“With all due respect, sir, I believe this is going to be our finest hour.”
Gene Kranz, Chief Flight Director, Apollo 13
Nearly 60 years ago, the unthinkable happened — 200,000 miles above Earth, an explosion forced three astronauts to abandon their mission and find, against all odds, a way back home. In those moments, the crew aboard the Apollo 13 relied on each other and their team at the Kennedy Space Center to create the miracle that helped the crew land safely.
Now, hospitals face a similarly unforeseen challenge — the potential loss of more than $880 billion in health care funding over the coming 10 years. This impact will be felt differently across Hospital Council’s region; counties that have high Medi-Cal populations will be hit the hardest, but nowhere will be immune from cuts of this magnitude.
Unlike the Apollo 13 crew, hospitals have time to anticipate this incoming hit, to build resilience and readiness. As we prepare for the most significant cuts our field has ever faced, lessons from Apollo 13 ring true:
- Don’t worry about Problem 12 when you’re on Problem 1. There’s no shortage of challenges headed hospitals’ way; overcoming each of them will hinge on methodically working through one problem at a time.
- Think outside the box. Instead of focusing on what used to be, the hospital field must identify what could be — and work together to build a new path.
- Communication and collaboration will make all the difference. These hurdles may not be avoidable, but hospitals’ relationships with one another and with the association teams enable us to rise to the challenge time and again.
Hospitals’ fight may not make it to the silver screen or win an Academy Award, but the lessons from Apollo 13 hold up in today’s health care environment. And like Kranz and his team, we can transform our story from disaster to triumph.