This guest post is by Monica Alleman, a Nurse Practitioner, patient advocate, and passionate member of the Austin Health Tech community.
Darn it! I swore I wouldn’t cry this year but there I was, sitting in the front row at our 2013 Annual Housecalls Summit last week, and my senior VP said something that brought tears to my eyes again. Last year when Suresh, my senior VP, was explaining the importance of accurate time reporting he said, “We are here to serve the patients and we must serve with integrity because I have an honorable vision for this company.” I started crying because in the three years I’d been working as a Housecalls Nurse Practitioner, my organization and my entire team had lived that statement. Even more so since our program, Housecalls , had become part of the United Healthcare group. Now Suresh was up there again discussing the rapid growth of our program. For example, we had grown from an NP workforce of 200 to almost 1000 with projections of over 2000 collaborating NP’s and MD’s by 2014. When Suresh said, “My vision is to ensure that we retain the integrity of our program as we grow. We are here to serve our patients and we must deliver compassion value to our patients. The human power is unique and we should recognize that strength and use it to help our patients,” well, to be honest, I began to cry again.
I’ve since tried to figure out why his words moved me to tears and I’ve realized that it’s because this is a senior VP for a Medicare advantage program talking about the vision for a health care organization. How often in my previous 20 years in healthcare had I heard words like that from my leadership? Okay, I’ve been blessed to have had three or four great leaders who lived the mission, vision, and goals of my organization but they were usually fighting for this vision against other leaders within the organization. They didn’t all share the same vision. Some leaders focused on patient care, some on the business of healthcare, some were intent on retaining the status quo, and still other leaders were intent on promoting evidence based practice but rarely, did all the leaders focus on doing one thing; making sure we all did what was right by the patients to help them live healthier lives. Funny thing is, you can’t do what’s right by the patients without doing right by your employees because as you know, things flow downhill. This program Housecalls is different. The entire leadership team is dedicated to providing a team based approach to patient centered care. EVERY MEMBER of the team is viewed equally and all people are highly valued. There is no hierarchy among the team members. Each member, whether that be the NP, the MD, the social worker, the RN case manager, the IT guy, or the senior VP, they are all appreciated for the unique and valuable knowledge they bring to the table. Any person in the group can make a suggestion on how to improve the program or system and the entire team will work at making those changes happen in real time! Innovation is not only welcomed, it’s encouraged! I’ve watched this program evolve to where it is today and it’s amazing to see how true collaboration not only works and translates to improved health for our members. I’m saying improved health here folks, not just improved healthcare, there is a difference.
So, what does it look like when your entire organization works in unison towards the same vision? It looks like the United Healthcare Housecalls program. We have a 99.7% satisfaction rate among beneficiaries who have had a Housecalls visit. In 2011, our program touched 30% of Medicare patients. Also, in 2011, we published findings that our program reduced readmission rates by almost 20% in dual needs special needs Medicare patients. That translates to billions of dollars in savings to our healthcare system, our organization, and to our patients. In business terms, our program saves money. In individual terms, we keep people out of the hospital and enjoying their lives with their families by just coordinating care better, talking to our patients and finding out what their needs are. The mission of United Healthcare is to help people lead healthier lives which sounds challenging but it isn’t always. Sometimes, when I make a Housecalls visit, all the patient needs to know is to take their iron pills on an empty stomach or they need help figuring out which inhaler is their daily inhaler and which one is their rescue inhaler. It’s little things like this that help people live healthier lives.
At United Healthcare, every relationship and every interaction is built on mutual respect and admiration for the power of the human spirit When you start with a team focused on living the mission, vision, and values of the organization such as integrity, compassion, relationships and innovation, well, to be honest, the performance part just flows naturally from there and in my case, so do the tears. Game on for next year Suresh, game on.