FEATURED CONTRIBUTOR

Jon Giacomin
Healthcare industry executive
Editor's note: The following interview was originally posted on Becker's Hospital Review site.
Jon Giacomin, CEO of our medical segment, spoke on a keynote panel at Becker’s Hospital Review 7th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable titled “The most pressing issues facing health systems” on Tuesday, Nov. 13.
Question: What's one of the most interesting healthcare industry changes you’ve observed in recent years?
Q: How can hospital executives and physicians ensure they’re aligned around the same strategic goals?
Giacomin: We recognize that all hospitals are feeling the pinch on reimbursement. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) increased access, but reimbursement pressure has offset many of the gains. Furthermore, the transition to value-based care will add to that pressure. The key is a consultative approach amongst hospital executives and physicians to improve the quality of care while reducing cost through standardization of care delivery and by taking advantage of scale where possible.
We’ve seen that bridging operations and clinical worlds can work, even when each side has unique metrics, as long as operations can take a longer-term view of costs and can work with a multi-year roadmap that frees them to make decisions that prioritize care delivery.
Q: What’s one conviction in healthcare that needs to be challenged?
Giacomin: We would challenge the notion that great patient care can’t come first in a value-based world. It’s true that value-based care is designed with quality in mind, but that objective isn’t always realized in implementation and practice. Systems dedicated to delivering quality, value-based care or improving population health must rely on scale, breadth and making seamless connections across their systems.
We realize there isn’t a simple fix here, and we also know that value-based care offers many benefits to patient health. We believe that, for most systems, the chance to reduce costs while enabling better care delivery often begins with elevating supply chain capabilities. This is where scale, breadth and connections across the continuum all add up to tremendous value, but not at the expense of care delivery. In fact, better supply chain supports better care.