Leading strategic change in an era of healthcare transformation - Jim Austin

This book focuses on how to lead transformative and strategic change in the healthcare industry in times of great uncertainty. Written for senior healthcare leaders, it will provide new tools, processes, examples and case studies offering an effective framework in which to transform healthcare systems. Specifically, leaders will be able to answer the following questions:

Why change? What has led us to today, and what is the current situation in healthcare?

What to change? What areas for change are most promising-areas with the greatest potential to yield significant benefits?

How to change? Will incremental changes meet the need, or are true transformations required?

When to change? Should changes start now, or should change wait for the stars to come into some special alignment?

Healthcareis personal. Healthcare is local. And at the same time, healthcare is one of the greatest challenges faced by countries around the world. All major economies confront similar issues: "demand-side" growth in the care of aging populations in the face of "supply-side" resource constraints driven by ever-increasing costs of providing such care. While cultural, historical, and political differences among nations will yield different solutions, healthcare leaders across the globe must deal with ever-increasing uncertainty as to the scope and speed of their healthcare systems' evolution. The magnitude of these challenges calls for fundamental change to address inherent problems in the healthcare system and ensure sustainable access to healthcare for generations to come. The problem is understanding where and how to change. Failures of strategy are often failures to anticipate a reality different than what organizations are prepared or willing to see.

Both system-wide and organizational transformation means doing current activities more efficiently while layering on change. This book aims to provide leaders with the tools to help organizations and health care systems adapt and evolve to meet the new challenges of healthcare as it continues to evolve.