The Risky Health Care Business SpringParker

What he does:  Esmond is the Chief Information Security Officer of Steward Health Care and has over two decades of experience leading IT and security programs and safeguarding vital sectors in multiple industries.  At Steward, Esmond’s focus has been on transforming Steward's approach to information practices security, threat and risk management to comply with industry frameworks, and regulations and best practices. Prior to Steward, Esmond was Deputy Chief Information Security Officer at Partners Health Care working with executives and advisors on cyber security and business practice. Esmond has held multiple IT and security roles, including at institutions like Harvard University and Mass General Brigham, and he also serves on the advisory boards of multiple companies, providing valuable insights on cyber matters, ensuring secure IT operations, regulatory compliance, and resilient design.
On risk: "Risk is pervasive and it's across the continuum of the delivery of health care … Health care is all about securing the patient. It's all about making sure that we lower any risk on the patient privacy being impacted, the safety of the systems that we're putting in front of those patients. But also in this modern era we have to be very aware of the potential attacks on corporations on health care … Something relatively benign, like a medical device that you're plugging into a patient, you can magnify the risk associated with it because some of those medical devices require updating, they require securing, they're also storing sensitive information … We need to know where our data is, we need to know how our assets are managed … Ultimately, what you're trying to do is to measure that risk and make sure that it maps to your organization's risk appetite. And you're trying to mediate, you're trying to take what could be a high risk and what you're left with from a residual perspective, after you put some effective controls in play, it becomes much less of a risk."

What she does:  Kim is a partner at Dickinson Wright in Michigan and Chair of Dickinson Wright’s Healthcare Litigation and Telehealth Task Forces.  Kim has over 20 years’ experience as a commercial litigator who represents healthcare providers, insurers and benefit plans in healthcare contract litigations (including enforcing and defending non-compete agreements), licensing and regulatory disputes, governmental fraud and abuse investigations, HIPAA compliance counseling, and insurance claims and coverage disputes.    
On risk with noncompetes:  "The individual provider doesn't want to be limited from performing his or her clinical services anywhere that they want. But the main objective, I think, from the employer side is to protect intellectual property, patient lists, confidential information, business strategy, and even just depending on the employer if there is any kind of financial investment in the physician with respect to training, or sign on bonus, or payment of continuing ed expenses. So where the employer is putting additional money into and as an investment its employees it wants to protect that investment … There's a decision, a business decision, to be made. Is the hospital going to file a lawsuit and sue its former physician. And then there's legal risk in that, there's financial risk in that, and there's the public relations risk in that. So there's certainly that thinking does come into play when considering the risk of litigation with a noncompete"

What she does:  Dr. Wiens is a senior fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, director of the Penn Master’s in Medical Education Program and the Penn Health Professions Education Certificate Program, and academic director of the PennCLO Master’s Program, as well as teaching various graduate-level and executive-format courses.  Dr. Wiens is also co-founder and chief research officer of Big Sky Leadership Labs, where she leads and conducts evidence-based research on executive performance, emotional intelligence, burnout, and resilience. She has designed and delivered over 2,000 leadership development programs focused on helping leaders build and leverage their emotional and social intelligence to amplify their positive impact and protect themselves from burnout.  Her work has been featured in the Harvard Business Review as well as published in her book "Burnout Immunity".  She is also a sought-after international speaker.
On risk: "It's [speaking about burnout] absolutely a risk to individuals.  The effects of burnout aren't just psychological, they're physical as well. They also affect our ability to learn and adapt, and burnout affects our relationships, burnout affects our performance. Take performance, for example, there are studies that clearly show a relationship between burnout and patient experience. Other studies that show relationship between burnout and medical errors. There's a direct correlation between physicians who are burned out and higher medical error risks. And then of course, there are risks to organizations as well, lost productivity or lower productivity, more sickness days, higher turnover, and patient experience scores. You name it. If you look at different metrics that health care organizations are measuring, you can if you look really closely, you can tie those to a physician's well-being, whether it's burned out or they're engaged."
Copyright 2024 SpringParker

A review of actual risk incidents from around the US that made public news
Copyright 2024 SpringParker

What he does: Mark is the Founder & CEO of Animal Policy Group and a long-time political strategist, government regulatory advisor, corporate executive and former litigator.  Mark focuses his advocacy practice on providing high-level strategic advice and services to clients with needs at any level of government, and key trade/industry associations in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Mark specializes in animal health, animal welfare, veterinary and veterinary educational issues and accreditation, developing a cutting-edge practice across these sectors. He currently leads several industry coalitions and initiatives, and has guided successful accreditations for a growing list of veterinary colleges, and is co-founder of the Veterinary Virtual Care Association.  Mark is also a published author and frequent speaker at veterinary medicine and other animal policy-related conferences.
 On risk: "There's an acute issue with access to care that affects pet owners in terms of the risks they have with their pets, that they can't get medical advice. But it affects practices themselves and individual veterinarians because most clinics are severely understaffed … Risk plays out often in terms of not doing enough rather than making a mistake and doing something you're not allowed to do. But that's critical, that's just kind of table stakes. If you own a clinic, if you hire people, if you hold yourself out to the public, you can care for their pets you need to know what you're legally able to do and not do … You can play an invaluable service and minimize risk and attack this [access to care, workforce shortage] problem if you can provide care by video, phone, and audio at home. And you now provide potential clients with resources. 70% of all calls to telemedicine veterinarians or telemedicine veterinary nurses solve the problem.  And you're not required to go into a clinic which means you don't add to the burden on an overstressed, understaffed veterinary team. That's another way of managing risk."
Copyright 2024 SpringParker

What they do: 
Dr. Debra Henneberry, EdD is an Assistant Professor in the College of Aviation and Transportation Technology at Purdue University. She's an experienced commercial pilot, flight instructor, and aeronautics professor.  Prior to her current role she served as Assistant Professor in the Aviation Department at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in New York City.  She also served as a government administrator for several years. Dr. Henneberry has worked as a first responder and emergency medical technician for over ten years. Her research interests focus on human factors and she has spoken about pilot training at a number of international aviation psychology conferences.
Professor Abner Flores is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Aviation and Transportation Technology at Purdue University.  He is an experienced ex-military pilot, navigator, and aircraft technician, who has served in both, the U.S. military and the Honduran Air Force. Over the last 11 years, he has been traveling around the world, teaching and training professional pilot courses in several countries throughout Europe, the Middle East, and lecturing in colleges and universities across the U.S. Prior to coming to Purdue University, Professor Flores was a lecturer at the University of Nebraska-Kearney, Aviation program. At Purdue, his research interests are focused on Human-Interactive Pilot Enhancing Performance Technologies (Simulation), Data Science for business processes modeling in aviation and Neuroergonomics. He currently teaches courses in Aerospace Vehicle Systems Design, Analysis And Operations, and Human Factors for Flight Crews.  
On risk: 
"Risk is something that we look into, from every possible perspective associated to whatever it is that there is anything going on, with the understanding that when we think risk it's a constant … When we focus on what it is that we are trying to accomplish, and in this case as far as in aviation is simply we minimize risk, we become safer. And guess what, when we reduce those levels of risk, we become safer, automatically at the same time we are becoming higher performers. And that's what we want. We want to perform at our best. And so risk gets to be where it needs to be down there and we can fly above it … Fatigue is culprit number one, or threat number one, to what we call in aviation situational awareness. It means that you're not anymore connected with the environment, you're not anymore within our concepts of aviation connected with the airplane, you are not any more connected with any one of the systems, you're going to be seeing without seeing … People under emergency situations may revert back to their native when under stress … Everybody must be involved in risk because risk affects us all … If the human element is not up to speed, and that typically is unfortunately the case, then there are going to be issues needing to be resolved."
Copyright 2024 SpringParker