Cast & Curious

Tag: leadership

  • How Change is Ushered in Healthcare

    Pre pandemic, it is said that among service industries, change is predictably most difficult in the healthcare profession. There are several reason for this, but because processes in healthcare are already often complex, and sometimes ambiguous, embedding a new culture happen at a very slow pace. Take the pre pandemic research to standards of care policy change and implementation. It usually takes a decade for new promising research result to become standards of care in clinical medicine. This is even longer in the field of surgery.

    Interestingly, it took us a pandemic to change some of our long held beliefs and practices. Vaccine development and approval for public use for example, took a lightning speed compared to pre pandemic process development and implementation. The use of telemedicine as an adjunct to clinical care also took a “boost” during the pandemic. There’s a saying that necessity is the mother of all inventions, but I guess we cannot wait for another pandemic like scenario to usher change in healthcare. Thus, whatever ushered the lightning speed changes to the healthcare industry during this pandemic, is worth reflecting and replicating. This will be the topic of our tweet chat this Saturday Feb 25, 2023 9:00PM Manila time.

    [su_box title=”Ushering change in the healthcare industry”]
    [su_list icon=”icon: hand-o-right”]

    • T1. What ushered the rapid behaviour changes observed among healthcare professionals during the pandemic?
    • T2. What ushered the rapid process change observed in the healthcare industry during the pandemic?
    • T3. What leadership or management culture that ushered the rapid behavior and process change in the healthcare industry? [/su_list] [/su_box]

      To join the tweet chat, just introduce yourself, answer the above guide questions on prompt and append the hashtag #HealthXPh” to your tweets. See you!

      Image by wavebreakmedia_micro on Freepik

  • Five important reasons why health leaders need social media

    Like it or not, internet and social media are part of today’s health environment. Understanding social media is key to surviving this environment. Flexible leaders harness social media to meet better health care experience for patients. Here are the five important reasons why health leaders need to learn and harness social media:

    1. A social media post made you or your institution (in)famous.

    Most unfortunate route to learning the ropes of social media. Many health leaders stumbled social media this way. Its never too late though. Stay calm. Plan a prompt, well thought out social media response strategy.

    2. You’re not health information’s sole gatekeepers anymore thanks to internet and social media.

    Gatekeepers hold the key to information and provisions of care in the 20th century. That’s not the case in this generation. Health information is accessible to many people. Some patients wants greater participation in managing their health. Fortunately, a health professional- patient partnership is not only feasible via social media. The partnership showed better health outcomes in some areas, while lowering cost of delivery in others.

    3. Your value system is in conflict with the new value system arising from internet and social media empowered generation.

    New value system with internet and social media

    We’ve hone our leadership skills and toolboxes before internet and social media. Radical transparency a value the current generation espouse, annoys many leaders. Understanding this new value system is key to providing better health care outcomes, at a reduced cost for this generation.

    4. New and social media amplified health expectations is different from what existing system provides.

    Patients expect better healthcare experience

    With readily available information and new value system comes new health care expectations. Unmet health expectations lead to clashes and divorce in health partnerships. Fragmented health systems called silos, provide irrelevant care at skyrocketing cost.

    5. Patients and their support group wanted greater participation in managing their health.

    Internet and social media made health information accessible to everyone. Providing care though, is still in the hands of trained professionals. This may not be the case for long as many patients including their family and support groups, wanted greater participation in managing their health. It’s no surprise that social media is the platform of choice. The sooner we accept this, the better prepared we are in harnessing social media for better health care.

    Social media is here to stay. I may have painted a bleak picture but there’s a way to harness social media for better health. Leaders should be flexible enough to partner with patients in this regard. It is their health after all.