The Decisions We Make

 

Several years ago, the healthcare consulting firm that I owned and operated, American Healthcare Consulting LLC, was selected to do a financial, legal, and operational turnaround for a two-hospital system in the Northeast.  This assignment was on a par with mission impossible.  The organization had two days of cash on hand, 24 of the physicians on the medical staff were in harm’s way with the U.S. Attorney for Medicare Fraud and Abuse and the clinical outcomes were rather poor.

I served at interim CEO and put in a team equal to the challenge.  With the help of outside legal counsel, we were successful in negotiating a consent decree for each physician in trouble with the U.S. Attorney.  This may well be the most challenging assignment of my lifetime.  In my experience, physicians who have made mistakes, intentionally or unintentionally, behave like the rest of us.  They are in denial.  Facilitating a successful outcome with them is nearly impossible.

To make a long story short, we enjoyed enormous success in the nine months our team lived and worked there.  We were able to recruit a first-rate permanent management team, the cash position returned to normative levels, the clinical outcomes were dramatically improved, and the system operated profitably.  We made friends for life and we left.

We left with the expectation that the system would go on to operated imperatively in a successful manner.

Well, trouble in paradise.  As I understand it, conflict over operational decisions erupted on the management team.  There was conflict over whether to build an outpatient surgical center, should the system purchase physician practices and should the system build and operate more outpatient clinic to name a few.  Decisions were made.  The hospital system cratered financially.

The Board of Directors sold the system to a for-profit corporation who invested nearly $100,000,000 in capital to turnaround the healthcare system

 

again.  They brought in a new management team and took to the task and they failed.  Their investment was squandered.

The two hospitals and all their ancillary facilities have closed.  Every employee has lost their job and access to care has been severely limited to the communities served by one of these two hospitals.  For me, it is particularly sad because I feel like I wasted nine months of my life. 

So, what is the takeaway.  Whether it is in our personal lives or the decisions we make in business, those decisions really matter and have far reaching implications.  Unfortunately, many people have a decision-making strategy that goes something like this, “Ready, Fire, Aim”.  People who live like this must live with the consequences.

 

Jan Ricks Jennings

Senior Consultant

Senior Management Resources

Jan.Jennings@EagleTalons.net

JanJenningsBlog.Blogspot.com

724.733.0509 Office

412.913.0636 Cell