Quality care, safe care is less expensive care.

CMS’ decision not to reimburse hospitals for the costs in the aftermath of certain preventable clinical or patient safety events, and with managed care providers poised to follow the government’s lead, there is a significant incentive for CEOs to passionately embrace defect-free care. Hospitals that fail to energize their employees around this moral, strategic and financial imperative will incur thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Hospitals cannot afford these losses.

CEOs cannot delegate this responsibility. They must take the lead and create a sense of passion within the workforce to ensure there are no costly breakdowns or mistakes. Hospitals cannot hide behind their glowing patient satisfaction scores because they do not always reflect quality. Regrettably, a recent ACHE poll showed that only 29 percent of hospital CEOs said that patient safety was among their top three concerns.

Career Management Hint: Next-level recruiters are drilling down to understand CEO candidates’ performance in this vital area of leadership. Tracking your organization’s performance in this area will be a key career metric. Your patient satisfaction scores while nice to know, may not be sufficient to document performance.   JGS