Hurdles of innovation—insights from a new healthcare delivery innovation program

INTRODUCTION: Healthcare systems are actively working to innovate their care delivery models, seeking to improve service quality, improve patient and provider satisfaction, and reduce cost. METHODS: By critically evaluating our experiences to date, this article highlights challenges systems may face in the process of trying to redesign healthcare and offers insights on how to navigate hurdles. We identify barriers to—and ultimately approaches to promote—rapid, scalable, sustainable, and transformative care redesign. RESULTS: Dedicated electronic health record IT and analytic support, and ongoing leadership engagement and communication, play a valuable role in enabling redesign efforts. Flexible, but guided, innovation support helps teams stay accountable and motivated, while accommodating new project needs and directions. Understanding the change ecosystem and evaluating and sharing outcomes on an ongoing basis, enables teams to adapt as needed. Facilitation and support help realize the value of diverse, engaged teams; novel approaches and techniques draw out innovative perspectives and promote creative thinking. CONCLUSIONS: Although not an exhaustive list of challenges or strategies to overcome them, we hope these insights will contribute to a culture of innovation and support other institutions in their healthcare redesign initiatives.