Using Agile Science for Rapid Innovation and Implementation of a New Care Model.

As industry consolidation leads to a growing number of large new healthcare delivery networks, patients and their clinicians are losing the important human-centric and relationship-based nature of medical care. The leadership of Hackensack Meridian Health (HMH), a New Jersey-based network of hospitals, research center, and medical school, made an organizational commitment to reverse such loss and restore the social nature of medicine. To attain that goal, HMH engaged both clinicians and administrators to confirm the demand for change, foster a collaborative culture design, and address the unique nature of the individual components in the HMH network. Efforts to transform the HMH care delivery model illustrate the effectiveness of Agile science and its problem-solving methods.