Today health care industry conversations often veer toward innovation. This isn’t new for research, clinical advancement, care delivery, diagnostic tests, surgical procedures and the like; but we now think about it in relationship to, well, just about everything.

From patient care excellence to OR scheduling and from social determinants of health to behavioral health – we’re constantly pushing ourselves and our teams to change, improve, and think differently. And, innovative efforts often yield much-needed data related to impact, which helps us to think strategically about return on investment.

We know Maryland’s hospitals and health systems always push boundaries to help people in our communities thrive and to care for them when their health is threatened. Many of you have chronicled your accomplishments in submissions to our innovations repository.

The term innovation is heavily applied to all that we’re doing. As I speak with so many of you around the state, it seems there is a fair amount of innovation fatigue to go along with it. While continuous improvement is vital, in some instances it’s perfectly fine — advantageous, even — to focus on consistency and best practices. I recently read a STAT piece that looks at this dilemma.