I recently attended the annual meeting of the American Hospital Association (AHA) in Washington, DC.  As you may know, this organization represents hospitals across America in the world of policy and politics.  They are highly cross-pollinated and in communication with ACHE. This helps to secure two strong pillars of healthcare:  advocacy (AHA) and advancement (ACHE).

When I attend a conference I try to take back as many new or improved ideas as possible. The best quote I heard at this particular conference was from Richard J. Umbdenstock, FACHE, and AHA President. During his keynote address, he emphasized that in the new world of health care reform we must all be prepared to do "better with less." This is a dramatic improvement on the term "more with less." The "more with less" concept simply implies that you work harder to achieve better results, though with less resources. The "better with less" idea challenges us as current and future healthcare leaders to use all the technologies and intellectual resources at our disposal to give America a better return on their healthcare spending.

Thought this is a somewhat daunting task, we have newer and more reliable tools at our disposal to meet this challenge than ever before. The quality revolution in healthcare has shown that unnecessary variation is both dangerous and incredibly expensive. Therefore, as we identify (usually in association with out physician colleagues) the waste in the system, we can truly do better for less! Health information technology (HIT) is also beginning to show some promise, especially as health systems apply computerized provider order entry (CPOE). Studies are showing that once this is integrated with evidence-based triggers and alerts, that there are less errors and more consistent care (I thought I remain optimistic and confident in HIT transforming healthcare over time, I am also quite aware of the challenges to change management, time consumption, etc.).

The fundamental reality is that with the percent of gross domestic product for healthcare continuing to increase, we MUST achieve savings on operations while improving quality. I, for one, am just happy to know that if we work together and use these and other tools at our disposal, we will succeed. If we faced this challenge without reliable tactics it would be truly discouraging. So, I plan to spend the rest of my career making sure that we deliver better care, for less.

Aloha,

Kevin A. Roberts, FACHE
President and CEO, Castle Medical Center
Regent, Hawaii/Pacific

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