Optimising Budget and Contract Management for Enhanced Health Outcomes

About

Tight budgets for healthcare organisations are not new, but with little budget increase on the horizon for the coming years and government edict to operate in the black we are entering an era of change.  Fundamental change is required in order to unlock the necessary cost reduction to operate within budgets with many options such as shared services and consolidation now being seriously considered.

The conference is being developed to address the need to reduce costs in healthcare organisations and align budgets to meet the new requirements and expectations.  By providing a forum in which examples of initiatives are highlighted and experts share best practice approaches the intention is to equip attendees with the information necessary to make sustainable reductions and optimise resources in order to work within budgets.

Gain insight into leading cost reduction through such areas as
• Quality improvement
• Governance
• Process improvement
• Staff engagement
• Planning and strategy
• Shared services

Learn how to
• Effectively measure health outcomes
• Undertake organisational consolidation
• Improve contracting with external providers

2 for 1 special:  Register two people from your organisation at the same time and the 2nd attends for free!  
Plus: You can SAVE $300 by taking advantage of our Early Bird Special by registering and paying before the 14th of April, 2010.

2 for 1

Register two people from your organisation at the same time and the 2nd attends for FREE!

Workshop

Workshop – May 28, 2010  (9am – 4.30pm)

Improving contracting approaches, management, and methodologies to gain greater value from contracts

To gain new value from existing contracts a new approach is needed as using the same processes and methodologies will deliver similar result to the initial contract.  It can be difficult to determine what new developments can be appropriately applied to the health sector as they are developed primarily in commercial settings with a different focus.  This workshop will outline recent developments in contracting methodology, highlight the particularly developments which have been applied with great results.  Participants will then be lead through the process of reviewing and evaluating their existing process to determine how the new developments may be applied to enhance value from both existing and future contracts.
• Review of new contracting developments that have proven to be effective
• Evaluating your contracting methodology to determine areas for improvement and application of new methodologies
• What new procurement processes could be used?
• Developing new KPIs for better measurement of contracts
• Strategies for contracting in a downturn
• Undertaking contractor performance assessment
• Ensuring the alignment of contracts with organisational goals and directions
• Questions to work through when renewing a contract
Ross Darrah, CEO, Management Toolbox

 

Agenda

Agenda: Day 1

8.30

Registration and coffee


9.00

Opening remarks from the Chair

Dr Lynne Lane, CEO, Dr Reddy’s New Zealand

9.10

Impact of the current cost reduction initiatives on health outcomes and organisations

Tight budgets are nothing new to the health sector but we have now reached a tipping point where increases in health budgets can no longer be expected. Drastic changes are being driven by the Government in order for the sector to become more financially sustainable, but it is recognised that even with all the current initiatives implemented there will still be significant future shortfall.
• What factors have contributed the health sector becoming financially unsustainable?
• Impact of proposed changes to health economics on both the organisation and the consumer
• What is preventing the sector from achieving true financial sustainability?
• The fundamental issues which will need to be addressed in the near future

Paul Winton, Principal, Temple Investment Advisory

10.00

Morning tea

10.30

Developing a robust audit committee as a mechanism for financial assurance and performance improvement

An effective audit committee can assist with performance improvement of an organisation, ensuring efficient use of resources financial risk management and compliance oversight. The March 2008 Auditor General’s report offered recommendations to DHBs for improving their audit committee in key areas as tenure, independence, experience and effectiveness of relationships. Learn how to ignite improvements to such key areas as this session highlights common weaknesses of audit committees and walks you through the process for strengthening these.
• What are the key indicators of a best practice audit committee?
• What are the key accountabilites and relationships?
• What factors are driving change?

Ian Carter, Lead Internal Auditor, Bay of Plenty DHB

11.30

CEO Address: Rising to the challenge of leading required change through a health organisation

Having lead successful change over the past years, Julie will share from her experiences how to lead positive change without harming the quality of healthcare service provided. Hear her thoughts on
• Leading cost saving initiatives and quality improvement- anticipating staff and stakeholder reactions and mitigating negative responses
• Determining key areas of focus- balancing government priorities, with organisational and community areas of need
• Preparing for external change- responding to the push toward service devolution, Integrated Family Health Centres, and national shared services and procurement

Julie Patterson, CEO, Whanganui DHB

12.20

Lunch

1.25

How budgets can be stretched further through planning and strategy

This session will discuss strategies for extracting savings from non-clinical services that can then be redirected into the projects related to sector KPIs and frontline services.
• Strategies and methods to be considered for finding areas to make savings within budgets
• How are these strategies employed?
• How can planning and budget cycles be made to be more cost effective?
• Reorganising the budget to accommodate new priorities

David Moore, Managing Director, LECG

2.15

Case study: Undertaking quality improvement in order to reduce length of patient stay and medical mishap as a method of saving on controllable expense (Case Study)

The Horn report proposes massive dollar savings can be gained through a reduction of medical error and improved patient safety in areas such as medicine management and infection control. This has been taken to heart by Counties-Manukau DHB who are focusing a programme of work specifically on quality improvement with the intention of avoiding unnecessary costs while keeping patients safer.
• How quality improvement initiatives are being designed to be measurable and systematically applied
• Results achieved to date and what we have learned from this
• Effectiveness of this approach for delivering savings- is this a path worth pursuing?

Allan Cumming, General Manager Quality Improvement, Counties Manukau DHB

3.00

Afternoon tea

3.20

Panel discussion: Suitability of top-up fees for certain medical services within public health organisations (Panel)

Top-up fees for medical services has become an issue of growing contention since Otago and Southland DHBs released their consultation document on the subject. This could be a good opportunity for cost savings and greater patient care, but some say that this has the potential to create a two-tier public health system discriminating against the less wealthy. This panel will provide a forum to continue this discussion.
• Results of the Otago/Southland DHB consultation
• Could this make treatment more effective while assisting with budgetary savings?
• What have overseas examples and past history taught us about the potential of a two-tier system?
• Is this something worth pursuing?

Dr. Tim Parke, Clinical Director-Adult Emergency Dept
Auckland DHB
Dr. Chris Jackson, Consultant Medical Oncologist
Southern Blood and Cancer Service, Otago DHB

4.05

Producing better health outcomes through process simplification underpinned by information systems

Improvements to healthcare delivery and cost-savings can both be unlocked through simplifying the processes used by the organisation. Refining processes delivers these benefits on an ongoing basis, and can be heightened even further when enabled by information systems. This session looks at how to first simplify processes through mapping and information gathering, and how information systems can then be utilised for supporting efficient healthcare delivery cost-effectively.
• Capturing information to gain a clear picture of operational inefficiencies
• Process mapping to achieve simplification
• Utilising information systems and technology to produce greater health outcomes cost effectively
• Ensuring alignment between service delivery and IS planning

Andrew Terris, CEO, HealthMap

4.50

End of conference day and networking drinks

Agenda: Day 2

9.00

Opening remarks from the Chair

Dr Lynne Lane, CEO, Dr Reddy’s New Zealand

9.10

Measuring health outcomes of contracted service providers

Accurately quantifying health outcomes of contracted services is essential for determining whether the dollar spent is producing a significant outcome from contracted providers. With the combined pressure of tighter budgets and expectations for greater health outcomes this is likely to be a point of focus for many organisations. This session will demonstrate some approaches to accurately measuring service delivery and health outcomes which could be useful to your organisation.
• Tools and methodologies for quantifying health outcomes
• Introducing health outcomes measures in agreements with external providers
• Measuring gains from improvements

Dr. Barry Gribben, Medical Director, CBG Health Research

10.00

Case study: Developing a new Otago/Southland PHO, how are we getting on, with only five weeks to go? (Case Study)

The Boards of the then Otago and Southland DHBs (now the Southern DHB) made a policy decision in late 2009 to disestablish the existing five PHOs in Otago and the four PHOs in Southland - and replace them instead with one new PHO for the 290,000 enrolled patients across both provinces.
This case study will briefly review the approach that the Transition Board for the new PHO has undertaken to manage and lead the transition and outline some of the lessons that we have learnt along the way - towards the start date of 1 July 2010 for the new PHO.

Conway Powell, Chair, Transition Board for the new
Otago/Southland PHO Development

10.45

Morning tea

11.05

Case study: Improving the contracting dynamics between DHBs and external providers for a more effective working relationship (Case Study)

Contracting between DHBs and external organisations is known is have its weaknesses and areas for improvement. With current conditions driving innovation and review now is a time to rethink how external contracts are arranged and managed. Drawing from their experience in managing contracts between DHBs and external healthcare providers, this session will reveal what can be done to improve typical contract processes and management and how the overall relationship can be made to be more effective for both parties.
• Symptoms of an inefficient contract arrangement
• Key areas of improvement including contract lifecycle, measurement, and review
• How do you rework your process while maintaining existing contracts?
• Developing a greater relationship between providers

Marion Blake, Chief Executive Officer, Platform

11.50

How do you operate within a shared services arrangement effectively?

The national Shared Services Agency isn’t far away from going live, but still little is known as to what can be expected from this especially those organisations that do not have prior experience with shared services. Operating shared services requires organisational redesign and significant change to the way an organisation operates certain functions- but this has proven to deliver needed cost savings. Speaking from his experience managing the operation of shared services for several client DHBs, Nigel will provide insight into how to develop shared services effectively so you can minimise the downside and maximise the advantages.
• Impact of outsourcing services to organisational structure- what will need to be developed to accommodate the new operations
• What is the affects to the wider organisation of shared services and how does it change the way services are performed?
• Where the savings come from and what you can realistically expect to gain from the arrangement
• Keys to a well working shared services governance structure

Peter Hogg, Head of Finance, healthAlliance

12.35

Lunch

1.30

Increasing value of contracts while mitigating the current and looming risks with contracting in the health sector

Contracts are viewed as an area for gaining cost efficiencies due to their nature of variable costs, but pushing too hard or taking an incorrect approach can be both unsustainable in the long term and harmful to both contract parties.
• Strategies and particular areas of focus for derive greater value from both new and existing contracts
• A deeper look at contract forms to ensure you are using the best option available
• Avoiding costly contract disputes by proactively managing the inherent risks
• Implications when transitioning to shared services or centralised procurement to existing contracts- the legalities, realities, and risks

Ross Darrah, CEO, Management Toolbox

2.15

Case study: Building staff engagement to overcome uncertainty and disillusionment of current times (Case Study)

ProCare launched an initiative to increase employee engagement using the Best Places to Work survey as a measurement tool. In the space of just two years they have moved from the bottom 30% to the top 30% and achieved an 83% improvement in the number of engaged employees. Geoff will share what initiatives enabled this improvement and their experiences over the past two years.
• Symptoms of a poorly engaged workplace and the problems that stem from this
• How can you improve engagement in a healthcare workplace?
• The effect of a well engaged workforce on the organisation and operations

Geoff Smith, Senior Manager People & Culture, ProCare

3.00

End of conference

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