Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre - Turnaround in Action: Paul Levy

Extract

[...] Arising of Trouble: Beth Israel and Deaconess were two hospitals with totally different approach towards medical care and patients. BI focused more on personal care and comfort of patients, whereas, D was a more specialized hospital with commercial focus. Upon merger, there were major integration issues and the main areas of trouble can be classified into 3 broad categories: Cultural: Both the hospitals had a very different culture and an amalgamation was not readily possible as BI believed in providing a warm and caring environment to patients while B operated more like a business. [...]

[...] Plans cannot turn around an organization, it's their execution that does it, and either the management failed to understand this or was delusional. Planning: Over and above the inefficiencies highlighted above, the plans laid out by the management were driven more by instinct than facts. Their plans were flawed as there were no milestones and parameters to measure their success. The Missed Way Out: It wasn't really difficult to be out of the situation, especially as the management was aware of the critical issues; it had only to focus in the right direction. [...]

[...] I would openly communicate with the doctors, nursing staff, administration and operational entities to bring them on board for the common goal by liaising within the two hospitals. Team Management: I would meet the heads of all departments to actually get on to the ground reality. Identify their respective area of expertise and once operational problems were identified and corrective actions plans were put in place, I would make a team and the members would be responsible and accountable to report the progress regularly with accomplishment of milestones. [...]

[...] Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre Turnaround in Action: Paul Levy What were the problems that led to the BIDMC getting in trouble? Why did previous turnaround efforts fail? What could be a way out? What would be your priorities as Paul Levy, walking in this case? What, if anything, would you do before taking the job? If you were in Levy's shoes as a new CEO, which would be your objectives for the first week and first month? And, what would you do in day and why? [...]

[...] Pressing issues should have been addressed and decisions should have been immediately taken by the board. A proper governance structure should have been put in place with the correct stake holders given the appropriate responsibility. Financially, better contracts should have been put in place with insurance companies and right cost cutting measure should have been implemented to rectify the situation. The clinical and non-clinical staff should have been reassured with reinstated positive feeling of a better tomorrow which would in-turn be reflected in patient care, thus increasing patients trust and volume. [...]