Becker's Hospital Review

69 Executive Briefing: Population Health health, they're incentivized to keep people out of the hospital and only provide services that are clearly necessary. That represents a complete change in their business model. Once they've em- braced that change, then operational challenges come into play." Strategic challenges Janet Tomcavage, RN, chief of population health for xG Health Solutions and chief administrative officer for Geisinger Health Plan, says healthcare delivery organizations have never been very good at thinking about a population's needs. "We've been good at taking care of one patient at a time," she says. "Now we're asking healthcare delivery organizations to step back and take accountability across the whole spectrum of care, the whole spectrum of health — from birth, childhood, adulthood to end-of-life care. That's not a place healthcare, traditionally, has been." Health systems must adopt a new mindset under population health, one that is not necessarily incremental in nature. Although hospitals may still largely operate under a fee-for-service pay structure, they are increasingly expected to behave as though they are reimbursed under a pay-for-value model. This means there is much less business as usual. xG Health Solutions experts say the organizations most success- ful in adopting population health behaviors are those with senior leaders deeply committed to the change. The workforce of a hospital or health system may know they need to change their business model, and many even want to do so. But this intent is meaningless without champions in the C-suite. "We find the organizations most successful in moving forward in the transformation process are those with the most senior leaders who believe that the organization needs to change, from the CEO to CFO to chief clinical officer," says Ms. Tomcavage. "I think or- ganizations know they need to change, and many times they want to. However, senior leaders often don't feel a sense of urgency or don't have a strategy for transitioning from volume to value. Both are critical, and organizations that will be most successful have both from the start. Then they empower the people at the next level to implement the strategy." "we find the organizations most successful in moving forward in the transformation process are those with the most senior leaders who believe that the organization needs to change." — Janet Tomcavage, RN, Chief of Population Health, xG Health Solutions Improved Quality X Lower Cost = xG Health Solutions™ Bringing Geisinger proven and results- producing innovative solutions TO YOU. TM Visit us online at xghealth.com/outcomes

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