Challenges facing the healthcare sector are well known, yet governments and private sector organisations struggle with how to make meaningful change that will deliver sustainable healthcare at an affordable cost.
KPMG International brought together 65 healthcare leaders from 30 countries across six continents in a unique forum to identify barriers and review factors for success in achieving effective healthcare transformation. “In the search for a future vision of healthcare, it is all too easy to be distracted by fleeting fads, political fashions, or flavour of the month policies,” said Mark Britnell, chairman for global health practice at KPMG International and a partner at KPMG in the UK.
“Although an immediate ‘big bang’ change project can get people interested, it is more important to sustain an environment committed to transformation.”
Citing high performance organisations in Japan, India, South Africa, UK and US, the report, titled Staying Power – Success Stories In Global Healthcare, identifies four key principles underlying healthcare transformation, and five practical ways to make change happen.
Healthcare organisations need to recognise the power of patients to drive new ways of care
One is that the solution is not just care closer to home, but care at home. “Most health systems have bought into the idea of moving care out of hospitals and into the community, but few have made the next leap towards true, home-based care,” Britnell observed.
“Hospital care for the old and chronically ill is unsustainable, and just shifting patients to local primary and community facilities would overload these resources. New care models, like Singapore’s integrated health system, start with the patient at the center and work onwards from there,” Britnell said.
The report also stressed that engaged people deliver value.
“Clinical staff are the power behind healthcare delivery, so any attempt at transformation needs their full engagement. Employees’ commitment to care is stronger than their desire for financial reward.”
Britnell said: “In developing countries such as India, entirely new models are emerging, showing the value of taking a unified approach across a wide variety of locations and partners to achieve a higher and more consistent level of care, as well as economies of scale.”
In such models, most healthcare is delivered close to home by general practitioners and carers in the vicinity of the patient, with the support of e-health or telemedicine. Patients are only referred to hospitals when care in and around the home is no longer appropriate.
Britnell said: “From the start of any admission to a care provider, the intention should be to get the patient to return home as quickly as possible.”
What other industries have long recognised – and what healthcare is at last waking up to – is that an active customer is a force for positive change, the report said.
Like retailers and media companies, healthcare organisations can use consumer feedback as a vital source of research and ideas.
“A more engaged patient is also able to play a bigger part in his or her own care, which can ultimately lead to significant cost savings,” he said.
“Healthcare organisations need to recognise the power of patients to drive new ways of care and help health systems improve quality and reduce costs.”