Healthcare Executive talks with Marc L. Boom, FACHE, FACP, president and CEO, Houston Methodist, Texas, on how his organization is employing innovation in their strategies and operations to improve patient outcomes, engage their staff and clinicians, and provide more efficient and positive results.
Here is what he had to say.
Q: Why is the topic of innovation in healthcare important to professional development?
A: Digital innovation is prevalent in every aspect of our lives from the way we buy things to the way we travel and more recently, to how we receive our healthcare. To be a well-rounded healthcare professional, you must embrace innovation and understand the important role it plays in this field—from the clinical to the nonclinical. As with any industry, innovation has the power to disrupt, and healthcare is no different. Successful healthcare professionals must take full advantage of these disruptions or suffer the consequences of ignoring them.
Q: How have you mastered innovation in your organization?
A: At Houston Methodist, we’re mastering innovation through our Center for Innovation, which started as an informal team nicknamed “DIOP,” or Digital Innovation-Obsessed People. This multidisciplinary team works to rapidly develop and implement tech-based solutions to better serve our patients, physicians and staff. The group is tasked with ensuring the organization keeps up with the fast-changing state of healthcare as technology advances and competition increases. Ultimately, its goal is to take a complex healthcare system and make it more accessible to our patients. In less than a year, four different projects have “graduated” and are now being used throughout our system.
Innovation Q&A With Ninfa M. Saunders, DHA, FACHE
Check out what Saunders has to say the same topic.