Playing to Win in Healthcare
Operations, Growth, and Value-Based Care Performance for Medical Groups, Independent Practices, Hospital Enterprises, and Health Systems, by Michele Kadlec. Available on Amazon in Kindle, hardcover, and paperback.
About the Book
Healthcare success is not built on isolated wins. It is built on a system where every part of the organization knows the play, understands the score, and executes with purpose.
In Playing to Win in Healthcare, healthcare executive Michele Kadlec delivers a practical field playbook for medical groups, independent practices, physician enterprises, and health systems navigating an increasingly complex operational and financial environment.
Drawing on more than thirty years of healthcare leadership experience, Kadlec shows how patient access, clinical workflows, documentation, revenue cycle management, value-based care, staffing, physician compensation, growth, and financial performance are interconnected. A breakdown at one point in the patient journey can create consequences throughout the organization.
Using relatable sports analogies and actionable operational frameworks, the book helps healthcare leaders understand how to identify performance gaps, eliminate unnecessary waste, strengthen accountability, and build systems designed for sustainable results.
The Bookends Principle
The book introduces the Bookends Principle, a framework that connects the patient’s first interaction with the organization to the collection of the final correct dollar. Between those two bookends lies every workflow, handoff, decision, and performance measure that determines whether a healthcare organization merely operates or truly performs.
What You Will Learn
- Improving patient access and scheduling
- Strengthening charge capture and collections
- Managing denials
- Optimizing RAF and HCC documentation
- Closing care and referral gaps
- Improving payer mix
- Evaluating practice value and EBITDA
- Managing supply costs
- Hiring effectively and planning for succession
- Designing physician compensation models that support organizational goals
Who This Book Is For
Complete with practical benchmarks, dashboards, checklists, terminology references, and implementation strategies, Playing to Win in Healthcare is designed for physicians, practice administrators, healthcare executives, revenue cycle leaders, operational teams, and anyone responsible for improving the performance of a healthcare organization.
Healthcare is a team sport. This book provides the playbook for building a team that can perform, adapt, and win.
Book Details
- Author: Michele Kadlec
- Formats: Kindle, hardcover, and paperback
- Publication date: October 1, 2026
- Print length: 208 pages
- Language: English
- ISBN-13 (hardcover): 979-8997657123
About the Author
Michele Kadlec is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kontiki Strategic Health Advisors, where she works alongside hospital medical groups, independent physician groups, PE, ambulatory networks, and health systems to strengthen operational performance, financial sustainability, and patient access.
With more than thirty years of executive leadership experience, she has held roles as CEO, COO, CAO, senior executive advisor, and interim executive for hospital and healthcare organizations nationwide. She has guided the successful turnaround of more than 150 physician practices and helped launch numerous ambulatory surgery centers, urgent care facilities, and imaging centers.
Dedicated to growing healthcare leaders, Michele believes true success comes from investing in people while staying relentlessly focused on measurable results. In this book, she offers the practical strategies and leadership principles that have shaped her career and helped hospital and healthcare organizations navigate change and achieve lasting success.
Get Your Copy
Playing to Win in Healthcare is available now on Amazon in Kindle, hardcover, and paperback.