Journal of Healthcare Management - March/April 2014 - (Page 87)

i nterview found that being with people who are at the forefront of changing healthcare and business in general allows me to bring back new ideas and ways of thinking about our organizational challenges. However, you can only become active in outside organizations with the confidence that your "day job won't suffer" because you have an incredibly highfunctioning and well-developed team. Most of us are invited to participate in regional and national events because of our experiences and accomplishments in our home organizations. If you aren't actively involved in, and paying attention to, your own strategy and operations, you aren't doing your job and will have far less value in other venues. Dr. O'Connor: Challenging issues, with much attendant divisiveness, are emerging with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). What does this divisiveness mean to the industry and to how healthcare organizations provide care and conduct business? How do you see healthcare transforming as the ACA unfolds over time? Ms. Borgstrom: I'll start with a personal bias, which is that the ACA is an imperfect but very important piece of legislation. Our organization and many of the national groups I belong to got behind it early on. Change is inevitable and necessary in healthcare, and with the federal and state governments so engaged, the "market" alone could not evolve healthcare. So legislation made sense to me. However, it is clear that the federal government faltered on some aspects of the implementation of the ACA to date. But we need to remember that healthcare is a big, complicated industry and that no single piece of legislation will set the system right. I believe the reform process will be iterative, and we will need to be patient. But we must continue to expect and demand as much as possible from our legislators who put the ACA in place. If certain elements of reform do not work out, scrap them and try something new, but keep it moving. Dr. O'Connor: You have achieved so much in your career, what is left for you to accomplish? Ms. Borgstrom: This is the kind of question where I ask, "Am I dead yet?" There is still much to accomplish both within and outside of healthcare. Many very successful people in this field go on to do other really great things in their communities, on outside boards, or in consulting. I may have accomplished some important goals, but I think a lot of good is still ahead of me. I would really like to get into teaching and doing some mentoring, but I still have some more work to do here before they kick me out! Dr. O'Connor: What do you like best about your job? Ms. Borgstrom: When one becomes the senior leader of an organization, there is a big transition from a lifetime of being a "doer" to accomplishing things through other people-effectively becoming the orchestra conductor. The real challenge is 87

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Journal of Healthcare Management - March/April 2014

Journal of Healthcare Management - March/April 2014
Contents
Interview With Marna P. Borgstrom, FACHE, President and Chief Executive Officer, Yale New Haven Health System, and Chief Executive Officer, Yale-New Haven Hospital, Connecticut
Specialties: Missing in Our Healthcare Reform Strategies?
Costs and Benefits of Transforming Primary Care Practices: A Qualitative Study of North Carolina’s Improving Performance in Practice
Governing Board, C-suite, and Clinical Management Perceptions of Quality and Safety Structures, Processes, and Priorities in U.S. Hospitals
Use of Electronic Health Record Documentation by Healthcare Workers in an Acute Care Hospital System
Why Hospital Improvement Efforts Fail: A View From the Front Line

Journal of Healthcare Management - March/April 2014