The 18 Lost Healthcare Management Skills

“Don’t forget the value of human contact! In an era of text messages, tweets, and emails, it’s easy to forget that the best way to communicate is verbally―in person or by phone. Likewise, we forget that a written message on paper is far more meaningful than an e-mail. It’s the personal touch that makes a difference for thank-you notes and invitations. They’re always remembered.”

−John Holaday, PhD, chairman, founder and CEO of DisposeRx, Inc., Sanford, NC, which provides a solution for at-home disposal of leftover medications

“This seems like such a simple idea. Yet it can be easy to forget in challenging situations, when it is actually most important. Speaking from the heart in plain, honest language makes a big difference-and it’s the little things that count: taking the time to write your own emails instead of having them ghost-written; using the active rather than the passive voice-'We had a tough quarter’ not ‘The quarter ended poorly.’ Above all, put yourself on the receiving end of the message. Would what you’re hearing from the CEO hold water with you? If not, then do better."

-Zac Stillerman, president, Precision Xtract, a life sciences analytics and services company located in Bethesda, Maryland

“Given the pace of change in the industry, it is important to be reminded periodically about work-life balance. Focusing on personal stories from the employees is a good way to remind us all about this important balancing skill.”

-Virginia Calega, MD, MBA, FACP, vice president, medical affairs, Facilitated Health Networks, Independence Blue Cross

“A quote by Mark Twain that I use a lot is: ‘I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.’ A critical component to leadership is communicating in a clear, consistent pattern that engages the audience. In most cases, brevity is critical as should the thoughts around what is being communicated.”

-Jason Rose, CEO, AdhereHealth, a healthcare technology company focused on medication adherence located in Franklin, Tennessee

“Meaningful change in healthcare takes hard work. While it’s natural for leaders to want to dive in, fix things, and show results immediately, meaningful change in healthcare takes time. Don’t be afraid of the big challenges. If we want to fix healthcare, it won’t happen overnight.”

- Ami Parekh, MD, JD, chief medical officer, Grand Rounds, a company that provides medical expertise and personalized navigation to match people with the highest quality healthcare available

“A skill often forgotten in healthcare is remembering that we are in a human-to-human business. Doctors and nurses entered medicine to help people, but today, so many activities take nurses’ and doctors’ time away from the sacred relationships they have with patients. It is imperative that healthcare organizations take a thoughtful approach to selecting technologies or implementing new processes. We must remove barriers and restore human-to-human connections to help clinicians spend more time with patients, minimize administrative burdens, and create an environment optimized for healing and working.”

-Bridget Duffy, MD, CMO of Vocera Communications, Inc., a provider of clinical communication and workflow solutions in San Jose, California

“Healthcare CEOs need to treat the whole person; not just when it comes to their patients, but also their employees. Prevention and management of disease is important, but so are the underlying factors that contribute to the overall well-being and productivity of employees. Ask employees what they really want and need to improve their health and happiness … Creative benefits such as errand services, student loan payback, sleep programs, onsite clinics for employees and their families, mindfulness and meditation training, and commuter benefits are all examples of ways to support the whole person.”

-Shira Wilensky, national practice leader, Health & Wellbeing at OneDigital, a company focused exclusively on employee benefits and human resources located in Atlanta

“When things get tough, it can feel like you need to do everything yourself. But smart executives build strong teams around them with diverse talents and ideas-and they remember to use them. Our best ideas come when we involve our leaders and our people and do more listening than talking.

-Scott Beck, chief executive offer, CHG Healthcare, a healthcare staffing company headquartered in Salt Lake City

“I believe one of the most important skills that has been forgotten and that healthcare executives always need to keep top of mind is that there’s ultimately one person we are really working for-and that person is the patient. When we keep that at the forefront of everything we do, decisions become much clearer.”

-Jay Anders, MD, chief medical officer of Medicomp Systems, Washington, DC, a physician-driven provider of clinically contextual patient data solutions

“Our parents always told us to sit up straight, but many have forgotten that advice. This applies today more than ever, but our modern world often stands in the way. Take a moment to reconnect with your own body and adjust your posture. If the phone is in your hand right now: Bring your elbow in to your side, bring your chin up, and roll your shoulders back and down. Posture isn’t just about looking taller or more confident-it has surprising consequences that affect our health and quality of life.”

-Sherry McAllister, DC, executive vice president of Foundation for Chiropractic Progress, San Jose, Calif., a not-for-profit that informs and educates the general public about the value of chiropractic care and its role in drug-free pain management

“Setting up meetings that can move an organization’s goals forward can sometimes get slowed by days or even weeks while trying to align schedules. A forgotten skill that I’ve embraced is flexibility and making time to interact with others whenever and however I can. I never want to be the reason for anyone’s delay: To me, a single day lost is like an opportunity lost. This sometimes means-especially when traveling internationally-that I may take a call at 2 a.m. Some may consider this an unorthodox approach, but I believe strongly that it’s one of the reasons I was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 (Asia – Healthcare & Science 2019) earlier this year.”

-Kuldeep Singh Rajput, CEO, Biofourmis, an AI-driven digital therapeutics company located in Boston

“One of the forgotten skills is the art of running a productive meeting with a pre-communicated agenda and goals. Executives often try to ‘wing’ these meetings because of more pressing concerns. However, a well-run meeting can be one way to establish the culture for how things get done in an organization.  Furthermore, a meeting that sets accountability and actionability means more will get done.”

-Brett Furst, chief strategy officer of Payformance Solutions, a provider of value-based reimbursement solutions and services in Ann Arbor, Michigan

“Long gone are the days that a single physician followed a family across several generations, allowing the doctor to build a deep understanding of the family’s unique struggles and habits. This ‘forgotten’ skill allows key factors of health, such as social determinants and behavioral health, to be easily dismissed … when developing a patient’s treatment plan. For example, if a doctor is aware that a patient struggles financially, the physician will be less likely to prescribe expensive medications/therapies. Healthcare executives can support physicians with the tools they need to truly understand patients’ stories.”

-Elizabeth Marshall, MD, MBA, director, Clinical Analytics Linguamatics, an IQVIA company, and a provider of NLP-based AI solutions in Marlborough, Massachusetts

“Healthcare CEOs are probably all thinking about patient engagement, but they may be thinking more about the human piece and one-on-one interactions and be forgetting how much today's technology can do to enable and facilitate that engagement. Today, technology can create a very personalized and customized experience across the patient journey through the use of solutions from AI to text.”

-Jim Higgins, founder and CEO of Solutionreach, a patient relationship management solutions company located in Lehi, Utah 

“I think we’ve lost our sense of pride in what we do, especially when it comes to accountability. The world has become all about passing the blame or punting when things become too difficult. We need to go back to looking at what we do as an extension and a reflection of ourselves, appreciate the good things, and take personal responsibility when things go wrong so we can make them right.”

-Luke Mayne, vice president of information technology operations at eQHealth Solutions, a provider of technology and care coordination solutions for population health management in Baton Rouge, Louisiana

"We must revive a business culture where it's okay to acknowledge failure. When people are afraid to admit that something isn’t working, we become stuck in a “we’ve always done it that way” mode-which is the exact opposite of innovation. So, as leaders, it’s our responsibility to set an expectation for candor and to lead discussions about how we can achieve better outcomes. When that becomes your team’s focus, fear of admitting failure goes away and innovation enters the room.”

-Lisa Anderson, president, Q Point Health, the management services division of integrated delivery system Equality Health, in Phoenix

“Back in the day, it was normal for physicians to make house calls, but that is rare in these modern times with the looming physician shortage and in rural areas where clinicians are scarce. Advances in telemedicine are making it possible for patients to receive an evidence-based consultation at home with their own physician, which can reduce costs while expanding access to quality care.”

-Joel E. Barthelemy, founder and CEO of GlobalMed, an international provider of virtual care solutions in Scottsdale, Arizona

“With today’s focus on social media and LinkedIn networking, casual meetings with peers have become a forgotten skill. It’s important to make time for these types of face-to-face meetings over lunch or a drink, because in-person conversations with other healthcare executives that are based solely on exchanging information and not closing a sale or bringing in new business have a value of their own-whether it’s crystallizing the way we explain what we do, or gaining a new perspective from a peer’s business model.”

-Harry Soza, CEO, CAREMINDr, a mobile-enabled remote patient monitoring company that partners with health plans and providers located in San Jose, California