Can High-Reliability Organization Principles Help Transform Healthcare Delivery in the U.S.?
HIMSS Roundtable Insights Review
This paper was originally posted on HIMSS.org
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the myriad operational vulnerabilities in the U.S. healthcare system. Within a matter of weeks, hospitals and health systems were overwhelmed with an influx of COVID-19 patients and were forced to make difficult decisions in prioritizing limited resources. A significant challenge for many hospitals and health systems was a lack of visibility to patient flow and available capacity within individual hospitals and across integrated health systems. Coupled with a lack of established collaboration across shared geographic regions, healthcare organizations struggled to load balance patients with available staffing and resources. The pandemic highlighted an opportunity for the U.S. healthcare system to become more efficient and effective in delivering care during times of public health crises and beyond.
In April 2022, HIMSS hosted a roundtable discussion with leaders from TeleTracking Technologies and health system executives to look at the operational deficiencies and blind spots they experienced during the pandemic. The discussion focused on how certain organizations were better able to manage through the crisis while continuing to deliver care to non-COVID-19 patients, because they had adopted highreliability organization (HRO) principles.
HRO principles provide a viable option for hospitals and health systems across the U.S. to effectively and sustainably address operational deficiencies exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Often used as the standard operating model for many organizations in aviation, the military and government agencies, HROs provide an opportunity in healthcare to improve operations, access and delivery of patient care. The discussion looks at some of the challenges in adopting HRO principles and shares valuable and actionable insights from healthcare organizations on their HRO journey.
The roundtable was led by Michelle Skinner, Chief Clinical Executive, TeleTracking Technologies; Paul Davenport, Vice President Emergency & Care Management Services, Carillon Clinic; Susan Kilgore, Regional Vice President Operations and Patient Management, Methodist Hospital; Doug Rosendale Consultant, TeleTracking Technologies; and Bill Lovell, General Manager, TeleTracking Government Services, who were joined by individuals from many health systems across the country.
Read the full paper to learn about the 5 principles of an HRO and the 6 strategies for implementing in a health system on HIMSS.org or by downloading here.