Building a Culture of Innovation
OSF leaders are enlisting the help of well-established innovation centers to create a space fostering creativity to solve health care problems.
December 24, 2015
What do you think about when you hear the word "innovation"? Do you think about new technologies or new software to meet some need? That is what people commonly think of, but it can be so much more than that in the healthcare industry. Innovation in healthcare is about developing new processes and solutions to complex community health issues.
This concept is increasingly important as healthcare systems strive to remain viable amid competition. A number of institutions have made innovation a priority. Some are building collaborative workspaces dedicated to employee ideation (brainstorming). A few are hiring designers in healthcare to improve patient experience. Others support the development of new medical technologies from beginning to commercialization.
OSF HealthCare is well on its way to creating its own culture of innovation within the walls of Jump, and we are looking to institutions at the forefront of this movement for guidance.
A team from Jump attended the Mayo Clinic Transform Conference this year. Transform brings together thought-leaders from various industries around the world to tackle the challenges of revolutionizing healthcare. Discussions centered on better serving patients and expanding access to care.
A concept that stuck out to me is the importance of being impatient as a leader in healthcare. Instead of waiting for solutions to come your way, why not bring employees together to solve problems now?
That's an idea Mayo is doing an excellent job of implementing in its own Center for Innovation.
Touring CFI
The team got the opportunity to tour the Mayo Center for Innovation and speak with its leaders on possible partnership opportunities.
The innovation center is an open, collaborative working space where teams of experts from Mayo and elsewhere can come together to develop ideas for healthcare delivery. It's the first to be embedded within the clinical space, according to Becker's Hospital Review. The purpose is for healthcare designers to observe patients interacting with providers and find ways to improve the process. The location of the center also allows clinicians to easily provide ideas and feedback. Patients can be consulted at the moment of delivery.
There are no permanent walls in the facility, allowing for rapid prototyping of exams rooms to test new ideas using real clinicians and patients.
Mayo has a very mature innovation system in place and we want to learn what's worked, what hasn't, and what pitfalls we can avoid as we develop and build our own innovation center. We will tap into the minds of CFI's leaders to determine the necessary infrastructure and processes for a robust program. We will additionally discuss some of the competencies we need within our own people and the workflows to run effectively and efficiently.
An Innovation Hub for OSF
OSF sees the benefit of creating its own area where ideas can flow freely to transform healthcare. The Jump building will soon accommodate Performance Improvement, Research, Data Analytics, Telehealth, and Jump ARCHES on the third and fourth floors. Much like Mayo, we put want to put these departments in an open, collaborative workspace so they can more easily team up on various projects. We are looking to hire our own healthcare designers and project managers to work with these teams to improve patient care.
The first two floors of Jump will continue to be a place to educate our clinicians through simulation and in-classroom learning. As we move forward, it will be utilized for modeling new processes and idea prototypes for care delivery.
This is an exciting adventure we're on. It will take strong leadership and organizational commitment at the local level to implement a culture of innovation throughout the entire Ministry.
In the meantime, our leaders tasked with this mission are learning everything they can to do this the right way. We don't want to be overly disruptive to current workflows, but at the same time-we have to be disruptive enough to enact real change.