Unhealthy Industry

From The Australian newspapers’ health section

AT THE COAL FACE: Gabriel James

January 09, 2010

SINCE the introduction of Medicare in 1985 we’ve had more than 20 state and federal health system reviews.

Each identifies lack of money, poor planning and weak primary care as big issues. Each proposes blue-sky goals such as better rewarding of prevention, creating interdisciplinary teams and training more doctors. But what has changed?

If Australian healthcare were a business its stock price would be tumbling. It’s time we recognised that to be sustainable, health must be like any other industry. Instead, our inflexible workforce, burdensome regulation and consumer segregation makes health a nationalised fiasco, with a small proportion of private entities taking the cream.

To continue reading click here.

Does Australia’s health system need to get worse before it can get better?

In 2010, governments across the world will redouble their efforts to reform healthcare. 

Indeed, in most countries, they have been trying for decades. But a recent economic jolt reminded us just how tenuous our prosperity is and has given us a new sense of urgency.

Click here to continue reading my article on Open Forum.

As GP’s retire, we rethink our Healthcare model

Only a few years ago various groups derided the use of nurse practitioners, hospitalists and other ‘non-traditional’ healthcare roles. Whether this was out of genuine concern for patient care or mere professional self-preservation is now irrelevant.

Launceston hospital is being forced to look after around 5000 patients as their GP’s will soon retire. It is one story that bodes poorly for our future.

The good news is that alternatives, that have always made sense from a common sense management perspective, are being considered. For example, The AMA has asked the federal government to do more to support the training of nurses for chronic disease management as GP’s find themselves overwhelmed by the demand these patients create. Lets hope they don’t limit it to that.

Hospitalists will soon be trialled in NSW hospitals. The realization that specialist silo’s can be bad for patient care has forced this issue. It remains to be seen how this new role in managed with the usual territorial issues already arising (see comments below article). Perhaps the doctors will remember to put the patients first!!

Web 2.0 Management Tools

HR and people management would have to be the trickiest little area for any bottom line driven manager. It’s necessity has driven the creation of a variety of assessment tools and development programs.

Now the power of the web is again showing itself with the creation of a tool featured in this weeks Economist: Rypple.

Rypple is an online Performance Management solution. It uses the power of web networking to generate ‘giving and getting honest, direct, and insightful feedback to employees’. Rypple allows frequent assessment and eases the burden on supervisors. 

How does it work? Employees establish a network of trusted peers, mentors and managers whose opinions they value. They can then send out short questions, such as “What did you think of my presentation today?”, to which their network’s members can respond online. The responses are kept anonymous so that, at least in theory, employees cannot tell who has made them.

Rypple also allows users ask members of their networks to measure their performance against a scale, so they can track how they are doing over time. It also lets employers see what “tags”, or overarching themes, are being used most often in questions. If, say, creativity is key to a firm’s success but there are few requests for feedback on employees’ creativity, then bosses can tell they have not done enough to communicate their priorities.

Companies that have road-tested the product claim it puts the onus of professional development on the employees – a good thing for all – and reduces the importance of the much maligned performance reviews most groups now use.