The best software for quality and risk management.You may have heard the term ‘VUCA world’ come up before. VUCA, imported from America, is an abbreviation for four terms that characterise the world we live in today. That world brings some challenges, which we also see reflected in healthcare. What exactly does VUCA mean and how do you future-proof your healthcare organisation in a VUCA world? In this article, we explain how to go about it using some examples.
The VUCA world we live in today can be challenging for healthcare organisations. The English term VUCA stands for:
So we live in an era where the world is subject to rapid change. This results in turmoil, uncertainty and ambiguity about what the future will look like. For healthcare organisations, VUCA factors play a major role in their daily processes. But how exactly can your healthcare organisation be influenced by rapidly changing world? We explain this below using some examples.
The VUCA phenomena of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity demand a lot from healthcare organisations. Each phenomenon involves different challenges. We briefly discuss them below.
Volatility, or rapid change, can be a major challenge for your organisation. Especially in healthcare: think of changing government policy, as a result of which compensations from health insurers go up or down. This makes it difficult to predict annual revenues, which affects both the budget and investments in staff and new treatment methods.
The second phenomenon of VUCA is uncertainty. Uncertainty can have unpleasant consequences for hospitals. Think of unpredictable political decisions that require you to adjust policy within your healthcare organisation. You can prepare everything in detail, but things often turn out differently.
Complexity within the VUCA world refers to how complex certain situations or processes are. Think, for instance, of the procurement process of medical technology: a complex process in which the right experts need to be involved to make the application run smoothly. Other processes within healthcare organisations are complex as well. How about all the diagnosis-treatment combinations, the prescription of drugs with the necessary side effects and lightning-fast technological developments.
Various forms of ambiguity occur in healthcare organisations on a daily basis. For instance, doctors may interpret the result of an MRI scan or other test in various ways, coming up with different treatment methods. This affects the patient, waiting times as well as healthcare costs.
Rapid change and uncertainty make it difficult for healthcare organisations to plan ahead. A vision of the future you create at this moment for five or 10 years from now may be outdated in a year or two. It is also difficult to respond well to complexity and ambiguity. So how do you ensure that, as a healthcare organisation, you can still hold your own in this uncertain world? Below you will find tips for each VUCA phenomenon to survive.
Vision
Vision is the answer to the VUCA phenomenon of volatility. Does your healthcare organisation have a clear vision of where it wants to be in three or five years’ time? If so, you will be more resilient to rapid changes, such as economic setbacks or changing legislation. The clearer your vision, the better you can make decisions to overcome turbulent times.
Understanding
Uncertainty can be countered with understanding. To hold your own in uncertain times, it is important to look beyond your own expertise and listen carefully to other departments in your organisation and other healthcare organisations. That way, as a healthcare organisation, you gain insight into uncertain factors and can respond accordingly.
Clarity
Facing complexity requires clarity. Focus on what is really important within your organisation, simplify processes and make sure the right specialists are in the right place. This gives you an overview of the entire healthcare organisation, allowing you to react faster to unexpected events.
Agility
Ambiguity can be countered with agility. ‘Agile’ means flexibility or manoeuvrability. How? For example, by promoting multidisciplinary collaborations and standardising protocols. Promote an improvement culture (where teams can respond quickly to new information) combined with the people-centred approach. By integrating these agile methods, you as a healthcare organisation remain agile and purposeful in dealing with varying interpretations and uncertainties in diagnoses and treatments.
Want to know more about creating an improvement culture? In this article, as a result of one of our Executive Events, you will read all about it.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the VUCA world we live in. However, there are ways to deal with it as a healthcare organisation. The danger is that what works for one characteristic may work in the opposite direction for another. So what works for volatile, can just as easily cause complexity, for example. So finding and keeping the balance is definitely a key to success in this case.
We already saw that structure is important in several areas. Think about establishing processes and protocols. However, it is at least as important that this is not a one-off thing. Rather, it requires constant checks to determine whether everything still accommodates the current wants, requirements and activities. If necessary, you should be able to make adjustments. Moreover, it is a good thing to identify the risks that we do know or see emerging and, as far as possible, take measures to deal with them.
By using smart software, such as a document management system to create structure in your processes or risk management software to identify and manage risks, you make it a lot easier for your healthcare organisation to survive in the VUCA world.
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