HJBR Sep/Oct 2019

Healthcare Journal of Baton Rouge I  SEP / OCT 2019 55 Heath Veuleman­ Senior Advisor and Principal The Veuleman Group Too ethereal? Too existential? Not reso- nating with your need for practical solutions for healthcare delivery and financing sys- tems? Keep reading. Ultimately, the sacred work of healthcare has one destination for everyone: creating meaningful patient outcomes. Note the word destination. How does your organization ar- rive at this destination? It’s not a different policy, procedure, form, system, structure, or process. It’s not reimbursement. You need a route to the destination. You need transpor- tation. You need a plan. You need a purpose. This is more than another strategy session andmore than a statement, goal, or objective. This is something much more guttural that defines your organization. It is something that defines you. We interact with organizations of all shapes and sizes and at all ages and stages of the life cycle. The main problem we see again and again is a lack of purpose. Purpose informs every aspect of your delivery and financing system. From the services to be delivered, and the most efficient and effec- tive way to deliver them, to the reimburse- ment for those services—all the integrations and alignments—everything is informed by your purpose. In fact, your purpose not only creates your organization’s entrance or for- mation, and the guide-stone which creates, sustains, and enhances longevity, but it also advises your organization’s eventual exit. Purpose is your Yi Ching—your all that is— purpose is never shelved and always present. When reimbursement decreases, when regulations change, when physical plants re- quire modification, when employees, agents, and contractors must be restructured, when the proverbial $#@& hits the fan, are you distracted from your purpose? Or, does your purpose guide you through the difficult seas to your destination? Organizations cannot be managed in 140 characters (life cannot be lived that way ei- ther). Sure, passion can stir the pot; a little froth certainly gets attention, and perhaps passion can yield some beneficial results. However, passion is temporary and unwieldy. To translate into the parlance of pharmacy, passion must be bridled and leveraged ap- propriately to potentiate purpose—and the half-life of passion is very short. To ensure you reach your organization’s ultimate des- tination—controlling the variables that you can control along the journey—pause today and think about this: What is my organiza- tion’s purpose? What is my purpose? And as you define that purpose, suddenly you will begin to plot a route, choose a ve- hicle (or multiple modes of transportation), and begin the journey to your destination. Remember, it’s going to be slow and it’s go- ing to be challenging. There are no quick solutions to fulfilling your purpose. Just be mindful that when tempted to escalate, tempted to add the fuel of passion to your fire of purpose, tempted to speed things up, clutch your pearls, or hyperventilate in an attempt to solicit a response, resting in the transformative power of purpose is enough. Never be tempted to allow your passion to undermine your purpose. And before long, you’ll hear these three words: you have arrived. n Heath Veuleman is a senior advisor and principal of the Veuleman Group. After earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology and philosophy, he studied healthcare administration at Seton Hall University, and was accepted into both the Tulane University Health Systems Management Program and the Dartmouth Health Care Delivery Science Program. Heath began his career in hospital administration nearly 20 years ago, and is considered an expert in healthcare delivery and financing systems. He un- derstands and appreciates the need for alternative care systems and reimbursement strategies that are consumer centric. Considered to be at the fore- front of health policy, and often referred to as avant- garde, he embraces innovative and disruptive concepts, blurs or eliminates industry morays and norms, and is a zealous patient advocate. Some of the largest corporations in the world, representing various sectors, governments both national and foreign, and a myriad of healthcare organizations of varying size, scope, and utility depend upon his advice, guidance, and insight. Heath’s singular pas- sion is to help healthcare organizations, corpora- tions, and governments create access to reliable, sustainable, and affordable access in communities throughout the world. “Ultimately, the sacred work of healthcare has one destination for everyone: creating meaningful patient outcomes. Note the word destination.”