In the News

Lessons for a Post COVID-19 World: You Make the Call

This is a three-part series on how our response to the COVID-19 experience did, is and will transform each, and all, of us. Before we can act differently (Part 3), we must decide differently (Part 2); to decide differently, we must first see differently (Part 1).

Part 1: Worldview

Part 2 World Health

Part 3 Global Action

Part 1 – Worldview: What Did We learn?

By Healthcare Business Today Team -May 25, 2020

April 2020 marked the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and the month that COVID-19 became the number one killer in the U.S., exceeding average daily deaths for heart disease (NYTimes, 4/19/2020). To capitalize on our time sheltering in place, it is helpful to assess and assimilate what we have learned from our WW-Corona experience. Specifically, how has it informed our worldview?

With a thorough post-mortem underway on the public health “clinical” decision making by U.S. and global leadership, we will learn from the virus battle. But the focus of this article is on what you, I and we collectively have learned during the quarantine war.

In our physical distancing, did you and I retrench? Or did we renew?

Part 2 – World Health: What Did we Decide?

By Healthcare Business Today Team -May 26, 2020

In April, 2020, deaths due to COVID-19 exceeded all U.S. deaths in the Vietnam War. Also in April 2020, this statement was released from World Health Organization Secretary-General’s SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) Advocates and SDG Advocate alumni on COVID-19: “World leaders agreed in 2015 to achieve the SDGs by 2030. We have only ten years to meet them. The Secretary-General called for a Decade of Action to deliver the SDGs. The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown into sharp relief the need to respond with urgency and ambition, to recover better for both people and planet.”

After SDG #1 Ending Poverty and #2 Ending Hunger, the third of these Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is “Good Health and Well Being – ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.” The last of the 13 targets for SDG 3 is: improve early warning systems for global health risks. Specifically, strengthen the capacity of all countries, in particular developing countries, for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks.

Part 3 – Global Action: What Will We Do?

By Healthcare Business Today Team -May 27, 2020

In Part 1, we noted that our personal leadership was called on to evolve our worldview. In Part 2, we spoke of the need for community health leadership to relate to and integrate with an increasingly smaller and more interdependent world. In this Part 3, we discuss the need for, and challenges with, global health leadership: global health action.

In this 3-Part series, we reviewed three fundamental questions that surfaced from our time in collective quarantine:

Reflect – Did we review and renew our worldview? (Part1);
Decide – Did we decide to recover or rediscover health and healthcare in our world? (Part 2); and
Act – Will you and I resume and redux: or will we reset and redo our approach to globalization? And if we want the latter, then how will we act differently to so? (Part 3)

Health systems work to balance core operations with new ventures

Modern Healthcare, 2019

What starts as an alternative revenue source can become the new norm, said Rob Thames, a consultant who has worked with Ascension and the former CEO of Northern Arizona Healthcare. Health systems need to adapt their service offerings of yesterday to align with non-acute services and value-based payments of tomorrow, he said. “This is a natural stage of evolution for how we are systemizing healthcare,” Thames said. “It involves two things—integration, which is better for optimizing population health goals, and leadership, which builds capacity for those changes.”

Northern Arizona Healthcare President and CEO Rob Thames featured in @7000ft

Northern Arizona healthcare, 2016

The Greater Flagstaff Chamber of Commerce’s @7000ft features Northern Arizona Healthcare President and CEO Rob Thames in its January issue. Thames is highlighted in the section titled Leadership @7000 ft − which focuses on Flagstaff community business leaders − for his role in healthcare in Northern Arizona.

Range of Care

American Healthcare Leader, 2016

Northern Arizona Healthcare is dedicated to bringing accessible, cost-effective, and quality care to its population, especially its large communities of Native Americans and seniors. According to its president and CEO, managing healthcare for such a diverse population can be as rich in its rewards as its challenges.

Northern Arizona Leadership Alliance

NALA

Rob Thames, F.A.C.H.E., F.H.F.M.A., is president and CEO of Northern Arizona Healthcare, the largest healthcare provider in Northern Arizona. NAH has 4,000 colleagues, doctors and
volunteers and has been recognized as a top performing health system for several years in a row by Truven Analytics.

LHC Group and Northern Arizona Healthcare Announce Joint Venture to Provide Home Health and Hospice Care in Northern Arizona

CNBC Markets, 2016

Caldwell Butler & Associates

Caldwell Butler & Associates, 2016

Robert P. Thames, FACHE, FHFMA Vice President, Senior Leader Coach CEOs and senior leader teams (SLTs) engage Rob as a coach to help them achieve mission critical goals. Rob leverages the strengths of the SLT to realize challenging goals and implement and/or enhance their performance flywheel.

Advanced Lean for Healthcare Staffing In Quality Staffing

Caldwell Butler & Associates, Youtube 2016

Although staffing and labor expense top all healthcare costs you can count the number of lean applications to staffing on one hand. Caldwell Butler's Advanced Lean for Healthcare Staffing provides a quality-based solution for those who desire to improve costs without harming quality.

Stuck In the Middle of a Lean Leap - Part 1

Operations Excellence Society, 2016

All senior leader teams get stuck on their improvement journey. Examination of common stuck points for senior leader teams on their improvement journey provides insights into what works and what doesn’t. An improvement evolution framework is offered as a ‘GPS’ tool to aid leaders in building and strengthening their improvement “flywheel” for sustainable change.

Stuck In the Middle of a Lean Leap - Part 2

Operations Excellence Society, 2016

To assist in gaining perspective on ‘where are we now?’ in the context of an organization’s improvement or lean journey, a framework is offered as a combination GPS – Gauging (your) Performance System – and compass (‘where is true north?’) tool; see tables: Gauging Performance System (GPS) Evolution and GPS Illustration. Four stages of improvement evolution are delineated below.

Featured: First and Third: One World Serious Health View

Healthcare Business Today, 2019

By Rob Thames

“Don’t go around like you just hit a triple – when you were born on third base.”
– unknown

“He wants to know why your skin is white and his is black,” clarified my translator. The Tanzanian boy, about 10 years old, was pointing to the skin on his hand and then to mine. His question in this remote kijiji (Swahili for village) was as arresting and profound as the inequities in global health.

LHC Group Enters Home Health Venture in Arizona

Home Healthcare News, 2016

“NAH is excited to have a partner such as LHC Group to take home care and hospice services to the next level,” said NAH president and CEO Rob Thames. “We continually strive to ensure we, along with our partners, provide high quality care. We believe bringing a partner on board with expertise in this specific area will allow us to become the choice for the communities we serve.”

LHC Group and Northern Arizona Healthcare Announce Joint Venture to Provide Home Health and Hospice Care in Northern Arizona

Globe Newswire, 2016

LHC Group (NASDAQ: LHCG) and Northern Arizona Healthcare (NAH) today announced a new joint venture agreement designed to enhance home health and hospice services in Northern Arizona. NAH is the largest healthcare organization in a region that encompasses more than 50,000 miles and 700,000 people.

Northern Arizona Healthcare goes end-to-end with Cerner, adds business services platform

Healthcare IT NEws, 2015

"As a longtime client, Cerner has given us the tools to better manage the patient and population transitions across the continuum, which have demonstrated measurable results in improving patient care and reducing costs," NAH CEO Rob Thames, said in a statement. "By adding Cerner BOS to our ambulatory clinics, we will leverage Cerner's expertise and resources with the goal of improving the financial health of our organization."

Future Health Leaders Camp

Flagstaff stem city, 2015

Flagstaff Medical Center, a member of Northern Arizona Healthcare, held its first Future Medical Leaders summer camp for high school students from Monday, July 6, through Thursday, July 9. The event, sponsored by Patient and Family Experience Services, was designed for incoming high school freshmen through senior students interested in becoming healthcare professionals.

Community's voice inspires extraordinary design

HGA, 2013

Northern Arizona Healthcare (NAH) is the largest healthcare organization in the region and serves more than 700,000 people throughout the surrounding communities. Within the NAH system is the Verde Valley Medical Center, recognized for its commitment to exceptional patient care and the community it serves.

Parkview Medical Center Names Rob Thames COO

Definitive healthcare, 2013

Rob Thames recently was named senior vice president and chief operating officer of Parkview Medical Center, The Pueblo Chieftain reports. He most recently was chief operating officer at St. Anthony’s Medical Center in St. Louis, a 767-bed hospital.