by
Thomas Dworetzky, Contributing Reporter | June 21, 2018
For the hospitals in the state that did not complete the program, researcher found that mortality was 3.5 percent in 2010 and 3.71 percent in 2013.
This corresponded to a 22 percent difference in mortality between the groups.
“Safety checklists can significantly reduce death in surgery. But they won’t if surgical teams treat them as just ticking a box,” said Gawande at the time in a Harvard statement. “With this work, South Carolina has demonstrated that surgery checklists can save lives at large scale – and how hospitals can support their teams to do it.”
The success of the checklist was the type of leadership in healthcare delivery of interest to the “Big 3” partnership.
“We said at the outset that the degree of difficulty is high and success is going to require an expert’s knowledge, a beginner’s mind, and a long-term orientation,” Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon said in a statement. “[Gawande] embodies all three, and we’re starting strong as we move forward in this challenging and worthwhile endeavor.”
The first challenge set for the three mega-companies is how best and cheapest to provide healthcare for their own million-plus workers.
“As employers and as leaders, addressing healthcare is one of the most important things we can do for our employees and their families, as well as for the communities where we all work and live,” said Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase in a statement, noting that the group was “fortunate to have attracted such an extraordinary leader and innovator as [Gawande].”
When the consortium was announced, its leaders made clear at the time that they understood that any “fixes” would take time.
Gawande concurred,
stressing that, "this work will take time but must be done. The system is broken, and better is possible."
Ever the pragmatist, Berkshire Hathaway chairman and CEO Warren Buffett has called the rising cost of healthcare
“a hungry tapeworm” eating into the U.S. economy.
He noted that all the candidates interviewed for the CEO spot agreed that “better care can be delivered and that rising costs can be checked,” adding that, “Jamie, Jeff and I are confident that we have found in [Gawande] the leader who will get this important job done.”
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Mudi Ramesh
Not a traditional business leader
June 28, 2018 10:33
My first reaction when I heard the news about Dr. Atul Gawande being tapped as CEO of this 'Big 3' initiative was one of surprise. I am sure there were many that felt the same way. Here is a well-known surgeon, researcher and author with zero business experience being thrust in a crucial role of business leadership. But if we consider the charter of this new initiative, the choice makes a lot of sense. First and foremost, as this article points out, 'generating a profit and creating value to shareholders' is not the goal of this venture. This is not a company in the traditional sense. It's goal is 'better healthcare at lowest possible cost' for all the participants enrolled in their healthcare plan. There could be no other candidate better positioned than Dr. Gawande' to achieve this objective.
Our best wishes to Dr. Gawande. If this venture achieves good results over the next five years, it might mean a paradigm shift in healthcare delivery in this country.
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Gus Iversen
re: Not a traditional business leader
June 29, 2018 05:40
I agree, Mudi. As long we we're reinventing the wheel, might as well rethink what it takes to be a good CEO. We already know what doesn't work... maybe this will?
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