Dave Munz of Starbridge Advisors Shares Tips for Success in 2024

Back in December, Dave Munz of Starbridge Advisors wrote a blog post with his suggestions for how to be successful in 2024. He had 12 great ideas, and we asked if we could summarize them and reshare them on the Gozio Blog. Lucky for us, Dave agreed.

Dave started off by reminding us all that 2024 is going to be full of big opportunities and challenges, and that as we often have, we need to focus on people, process, and technology.

“Perhaps the greatest of the challenges today is our workforce, hence the focus on people,” wrote Dave. “The press is filled with articles and opinion pieces about the “great resignation”, “silver tsunami”, and a long list of mental health issues which originated with or have been exacerbated by both healthcare and global issues. As you create a list of resolutions for the new year, please add to it active and courageous listening, building trust, and treating everyone with kindness.”

He went on to share these opportunities for 2024, which we have slightly shortened for our post:

1. Treat yourself, all your stakeholders, and everyone else you meet with kindness, mercy, and compassion. Be merciful and compassionate to patients, families, employers, employees, payers, vendors, and strangers. Forgive yourself and others who may stumble or request assistance. Remember that you and everyone you meet has lost someone or something of value over the last 4 years—a family member, friend, business associate, or job. Help them. In a digital world, the human elements are essential.
2. Collaborate enthusiastically. Be proactive. Pursuing radical collaboration is the key to our shared success. Seek to help others—don’t wait for them to ask. Pursue opportunities to work together. The lesson is clear—the more collaborative we are, the faster we will get to success. 
3. Pay attention to DEI. The process of exploring all the facts of DEI will reveal truths that are sometimes difficult but necessary to accept. Understanding is the first benefit. Other benefits include but are not limited to improved patient outcome and satisfaction, reduced health disparities, employee satisfaction and productivity, community engagement, and innovation and creativity.
4. Redouble your efforts to secure your IT environment. Our patients and providers have entrusted us to protect their data. Let’s ensure we’re doing everything possible to guard that sacred trust. Make sure that you lead the efforts to enhance or create a culture of security and privacy.
5. Continue to evolve the IT organization. All organizations should have begun their digital health journey. It’s table stakes now. Use digitally enabled processes to deliver better care everywhere. There are so many opportunities in this area alone. Use existing governance structures to manage demand or create multidisciplinary teams to set priorities. One of my favorite phrases is “We can do anything. We can’t do everything.” Ensure your efforts are aligned with at least one of the objectives of the Quintuple Aim.
6. Work diligently on short and long-term revenue enhancement and cost containment. Don’t focus only on cost savings. Explore new ways to enhance revenues. Identify risks to diminishing revenue and increasing costs so you can create practical and pragmatic solutions to mitigate the risks. Innovation and opportunities abound but it takes focus, prioritization, great governance, and collaboration to achieve the benefits.
7. Be open to new partnerships. There are far more nontraditional players in the health and public health sector than ever before. Create synergies. Try to move a few of your key vendors to partner status which will require commitment and work by both parties. Work with your payers. Goals which may appear to be parallel often converge.
8. Challenge the status quo, respectfully. If you’re exploring outside innovations, remember pragmatism, practicality, and sustainability. Deploy solutions quickly and adjust rapidly with sensitivity to the power dynamic in relationships.
9. Embrace AI and ML, cautiously. Do so with a healthy mix of optimism, skepticism, and realism. There are tons of valuable resources. Investigate thoroughly. Be deliberate but do so with enthusiasm. The potential for good and bad is substantial; hence, the suggestion to approach potential solutions with caution.
10. Address the increasingly important issue of Health Literacy. If you cannot understand healthcare and all the supporting activities, your chances of success as a patient or family member are limited. 
11. Address unhappiness with EHRs and other IT products and services. Improve the UI and reduce documentation requirements. Some of the burnout stems from poorly designed programs and processes. Measure user satisfaction regularly and adjust the environment to address issues associated with technology.
12. Do a self-assessment. Use the new year as an opportunity to inventory both your personal and professional life. Create a Life List (not a bucket list) of what to do with a fresh restart. We can all be our better selves. You may expect the best from others but it’s more important to demand the best of yourself. Invest in yourself. Learn, teach, work, play, sleep, laugh, cry, talk, listen – exercise your mind and body. Sometimes the most selfless thing you can do is to focus on your own well-being. Become your best self, and if you fall short occasionally be as compassionate and forgiving of yourself as you are of others. Commit to a regular review of your life-work balance. Adjust as necessary. A better you makes a better us. A better us provides better care.

Hurrah for 2023! Let’s make the best of these opportunities in 2024 to improve health and care in our communities, our nation, and our world.