Chicago-based Northwestern Medicine Health Network has seen double-digit growth in new patient appointments and heart services, thanks in part to a dyad partnership model among its leaders.
New patient visits in the Health Network have had a compound annual growth rate of 17% over the last five years. Within cardiology services, echo is up 16%, interventional cath and valve procedures up 19% and cardiac and vascular surgery cases up 23%.
Growth is not slowing down, in large part due to the dyad partnership among leaders that meets needs before they bottleneck.
Sarah Plaskett, PA, vice president of operations for Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute
Northwestern Medicine Health Network has worked with R. Kannan Mutharasan, MD, medical director of health network development at Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute, for years, but their dyad partnership was formalized 10 months ago. As part of this leadership model, they oversee the growth of 10 hospitals outside of the downtown academic medical campus.
This dyad allows their complimentary skill sets to be used to the fullest. Dr. Mutharasan’s understanding of the state of medical evidence and where medicine is heading allows him to predict what services and care the system will need in the future. Ms. Plaskett complements this with her understanding of capacity constraints and how to move capital requests through a large organization. This allows both to prepare throughput and resources, while hiring the right talent to meet operational needs.
“We’re never caught flat-footed by a growth bottleneck,” Dr. Mutharasan told Becker’s. “We’re planning three, sometimes four years ahead.”
The model rests on the cardiovascular institute’s flywheel: hone in on clinical excellence, which drives reputation, which in turn drives growth and allows the system to provide more services to the community, Dr. Mutharasan said.
“To me, it’s all about execution,” Ms. Plaskett told Becker’s. “When it comes to strategy, we’re always trying to predict — not just future recruitment needs, but the infrastructure required to support the procedures and patient volume that will result from that growth. When people know which direction the boat is heading, they can follow, and they get genuinely excited about the vision and the care we’re delivering. Our success resides in the people.”
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