Bruce Lawrence, president and CEO of Oklahoma’s INTEGRIS Health system, talks about the current state of healthcare and gives his perspectives and concerns about its future.
Lawrence acknowledges that it is a challenging time for healthcare, but he also considers it exciting:
“I’m enjoying the strategic aspect of it; spending time with our organization and others around the country trying to determine what we can do to keep providing quality healthcare to those who seek it from us, in an increasingly difficult financial environment.”
Lawrence admits that most people don’t consider those challenges to be enjoyable, but he views grappling with them as an opportunity to find the best solutions out there for the people who are depending on healthcare providers to be there for them in their greatest time of need.
One thing that Lawrence does find frustrating in healthcare right now is a lack of direction at the national level: “There is so much distraction up there right now with the budget and with the deficit and with national defense and with healthcare, that there is a lot of inactivity.” He goes on to say “I don’t envy any of them. I wouldn’t want to be in their positions. But now is the time for our nation to stand up and say ‘we’ve got some real issues we need to get a handle on, and we are going to have to make some tough decisions.’”
When asked what some of his greatest concerns are regarding current and future healthcare in America, Lawrence brings up the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, saying, “I have really tried to focus our organization on the fact that it is now the law of the land, and we have to transform and prepare our organization for that reality.” Healthcare organizations across the nation are grappling with the implications of the ACA and the challenge of caring for more people with less reimbursement. Lawrence explains that his, and every other, healthcare organization has to aggressively work to make the delivery process more efficient and more effective; “We’ve got to improve quality and drive down cost.”
Lawrence shares that INTEGRIS Health adopted the LEAN methodology for process improvement around 2007, and has seen some great results. “So I’m encouraged that we are going to be able to identify the areas of cost reductions and process improvements that we are going to have to make in our organization in the allotted timeframe, by using the methodologies that we’ve had in place for several years now.”
I asked Lawrence if he has any perspectives or points of advice for future healthcare leaders. He responded,
“I believe healthcare is going to continue to be a very dynamic and fulfilling career path. Here’s what I tell young people who express an interest in healthcare: 1) You’ve got to have the ability to communicate at an extremely high level, both in writing and verbally. 2) You’ve got to enjoy being with and helping people. 3) You’ve got to enjoy solving complex problems and be able to get a real team approach focused around that.”
Excellent perspectives and advice from a remarkable healthcare leader!