Huron Healthcare Q&A with Dr. Andrew Ziskind on Care Delivery

Dr. Ziskind Leads Huron Healthcare’s Clinical Solutions

CHICAGO--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--The fundamental imperative for moving the healthcare business model from volume to value involves re-imagining the care delivery model in ways that make care more efficient and effective. Dr. Andrew Ziskind, managing director and Clinical solutions leader, Huron Healthcare, has more than 25 years of experience spanning clinical care and academic health system leadership on both the physician and hospital/health system sides.

In this Q&A, Dr. Ziskind addresses three questions on care delivery:

Q:	What are you seeing and hearing as a top priority for organizations in their move towards providing value-based care?
Ziskind:	Building the infrastructure and culture to deliver highly reliable, cost-effective and high quality care is essential. This will require unprecedented alignment between hospitals and physicians, as well as the development of clinical analytics. Ultimately, predictive analytics will allow care delivery resources to be focused where they provide greatest benefit. And of course the definition of "care" will need to be broader than the four walls of a hospital.
Q:	What's your take on the accountable care organization (ACO) model?
Ziskind:	Although ACO's were initiated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), commercial payers are now driving much of the market momentum. Whether or not an organization embraces an ACO model, virtually all must develop ACO-like competencies. The bottom line is that clinical and financial risk is being pushed toward providers, so they must become more and more proficient in managing and coordinating care.
Q:	What's one of the biggest shifts hospital executives will need to make in thinking about their relationships with patients in the new healthcare frontier?
Ziskind:	Healthcare providers need to start thinking about building and sustaining relationships with patients in new ways. We can learn a lot from customer relationship management (CRM) strategies used in other industries. Enhancing "patient stickiness" is especially vital for organizations participating in CMS ACOs, where patients have free choice to move between providers. If a patient's care and costs are attributable to you, and you've made an investment in preventive care for that patient, you want that patient highly satisfied and completely loyal.

In addition, Huron Healthcare recently released, Leading Through Transformation: Top Healthcare CEOs’ Perspectives on the Future of Healthcare, Insights from the Huron Healthcare CEO Forum. The report shares insights from CEOs, and from executives outside the healthcare industry, who participated in the second annual Huron Healthcare CEO Forum.

If you are interested in speaking with Dr. Ziskind or another one of Huron Healthcare’s experts on issues impacting hospitals, health systems or academic medical centers, please contact:

Jennifer Frost Hennagir

312-880-3260

[e-mail]

Jenna Nichols

312-880-5693

[e-mail]

About Huron Healthcare

Huron Healthcare partners with clients to provide comprehensive performance improvement solutions that improve quality, increase revenue, reduce expenses, and increase physician, patient, and employee satisfaction across the healthcare enterprise. Clients include national and regional integrated healthcare systems, leading academic medical centers, community hospitals and physician practices. Modern Healthcare ranked Huron Healthcare third on its 2011 list of the top 20 largest healthcare management consulting firms. Learn more at www.huronconsultinggroup.com/healthcare or follow us on Twitter: @Huron.

About Huron Consulting Group

Huron Consulting Group helps clients in diverse industries improve performance, comply with complex regulations, reduce costs, recover from distress, leverage technology, and stimulate growth. The Company teams with its clients to deliver sustainable and measurable results. Huron provides services to a wide variety of both financially sound and distressed organizations, including healthcare organizations, Fortune 500 companies, leading academic institutions, medium-sized businesses, and the law firms that represent these various organizations. Learn more at www.huronconsultinggroup.com.