Within the lifetime of a healthcare system CEO, there’s at all times one thing to fret about.

This has been very true in latest weeks for John Couris, CEO of Tampa Common Hospital. His group has weathered not solely the proverbial stormy waters of accelerating denials and an ongoing scarcity of nationwide suppliers – but additionally the literal stormy waters that roared throughout Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.

Once I sat down with Couris final week on the HLTH convention in Las Vegas, I requested him what considerations maintain healthcare system CEOs like himself awake at night time. He responded instantly.

“I feel the most important drawback is our lack of ability as an trade to coordinate care successfully and at scale,” Couris stated.

He famous that whereas there are lots of healthcare programs launching revolutionary initiatives to make a distinction of their native communities, the reality nonetheless stays that medical outcomes within the US are “common at finest.” Healthcare prices proceed to rise and vary between 17 and 21% of GDP, he added.

This value trajectory is unsustainable – and it doesn't create worth for American sufferers, Couris stated.

“There may be an lack of ability to coordinate care effectively and successfully – and to interrupt down silos, get rid of friction and scale back fragmentation. That provides to the price and high quality challenges we face,” he famous.

In response to Couris, healthcare leaders ought to concentrate on “the fundamentals” till these points are resolved. This implies prioritizing decision of points associated to entry, care coordination, and patient-provider friction.

For instance this concept, he recalled a panel he attended at HLTH.

“I listened to a panel discussing their views on healthcare and what our issues had been. They approached it from an employer and payer perspective – and I heard one panelist say, 'Properly, employers don't actually have to fret about entry and the way lengthy it takes to get an appointment. They need to suppose extra strategically about insurance coverage for his or her workers.” My argument in opposition to that individual could be: in case you can't take away the blockage and deal with it, how are you going to truly take care of the larger issues in a considerate method? Courier defined.

Healthcare organizations from throughout the trade — comparable to hospitals, payers, employers and pharmacies — want to return collectively and “get severe” about fixing entry and care coordination points earlier than diving deep into flashy initiatives, he stated.

In response to Couris, these issues can not merely be solved with new technical instruments. With out considerate collaboration from healthcare gamers throughout the trade, these issues will proceed to worsen, he said.

Picture: FG Commerce, Getty Photos