop.
8. There's money in good, value-based companies. Value-based initiatives require a significant upfront investment, but many systems are already seeing significant benefits from these investments.