Page 13 - South Florida Hospital News Nov 2021

HEALTHCARE EDUCATION HEALTHCARE EDUCATION

Looking Ahead:

Healthcare Education for 2022

What a year, actually what ed and family health Ultimately, we must understand how
a two years it has been (and issues in turn impacted to be strategic in our thinking. We tend
hopefully it is not a third the ability of health care to be reactionary perhaps especially
year). COVID has had a huge personnel to work. given the special circumstances associat-
impact on our personal lives, Childcare issues impact- ed with COVID. But this is not an envi-
our professional lives, our ed on the ability of health ronment where we can be just tactical. It
healthcare system, our educa- care workers to work becomes essential to understand how the
tional system. It’s interesting when their young chil- health care industry will be impacted by
to think that for the past 40 dren were out of school. significant changes in demographics, the
plus years of my teaching and Add to this the shortage aging of our population, coupled with
research career, that I have of protective supplies to the increasing focus by governments to
used an in-depth class exer- keep healthcare person- contain spending at the federal, state,
cise putting my students on BY STEVEN G. nel as healthy as possible, and local level. These are critical ele-
teams in the role of a health ULLMANN, PHD a function of a supply ments which will impact health care
care system C-Suite watching chain shortage and the providers. Further as insurance
a Pandemic unfolding, asking the teams ethics associated with distribution deci- providers, and employers put increasing
how they would manage, how they sions. Human resource management, pressure on physicians and health care
would lead. I could never have imagined supply chain, health care ethics are all systems to provide quality care at
that this exercise would become a reality. aspects of our educational programs. reduced costs or to be excluded from
But the issues we have been enduring Resultant organizational behavior in a health care networks entirely, providers
for these many months provide signifi- time of crisis becomes far more complex will have to think about how to adjust to
cant insights as to how we go forward in as structures and interactions under the health care environment … in 2022
2022 as it emphasizes the importance of stress require appropriate adjustments. and beyond. It is essential that health
a common vision for the healthcare sys- Budgeting and financing, always diffi- care management and leadership educa-
tem and the various elements of it, the cult in the provision of healthcare where tion reflect these needs.
professionals who serve it and the educa- margins are slim to begin with, requires
tional process which provides concepts far more innovative thinking in terms of Dr. Steven G. Ullmann, Professor and
and critical thinking methodologies nec- revenue enhancement, or at least rev- Chair, Department of Health Management
essary to manage, to lead. enue maintenance and cost containment. and Policy, Director, Center for Health
What have we learned in healthcare Hence the principles of operations Management and Policy, and Special
education as we go forward? It is imper- research and Lean-Six Sigma methodolo- Assistant to the Provost at Miami Herbert
ative that we incorporate disaster pre- gies of process improvement become Business School, University of Miami,
paredness and recovery in our healthcare that much more important. can be reached at (305) 284-9920 or
educational programs. Flexibility and assuring the minimiza- Sullmann@miami.edu.
Thousands of healthcare organizations tion of waste becomes important in times
were completely unprepared to deal with of increased financial stress. Supply
the health crisis we just experienced. All chain efficiencies become critical. All
the aspects of healthcare management must be done in a legally compliant man-
and leadership become critical in times ner, an area with greater and greater
of crisis and these issues cut across disci- complexity.
plines in healthcare management educa- Ultimately, we must remember that we
tion. Let’s step back for a moment and are dealing with people: those who man-
assess where we must adjust our think- age, those who provide clinical services,
ing going forward. those who provide the support services,
The Institute for Health Improvement those that provide the medical supplies
came out a number of years ago with the and devices, those who provide counsel
Triple Aim: Achieving a significantly and ultimately, it is our patients and their
positive patient experience, achieving families, the people, all to be treated in a
metrics of population health, and achiev- compassionate manner.
ing these quality metrics in a cost-effec- There are other areas of health care
tive manner. And now a fourth aim has management and leadership education
been added and that is the quality of the that will be important to address as we
work life experience of healthcare work- move into next year and beyond. Areas
ers, administrative, clinicians, and staff. such as health care technology, from
The Pandemic has truly allowed us to advances in such areas as telemedicine,
understand the importance of this fourth finally reimbursable, to artificial intelli-
aim. As such, our courses need to reflect gence (with the caveat artificial intelli-
upon these aspects of healthcare provi- gence is subject to bias which must be
sion as well. understood).
So let’s begin with human resource The complexity of pharmaceutical
management as there has been no greater pricing, pharmaceutical research, devel-
impact of COVID than this area. opment and production, value-based
Clinicians and staff were providing sup- purchasing, persistent shortage of life
port to our patients when their own lives saving drugs, questions as to how to eth-
were at risk, a risk so far greater than ically distribute, and public relations to
anything we could have imagined. deal with these various aspects of the
Employee family structures were impact- industry are significant.

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