Journal of Healthcare Management - July/August 2015 - (Page 243)

O P E R A T I O N S A N D S T R A T E G Y Finding the Path to Innovation Daniel B. McLaughlin, director, Center for Health and Medical Affairs, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Jack Militello, PhD, professor and academic director, Healthcare, University of St. Thomas I n our previous column (see the Operations and Strategy column in the May/June issue of JHM), we noted that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has become a disruptive force in the management of healthcare institutions. Industry leaders have been put on the defensive in their need to address mounting financial and operational concerns. We suggested that healthcare managers need to balance financial challenges with innovative programming that enhances their strategic mix to find new ways to counter the disruption from the ACA. A M O D E L F O R I N N O VAT I O N I N H E A LT H C A R E Innovation means change, whether it is incremental or on the "big bang" level. Regardless of the scope of the innovation, it must be real in the sense that it results in a true improvement in quality. A true quality improvement follows the discovery of a market need for something that fits with the organization's purpose. An effective innovation will be tightly aligned with the organization's mission. This alignment can be gauged through an organization's internal data on finance, operations, and quality. However, it also needs to be judged through focus groups, exit surveys, and general discussions with customers. Our innovation model touches on three activities: (1) aligning the organization's purpose with its markets, (2) piloting ideas, and (3) learning from a variety of stakeholders in and outside of the traditional healthcare domain. In our previous column, we touched on three organizations that are following this innovation path. Here, we broaden the description of our innovation rubric. In doing so, we focus on one particular innovation initiated by the UnitedHealth Group (UHG) in the area of health literacy: the Just Plain Clear© program. Align With Mission and Your Customer Needs The UHG mission is "helping people live healthier lives," and the firm continually asks itself and its customers how it is doing. The impetus for the Just Plain Clear program came from a number of sources. The ACA mandate for "plain language" in communications with patients and customers led to discussions within UHG that revealed the firm was not able to communicate effectively with its customers (S. Rush, UHG, personal communication, January 2015). If UHG could not communicate, it could not fulfill its mission of "helping people live healthier lives." A review 243

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Journal of Healthcare Management - July/August 2015

Journal of Healthcare Management - July/August 2015
Contents
Interview With Mario J. Garner, EdD, FACHE, President and CEO of New Orleans East Hospital
Finding the Path to Innovation
Trending in 2015: Population Health
Nurse Against Nurse: Horizontal Bullying in the Nursing Profession
A Community Hospital–County Health Department Partnership to Reduce Preventable Readmissions: Lessons Learned for Population Health Management
Pay for Performance: Are Hospitals Becoming More Efficient in Improving Their Patient Experience?
Facilitating Implementation of Interprofessional Collaborative Practices Into Primary Care: A Trilogy of Driving Forces

Journal of Healthcare Management - July/August 2015