Yale New Haven’s Thomas Balcezak, MD | How to Make What Works Stick, Spread and Scale

Healthcare doesn’t have a shortage of good ideas. The harder problem is turning what works into the way care is actually delivered.

In this episode of Bright Spots in Healthcare, Eric Glazer sits down with Dr. Thomas Balcezak, Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at Yale New Haven Health, to explore why proven ideas can take years to become everyday practice, and what healthcare leaders can do differently.

Dr. Balcezak shares how Yale New Haven is using more than 2,500 Care Signature pathways to bring current clinical guidance directly into physician workflows, reduce unwanted variation, and improve outcomes, efficiency and equity.

He also reflects on an early-career experience in Tanzania that shaped how he thinks about positive deviance: finding people or teams achieving exceptional results under the same constraints as everyone else, understanding what they do differently, and spreading it.

The conversation also explores the changing economics of physician practice, what health systems often misunderstand about physician employment, and how technologies such as ambient documentation can reduce administrative burden when implemented well.

In this episode:

• Why healthcare struggles to close the gap between what works and what actually happens

• How Yale New Haven is scaling Care Signature across clinical workflows

• What positive deviance can teach leaders about innovation

• How physician practice models are changing

• What Yale has learned from ambient documentation

• Why frontline teams may hold the key to scaling what works

 

Referenced Research:
JAMA Network Open: Hospital System Acquisition of Physician Practices
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2850132

About Dr. Thomas Balcezak:
Thomas J. Balcezak, MD, MPH, is Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer for Yale New Haven Health. In this position, Dr. Balcezak focuses on enhancing the provision of reliably safe, patient-centered, and cost-effective care of the highest quality. Over the course of his career, he has transformed the clinical enterprise around the core precepts of High Reliability, aligned operational and clinical care processes across the growing geographies of Yale New Haven Health, and built an exceptional team dedicated to accelerating the creation of a signature of care across the academic health system.

About Bright Spots Ventures

Bright Spots Ventures helps healthcare leaders discover what's working—and how to scale it.

Through our podcast, executive councils, private events, and strategic advisory work, we bring together health plan, provider, and healthcare innovation leaders to exchange practical ideas that improve care, lower costs, and accelerate innovation.

Learn more: https://www.brightspotsinhealthcare.com