In healthcare, access isnโt just a front-end problem, it's the organizing logic of everything that follows. Yet somehow, it remains both everyoneโs responsibility and no oneโs system.
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For me, this became real the day I had to beg my wifeโs doctor to take me on as a patient four months after leaving health system leadership and moving to a new community, just to refill critical heart medication. That was a wake-up call.
It turns out Iโm not alone. Nearly every healthcare executive I speak with has a story of frustration. Board members, parents, neighbors... all insured, connected... and still unable to get timely care.
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This series is about what those stories reveal: that access is no longer a patient inconvenience and growing frustration. itโs a system failure hiding in plain sight.
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โAccess is ultimately where valuesโฆmeet value.โ
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Why Weโre Focusing Here:
๐งโโ๏ธ Itโs Personal
If insiders are required to navigate the system, what about everyone else? Access should reflect how deeply we value the people we serve and the communities we support.
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๐ง Itโs Systemic
The problem isnโt one door (like the front door), it's the spaces between all the doors. Years of well-meaning fixes have disconnected what was never designed as a whole. In many cases the actual operating system is largely invisible, and thus unmanageable.
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๐ฐ Itโs Strategic
Access touches everything: mission fulfillment, margin performance, and market momentum. Get it right, and everything downstream improves.
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Why This Matters:
Access failures donโt shout. They quietly pile up until trust erodes, teams burn out, and growth stalls. But seen clearly, access becomes not just solvable, but a strategic differentiator. It leads to competitive advantage.
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The Access Advantage:
Over the next seven weeks, weโll offer practical frameworks and strategies to help leaders rethink and redesign access not as a scheduling problem, but as a โsystem of systems.โ
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๐ Next up: The Access Blind Spotโwhy healthcare keeps getting hit where it isnโt looking.
