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• Teaching Note | HBS Case Collection | March 2018 (Revised February 2020)

  Improving Access at VA

  Ryan W. Buell and Robert S. Huckman

  In 2015, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) ran the largest healthcare system in the United States, with over 1,700 sites of care that served nearly 9 million veterans. One year earlier, a scandal had erupted over a cover-up of the excessive wait times veterans faced to get medical appointments in some VA facilities. The fallout led to the resignation of the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, a criminal investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the eventual replacement of 14 of VA’s top 17 leaders. This case documents the efforts of the new leadership team to improve access, regain trust, and transform the organization to address the broadening medical needs of the nation's growing veteran population. Teaching Note for HBS No. 617-012.

  Keywords: Service Operations; Service Delivery; Social Issues; Health Care and Treatment; Government Administration; Performance Improvement; Public Administration Industry; Health Industry; United States;

  Citation:

  Buell, Ryan W., and Robert S. Huckman. "Improving Access at VA." Harvard Business School Teaching Note 618-052, March 2018. (Revised February 2020.)  View Details

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• Article | Milbank Quarterly

  Toward a Corporate Culture of Health: Results of a National Survey

  Michael Anne Kyle, Lumumba Seegars, John M. Benson, Robert J. Blendon, Robert S. Huckman and Sara J. Singer

  Context: The private sector has a large potential role in advancing health and well-being, but attention to corporate practices around health tends to focus on a narrow range of issues and on large businesses. Systematically describing private sector engagement in health and well-being is a necessary step toward understanding the current state of the field and developing an agenda for businesses going forward.
  Methods: We conducted a national survey of 1,017 private sector organizations to assess current levels of engagement in what we term a culture of health (CoH). We measured corporate CoH along four dimensions, which assess the extent to which businesses promote employee, environmental, consumer, and community health and well-being.We also explored potential explanations for the number of health-related actions taken in each dimension.
  Findings: On average, businesses took 38% of health-related actions included in our survey. For each dimension, we found variation among businesses in the number of actions taken (on average, there were almost fourfold differences between the bottom and top quartiles of businesses in terms of actions taken). Mentioning health and well-being in the corporate mission, having a strategic plan for CoH, and perceiving a positive return on CoH investments were all associated with businesses’ actions taken. Fewer than half of businesses, however, perceived a positive return on their CoH investments.
  Conclusions: Overall, the private sector is taking steps to foster health and well-being. However, there remains substantial variation among businesses and opportunity for growth, even among those currently taking the most action. Strengthening the business case for a corporate CoH may increase private sector investments in health and well-being. Actions taken by individual businesses, business groups, industries, and regulators have the potential to improve corporate engagement and impact.

  Keywords: Corporate Health; social determinants of health; Health Policy; public health; Organizations; Health; Policy; Surveys;

  Citation:

  Kyle, Michael Anne, Lumumba Seegars, John M. Benson, Robert J. Blendon, Robert S. Huckman, and Sara J. Singer. "Toward a Corporate Culture of Health: Results of a National Survey." Milbank Quarterly 97, no. 4 (December 2019): 954–977.  View Details

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• Technical Note | HBS Case Collection | November 2019

  The Life Sciences Revolution: A Technical Primer

  Gary P. Pisano, William J. Anderson, Amitabh Chandra, Clarissa Ceruti and Stephanie Oestreich

  For more than two decades, scientific advances have been driving profound changes in drug discovery and the drug industry itself. This case provides an overview and description of these technical and scientific advances. Written for the nonscientific reader, it may be used as companion reading for other case materials that require basic knowledge of the tools, techniques, and approaches used in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

  Keywords: Science; Technological Innovation; Technology; Pharmaceutical Industry; Biotechnology Industry;

  Citation:

  Pisano, Gary P., William J. Anderson, Amitabh Chandra, Clarissa Ceruti, and Stephanie Oestreich. "The Life Sciences Revolution: A Technical Primer." Harvard Business School Technical Note 620-054, November 2019.  View Details

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