By Pamela J. Gallagher

In my decades of leadership in healthcare, I have learned the hard way that not every person with a “C” in their title or who has been appointed to a board of directors understands what it means to lead. These deficient “leaders” are always looking for a magical solution to their organization’s issues, without considering that their insufficient leadership might be their common source. In turn, the inability to lead results in the leader deflecting attention from their deficiencies in performing their role by creating division among staff, diverting attention to nonessential issues or programs, and stirring up dissension.

By Pamela J. Gallagher

Everywhere I see headlines about “The Great Resignation.” Many are pontificating about why people are leaving jobs or about unemployed individuals’ motivations for choosing to delay looking for a new position. However, I am particularly concerned with the employees who are left behind to pick up the slack as open positions remain unfilled.

By Pamela J. Gallagher

Healthcare organizations spend tens of millions on sophisticated data collection and storage, yet it is hard to define what data is worth to an organization.

By Pamela J. Gallagher

It’s been 18 months since COVID-19 changed everything, and I am exhausted. We have endured tremendous loss as a society: loss of life, finances, jobs, routines, community…and the list goes on. Coping with uncertainty has become “normal.”

By Pamela J. Gallagher

Healthcare organizations spend tens of millions on sophisticated data collection and storage, yet it is hard to define what data is worth to an organization. What is its true value? This depends entirely on how the organization uses it. If an organization does not understand how to interpret and make use of their current and historical data, they will not optimize the return on this significant investment.

By Pamela J. Gallagher

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many healthcare professionals were making predictions about telehealth’s effectiveness and the possibility of its post-pandemic adoption (including me). Nearly a year after the rapid rise in telehealth usage brought on by the virus, we are starting to get a clearer picture of telehealth’s role in the healthcare landscape as we inch closer to post-pandemic life.

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By Pamela J. Gallagher

For organizations and their leaders, the past year has been one of upheaval, intense challenges, and new opportunities. The word resilience has been on the tip of every leader’s tongue and the subject of many articles. The leadership of organizations that have been able to rapidly and repeatedly adapt or pivot as the world changed demonstrated that resiliency is the key to success.

Resilience is “one of the great puzzles of human nature,” as Diane Coutu reflects in her 2002 article in Harvard Business Review. How is it that some are crushed by seemingly impossible circumstances, while others rise to the occasion and thrive? As I have reflected on this question as our society begins to reach a post-pandemic equilibrium, there are two principles that stand out to me as key pieces to the resiliency puzzle.

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By Pamela J. Gallagher

The need for strong leadership in the healthcare industry has come into stark relief during the pandemic. Good leaders shined, while organizations whose executives were only equipped to deal with the status quo struggled. COVID-19 has tested the abilities and skills of healthcare leaders. The ones who embraced uncertainty, had built strong teams, and lived by their personal and organizational values before the pandemic have led most effectively during this past year.

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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.

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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.

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By Pamela J. Gallagher

In 2019, emergency departments (ED) across the U.S. saw an average of 2.1 million patients per week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Over the past several decades, healthcare organizations have invested large amounts of money, time, and effort to study the trend of ever-increasing numbers of high-utilizers in the ED and discover solutions to slow this growth. Hospitals have offered care navigators, clinics for less emergent issues, and countless other alternatives, but with next to no progress. People, it seems, just wanted to come to the ED.

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By Pamela J. Gallagher

In recent decades, many companies have adopted the maxim, “Do what you do best, and outsource the rest.” From the ability to focus on the core of their business to gaining outside expertise to boosting their quality of service, there are many reasons outsourcing may be appealing to an organization.

By Pamela J. Gallagher

Hiring an interim executive has long been thought of as a band-aid solution on the heels of an unexpected resignation or a way to give a potential new leader a trial run before committing. But with more businesses and health organizations taking on flexible staffing approaches combined with the ups and downs of the economy over the past 15 years, companies have realized the financial and strategic benefits of engaging an interim executive rather than seeking to make an immediate permanent hire.

In the current COVID crisis, businesses are dealing with extreme levels of uncertainty and unpredictability as they try to make wise decisions for their employees and the future of their organizations. The high-flexibility, high-expertise nature of interim executives makes them an especially viable solution in times of crisis to keep companies moving forward strategically yet cost-effectively.

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By Pamela J. Gallagher

Whether in reports from journalists, briefings from government officials, or socially-distanced conversations with next-door neighbors, “unprecedented” seems to be the word on everyone’s lips these days.

It is certainly true that in the United States, we have not experienced anything quite like the societal, economical, and public health impacts of COVID-19 in our lifetime. However, if we look into the not-too-distant past, we see that today’s events are not entirely unprecedented, and that the past may offer perspective to the healthcare industry as we find a way forward.

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By Pamela J. Gallagher

There is reluctance in the healthcare industry to adopt new price transparency technology. Some healthcare providers are ignoring it all together, saying they’ll wait and see if anything comes of it.

But this technology isn’t “coming.” It’s already here. With the technology in place and demands for increased affordability coming from consumers and legislators alike, this technology is just one little tilt from being mainstream—and I believe that it can change the healthcare industry for the better.

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By Pamela J. Gallagher

The relationship between physician and patient, has been the foundation of healthcare, built on empathy, honesty, and trust. Will moves toward increased price transparency change this foundational aspect of healthcare?

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By Pamela J. Gallagher

The federal government has introduced price transparency policies in hopes that consumers will be able to compare services and receive quality care that won’t break the bank. But not enough has been done to equip consumers to determine the overall value of the care they receive.

By Pamela J. Gallagher

With increased calls for healthcare pricing transparency from consumers and government entities alike, hospitals’ chargemasters are moving from proprietary information to public knowledge. However, putting chargemasters under the microscope has not led to the clarity that patients are seeking regarding quality care at a price they can afford.

Nearly two-thirds of physician respondents in a 2019 NEJM Catalyst survey said that patients do not have enough information to affect the cost of their own healthcare–related decisions, and more than three-quarters of respondents say that assessing the total cost of care is extremely challenging for patients.

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By Pamela J. Gallagher

With an unprecedented number of healthcare provider mergers and acquisitions in recent years and new requirements being ushered in with the Affordable Care Act, healthcare professionals are in a constant state of technology systems transition. Though replacing a legacy system can be necessary and even beneficial to patient care or a hospital’s bottom line, times of transition deeply impact the people these organizations are relying on to provide quality care and keep the healthcare organization running efficiently.

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By Pamela J. Gallagher

A hospital’s charge description master (CDM), or chargemaster, is often referred to as the “heart” of the healthcare revenue cycle. It includes codes for every procedure, material used, medication, and service that a healthcare organization provides its patients. It is the structure that drives the hospital, and is the starting point for billing patients and insurers and complying with public reporting. A typical health care system chargemaster may contain 15,000 to 25,000 entries, according to Becker’s Hospital Review.

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By Nick Hut

Research conducted by HFMA and sponsored by EPSi shows that healthcare organizations are still grappling with technological and cultural issues as they attempt to implement effective analytics programs.

• More than 80% of healthcare finance leaders expect their investment in analytics programs to increase over the next two years, according to a new HFMA survey.

• Technological and cultural issues are two of the leading impediments to realizing a return on analytics.

• One way to overcome those obstacles is to ensure the analytics program is molded to the needs of the end-user.

Although healthcare organizations increasingly recognize the importance of incorporating analytics in their day-to-day operations, executing that strategy remains a thorny task.

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By Pamela J. Gallagher

When an executive leaves unexpectedly or major personnel changes occur, the void is felt at all levels of the organization. Rather than rushing to return to a feeling of equilibrium, I believe one of the best ways for healthcare organizations to make the right permanent hire and position the organization for long-term success and stability is to first hire an interim manager.

Interim managers do more than just “hold down the fort” until a permanent hire can be made. Interims bring their expertise, perspectives, adaptability, leadership and motivation skills, and entrepreneurial mindset to the challenges your organization is facing. An interim executive comes in with an analytical mind and unbiased view to help your organization achieve sustainable results in a short amount of time, allowing you the time to iron out persistent organizational issues and assess your needs so you are better positioned to make hiring decisions with purpose and wisdom.

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