Posts Tagged ‘health care’

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Health Care UST MBA Profile: Wade Blomgren

Thursday, February 28th, 2013

img_blomgren_wadeWhat does it take to be a leader in health care? For Wade Blomgren, regional business manager at Roche Diagnostics, the answer lies in the ability to collaborate across all facets of the healthcare system. “In health care, there is no one right answer. At a high level, you need to understand the big picture, then find the right people to help figure out the options and get the job done. The key is collaboration – finding others who complement what you do and don’t do well.”

The collaborative environment is what drew Blomgren to the Health Care UST MBA program at St. Thomas for his continuing development. In the midst of a successful career in sales and customer service following 13 years as an army officer, he recognized that he needed to better understand the “big picture” of business and health care to be effective in the new stage of his career as a regional business manager. What better way to gain this understanding than by immersing himself in a program of health care leaders that represent the full spectrum of the industry and range from individual contributors to presidents? “The cohort structure of this program truly allows us to learn from each other and challenges us all to think differently about how to tackle the problems and opportunities facing the industry.”
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Healthy Minnesota Showcases Community-Driven Initiatives

Thursday, October 4th, 2012

Cross-posted from High Performance Health Care

By Stephanie Hegland

What started as a health care policy class last spring for Health Care UST MBA students Laura Templin-Howk and Tina Morey, culminated September 28, 2012, in the Healthy Minnesota: Communities in Action Poster Session and Forum, featuring closing remarks by U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin. Inspired while being in Washington D.C. during the arguments before the Supreme Court on the legality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and encouraged by the legislation’s financial support for proactive, preventive measures (Title IV, Subsection D, “Creating Healthier Communities”), Templin-Howk and Morey sought to showcase Minnesota’s trailblazing community-driven initiatives. And showcase they did, by pulling together 40 examples of why Minnesota continues to lead the nation in healthcare innovation.

Community-led projects throughout the state highlighted the work already being done to improve the health of our communities. Each poster presenter spoke to their projects’ individual mission, success and lessons learned.  View the  event program, with descriptions and contact information for each project. These projects frequently showcased partnerships between communities, healthcare providers and systems, ancillary providers, community agencies and school districts. Let’s face it; it’s not a secret that greater physical activity, eating more fruits and vegetables, regular health screenings, and increased collaboration between providers leads to improved health outcomes for the state’s population. But how to accomplish these improvements? Therein lies the challenge. And further, how will policies, systems and environmental changes be modified to sustain these improvements? (more…)

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Health Care Trendspotting: The Best of Times, the Costliest of Times

Thursday, August 23rd, 2012


By Kate Norlander ’07 M.B.C. from the Spring 2012 edition of B. Magazine.

It’s no secret that medical costs are soaring, and the costs related to treating cancer are particularly high. While costs and treatment decisions are serious issues facing patients, employers, oncologists, pharmacists, insurance companies and politicians, oncology today can be not only scary but also exciting.

“It’s so much better than 20 to 30 years ago,” said Tom Flynn ’71, M.D., president of Minnesota Oncology and a practicing physician in oncology and hematology. “Cancer patients today can get well and enjoy life. This trend will continue as we have better, more effective, less toxic treatments.”

Minnesota Oncology is a physician-owned practice with 58 physicians and nine clinic sites. Flynn is responsible for governance, physician policy development, strategic planning and relationships with outside entities such as hospitals and insurance companies. He is the face of the organization to the outside world and, as a physician leader, he works closely with the executive director of the practice. An alumnus of the University of St. Thomas with a major in chemistry, Flynn shared his views on trends in oncology of particular interest to non-physicians and businesspeople. (more…)

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Q and A with Sen. David Durenberger

Monday, August 20th, 2012

Interview conducted and edited by Lisa Guyott; from the Spring 2012 edition of B. Magazine.

Durenberger

A flawed health care system will take more than mandates to recover; it will take consumer engagement

What are the primary differences between the health care reform movement now versus that of the Clinton administration?
The costs and problems of poor health faced by individuals and by health care providers are much worse. At the same time, the number of Americans without the assurance of affordable financial coverage has doubled. Care providers are getting desperate or they are turning entrepreneurial to improve access and affordability with retail solutions. Information technology has finally reached the health care business, and social media has rocked the doctor-patient relationship.

Public policy solutions to the cost, coverage and quality problems have turned 100 percent partisan for the first time in our history, and distrust of partisan policymakers to make the right decision is at an all-time high. And finally, the collapse of the post-World War II debt/inflation economy has forced policymakers to act on costs and coverage, as President Obama did. (more…)

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UST Panel Highlights 5 Initiatives for Responding to Health Care Reform

Tuesday, July 24th, 2012

This post, by Noi Oan, Full-time UST MBA class of 2013, is cross posted from the High Performance Health Care blog

Last month, I was excited to leave work a little early to attend the “Initiatives for Responding to Health Care Reform” event at the University of St. Thomas. It was one day before hearing the decision from the Supreme Court regarding the future of the Affordable Care Act. Curiosity and anticipation of what going to happen next was the main driver for me to come to the event.

The panel included Jim Eppel, chief operating officer of Blue Cross Blue Shield of MN, Brian Rice, the vice president of Network and ACO Integration at Allina, and John Herman, the president of Fairview Northland Hospital and Maple Grove Medical Center. Dan McLaughlin, the director of the Center for Health and Medical Affairs, moderated the event.

Each panelist brought to the table a unique perspective about the current health care system and the necessary moves to a better future for their organization. However, one theme arose as the common ground for all panelists: the necessity of patient engagement to improve health quality and control total cost of care. Transparency of cost and quality is the essential vehicle to bring about patient engagement and it will be critical in the long-term solution, Jim Eppel emphasized. Brian Rice shared his excitement about testing and learning from patient data. By focusing on the 2-3% of the population that drove most of all health care costs, we can put more effort into engaging this population in a positive way. John Herman pointed to education as the key to patient engagement. Patients should know how to navigate the system and how to take responsibility to their own care. “Traditional episodic care treatment isn’t enough” he pressed.

In addition to hearing from the panelists, the event was designed as an interactive discussion, which fully engaged the audience. The panel shared their thoughts on three main issues before turning it over for audience discussion. The topics were chronic disease management, retail health and high deductible policies, and cost containment. (more…)

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Health Care Technology Impact: Cloud Computing

Thursday, June 21st, 2012

This post, by Rex Njoku, comes from our sister-blog, High Performance Health Care.

As a final year student of Health Care UST MBA cohort 18, I have been challenged with in-depth knowledge regarding the current health care system and the various problems that still exist, such as the rapidly-increasing health care costs, number of uninsured individuals, questionability of the ongoing health care reform, shortage of primary care physicians, etc. The new age of increasing technological advancements, though phenomenal and advantageous, has also brought with it more complexity and problems to resolve, most especially in the health care industry.

A key part of the health care reform involves the use of technology to address a number of health issues such as access, value and cost. Hospitals, if not fully transitioned yet, are now transitioning from paper records to Electronic Medical Records (EMR), a digital and portable version of the medical records used in health care systems that allow storage, retrieval and easy modification of records. To support health reform’s goal of collecting data on providers, determining what treatments are improving outcomes, linking care to payments, determining quality measures, etc., computer support systems are being used everywhere. Increased medical knowledge has brought about more technological advancements in treatment and devices that require computer support. Increases in medical/research data has brought about the need for highly complex computer support systems to analyze and retrieve information. The increase in patient-centric care and social media popularity has also required health care systems and providers to become more technology-savvy. The cloud, social, mobile, consumer, apps, enterprise technologies and more are needed, more than ever, to support these technologies. (more…)

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Capital Investment Decisions in Health Care – Five Questions for Prof. Southard

Tuesday, June 5th, 2012

UST’s High Performance Health Care blog recently talked with Peter Southard, Ph.D., an assistant professor of operations and supply chain management, about his research on capital investment decisions in health care.

SouthardQ: Why did you decide to examine capital investment decisions in health care?

A: Increasing competition and artificially-imposed price controls in health care are forcing caregivers to rethink how they manage their delivery systems. Health care delivery systems must be able to provide extremely high-quality care at reasonable costs. Any variation in the systems and the processes needed to deliver the health care “product” serves to increase the costs and reduce the quality of that health care. The variation does so, partly, by increasing the time needed to deliver the service. One of the primary goals of health care must be, then, to identify and reduce the root causes of variation in its processes and systems.

This need is also true in all decision making processes in which variation, or lack of a consistent framework by which to make decisions, can lead to not only inefficiencies but also costly errors that reduce the hospital’s competiveness and its ability to deliver cost-effective care. One of the decisions impacting a health care system’s cost is the make/buy decision: when to outsource a process and when to maintain the process in-house. If the decision is to “make,” then the next decision is a capital investment one. Our research looks at adapting a framework from another area of business to this decision situation. We apply a Six Sigma quality tool, the Technology Function Deployment (TFD), to develop a practical framework that hospital managers can use to make consistent and effective decisions regarding capital investments versus outsourcing. (more…)

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Rural Demographics Raise Concerns About Health Care Availability

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

C
This post is from the Spring 2012 edition of B. Magazine

There is an allure to country living. Rural residents revel in songbirds, vibrant night skies and a pace of life that rewards quiet and solitude. But like their urban brethren, when health issues arise country residents desire quality, accessibility and affordable care. Unfortunately, statistics show that compounding circumstances are giving rise to a crisis in rural health care.

A recent United Health Group study reveals that in remote areas of the United States, 18 percent of residents are now more than 65 years old, versus the 13 percent national average. Families in rural areas are disproportionately living below the federal poverty level, and people living outside of metropolitan areas have a higher rate of chronic illnesses (hypertension, diabetes, cancer and arthritis) induced, in part, by increased smoking and obesity. The grim picture? Rural residents in our country are older and sicker than urban residents.

These factors alone are enough to have a large impact on insurance coverage and availability in rural areas. To complicate matters, nearly one third of the older rural population is utilizing Medicare or Medicaid as its primary source of coverage versus one quarter of that population in urban areas. Rural Americans are more likely to be uninsured compared to city dwellers, and private insurance coverage rates in rural areas lag behind their counterparts in urban areas by 6 percent. (more…)

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Can Health Care Take Tips From the Marketer’s Playbook?

Monday, March 5th, 2012

The last two days of February finally brought some long awaited (or not, depending on who you ask) snow. The snowfall didn’t stop marketing professionals in the health care industry from coming on campus for a MN AMA Healthcare SIG event focusing on the impact of health care reform for marketers.

This second in a three-part series featured a panel of health care/marketing professionals including Rich McCracken, account director at Haberman, a full-service marketing agency; Kim Wiese, vice president of marketing at Optum; and David Moen, M.D., president and CEO at Fairview Physician Associates. Daniel McLaughlin, director of the Center for Health and Medical Affairs at the Opus College of Business, moderated the panel and facilitated the conversation, which touched on the overall mind shift that is necessary in the U.S. culture, in terms of health care.

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Pomeroy Brings Political Perspective to UST Health Care Conference

Monday, November 7th, 2011

pomeroy1As the final speaker at the 2011 UST Executive Conference on the Future of Health Care, former Congressman Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) provided a pragmatic, hard-headed assessment of the current state and likely destinations of legislative health care reform. With the Affordable Health Care for America Act working its way through the court system and curtailment or outright repeal looming as possible outcomes of next year’s election cycle, the health care market exists in a climate of uncertainty; Pomeroy’s experience on the Health Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee gives him a unique clarity on where things are and where they’re likely to go. (more…)

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