Trisha Swift is a health care executive.

Adapting to survive: lessons from Blockbuster for primary care

Health Policy
March 27, 2025

Blockbuster was once a dominant force in the video entertainment industry, with thousands of stores and near-total market control. However, when digital streaming services emerged, Blockbuster was slow to respond, dismissing Netflix as a passing trend. By the time it recognized the shift in consumer preferences, it was too late – the company collapsed, unable to compete in the new era of on-demand entertainment.

Health care, particularly primary …

Read more…

Adapting to survive: lessons from Blockbuster for primary care

The future of whole-person care: high-tech holistic medicine

Health Technology
August 8, 2020

When we think about holistic medicine, many assume that it requires human-to-human touch points and, therefore, doesn’t lend itself well to technology and innovations such as artificial intelligence. In fact, holistic medicine and whole-person care advocates often view technology as manufactured or impersonal and therefore dismiss its utility for health care. This is because there is a perception that health care tech values the human experience only for the purpose …

Read more…

The future of whole-person care: high-tech holistic medicine

Why whole person care is needed for better population health management

Health Policy
June 7, 2020

Many health care organizations – health plans and hospitals alike – continue to debate what it means to provide population health management (PHM). Most have landed on a definition that aligns closely with what PHM means to them, rather than operationalizing an overly broad definition that doesn’t resonate with the populations and communities they serve. This is smart. But what’s missing is the focus on a more important question: What …

Read more…

Why whole person care is needed for better population health management

Patient experience scores are being dragged down by process problems

Health Policy
May 29, 2019

Which statement fits your organization the best?

Option A: Our organizational strategies, incentives, goals, and mantras are driven by patient experience.

Option B: Our organizational strategies, incentives, goals, and mantras are driven by quality and safety.

It may be hard to say an organization can be one without the other since, after all, experience is a byproduct of quality. The two are so interrelated that there is often a cloud of confusion regarding …

Read more…

Patient experience scores are being dragged down by process problems

Where is the nurses’ lounge?

Health Policy
May 7, 2019

If you have worked in the hospital setting for any length of time, you likely are aware of the physicians’ lounge. It’s the protected space where the hard-working medical staff can escape to catch a break or grab a hot beverage. The physicians’ lounge is absolutely necessary. Medical staff members need a space where they can refuel and exhale the stresses that caring for the sick and dying will often …

Read more…

Where is the nurses’ lounge?