Page 36 - Modern Healthcare (January 2020)

‘There is always a way
to find common ground’

Hospitals took some bumps and bruises last year as public angst over surprise billing, MH: At the J.P. Morgan
patient lawsuits and the high cost of care swelled. Many of those policy debates will Healthcare Conference
continue in 2020, but American Hospital Association Board Chair Dr. Melinda Estes a couple of weeks ago,
wants consumers and policymakers to hear a broader story. Estes, the 47th physician to several well-performing
serve as board chair of the 122-year old organization, wants to elevate the perception of health systems talked about
hospitals in public discourse. The CEO of St. Luke’s Health System in Kansas City, Mo., their plans to expand their
is also focused on spreading innovation across the industry. Estes spoke with Modern footprints or grow their
Healthcare Managing Editor Matthew Weinstock. The following is an edited transcript. innovation programs. How
concerned are you about
independent and rural
MH: One of your priorities with our patients, with many communities are hospitals being left behind?
as AHA board chair is to our neighbors, where they often the largest employer,
strengthen the perception live, and looking at other providing good jobs in the Estes: We are worried
of hospitals with both factors that impact their community and are a driver because certainly all
policymakers and consumers. health. The second piece is of the health and vitality of a hospitals are not in the
How can the AHA work on that? trying to continue to elevate community. same position. When we
hospitals and health system And when you look at talk about innovation,
Estes: One of the things leadership into national some of the conversations we tend to talk about
that I’d like to do this year policymaking roles because that are going on in the disruptive innovation or
is work together as a field we need to be sure that as country, one of the things transformational innovation
to shed light on and shape healthcare policy is being that worries our patients and we immediately go to
the conversations about made, that our patients’ is will their hospital be the technology sphere. …
how all of our members— needs are at the core of what there for them when they The flip side of that is there’s
big and small, rural and we’re trying to accomplish. need them to be. There’s an a lot of process innovation
urban, teaching, specialty opportunity then to tell that that does not require large
hospitals—are working MH: Do you feel like some part of the story. dollars, does not require
toward the dual missions of that messaging gets lost tremendous technology
of providing great care because of the debate over MH: Do you mean be there in investment. That’s one
while helping to move our surprise billing or hospitals terms of the financial struggles of the things the AHA is
country’s health system suing patients? some hospitals are facing? working on with our Center
forward. for Health Innovation and
There are so many Estes: What happens Estes: Correct. Given the at conferences for rural
examples on a daily basis sometimes is when you turbulence that we find in hospitals—how do we
of the good work that have an issue like surprise our industry, I think many scale that lower-level
hospitals are doing in billing that takes front of our patients understand innovation to a broader
their communities. And and center, you lose some that hospitals are a bit group of the field?
increasingly not just looking of the other conversation overwhelmed at times and
at the H as the four walls around the day-to-day want reassurance that we MH: The center is 2 or 3 years
of a hospital, but the H as work that’s being done, the will be there to provide the old, right?
health in the community, impact on communities, care they need when they
reaching out and engaging the fact that hospitals in need it. Estes: It is 2 years old.

32 Modern Healthcare | January 27, 2020