IDN Summit (IDN): In his 2006 Report to the Community, Alan Aviles states that, like its surrounding community, HHC “consistently transforms itself and continually redefines quality in pursuit of patient-centered care”. From your viewpoint, how does HHC achieve that?

Frank Cirillo: HHC is one of the few entities in the country that has an electronic medical record (EMR). We have had one for 12 years. That gives us the ability to mine data in order to impact the healthcare of our patients and improve quality.

The national cost of healthcare is projected to be 20% of our nation’s GDP by 2016. Obviously, this level of growth is not sustainable, and has led Medicare and Private Payers to challenge healthcare organizations to justify their true cost of care.

As a result, healthcare organizations realize that understanding their true cost of care is now a strategic imperative, and developing this capability as a core competency provides a significant competitive advantage in Pricing Transparency, Physician Affinity and Payer negotiations. Active leadership from supply chain executives is essential for organizations to achieve these objectives.

In today’s healthcare climate, it has become increasingly important to know much more than the statistics of your organization’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – you must also know how to utilize them effectively. KPIs are fast becoming a mandatory requirement as it relates to not only healthcare executives’ successes, but to an organization’s funding and their ability to ultimately predict long-term sustainability. At the recent Spring IDN Summit & Expo, attendees participated in a session focused specifically on KPIs and learned that a successful application involves the integration of an organization’s vision, a focus on customer needs, and a culture of accountability. With research conducted by Appleseed Healthcare Resources (AHR), this article will elaborate those steps, mindset, and best practices needed to implement a successful KPI.