tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-89476668032552264702024-02-02T16:49:54.453-05:00Health Care Strategist“The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet.” (William Gibson)Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.comBlogger822125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-83217950337130490832017-05-12T18:33:00.001-04:002017-05-12T18:33:42.021-04:00Being Disrupted Ain't Fun. Deal With It.<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-family: "Source Sans Pro", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Hiragino Kaku Gothic Pro", Meiryo, "Hiragino Sans GB W3", "Noto Naskh Arabic", "Droid Arabic Naskh", "Geeza Pro", "Simplified Arabic", "Noto Sans Thai", Thonburi, Dokchampa, "Droid Sans Thai", "Droid Sans Fallback", -apple-system, ".SFNSDisplay-Regular", "Heiti SC", "Microsoft Yahei", "Segoe UI"; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Articles about disrupting healthcare, particularly those analogizing, say, Tesla's example with healthcare's current state, are frequently met with a chorus of (paraphrasing here) "Irrelevant! Cars are easy, healthcare is hard." You know, patients and doctors as examples of "information asymmetry" and all that.
Well, let me ask you this: assuming you drive a car with a traditional internal combustion engine, how much do you know about the metallurgy in your car's engine block? I'll bet the answer is: virtually nothing. In fact it's probably less than you know about your own body's GI tract. Yet somehow, every day, us (allegedly) ignorant people buy and drive cars without help from a cadre of experts. Most of us do so and live happily ever after (at least until the warranty expires. Warranties...another thing healthcare could learn from Tesla.)
Now, us free range dummies - impatient with information asymmetry - are storming healthcare's ramparts, ignoring the naysayers telling us it's complicated and better handled by experts.
Methinks those saying "...healthcare is hard" (a) have a vested interest in keeping it so and (b) really don't like customer-centered disruptions very much.</span><!-- AddThis Button for Post BEGIN -->
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-54766419517350730922017-05-04T11:28:00.000-04:002017-05-04T11:33:40.077-04:00My Take On Anthem-Cigna, Big Dumb Companies and the Executives Who Run Them<div style="border: 0px; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 3.2rem; margin-top: 3.2rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After last Friday's Appeals Court decision, Anthem's hostile takeover of, er, merger with Cigna has but a faint pulse. Good. Unplug the respirator. Cigna's figured it out but Anthem is like that late-late horror show where the corpse refuses to die. Meanwhile, 150 McKinsey consultants are on standby for post-merger "integration" support. I guess "no deal, no paycheck..." is powerfully motivating to keep the patient alive a while longer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In court, Anthem argued that assembling a $54 billion behemoth is a necessary precondition to sparking all manner of wondrous innovations and delivering $2.4 billion in efficiencies. The basic argument appears to be "We need to double in size to grow a brain. And just imagine all those savings translating directly into lower premiums for employers and consumers." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stop. Read that paragraph again. Ignore the dubious "lower premiums" argument and focus on the deal's savings.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">$2.4 billion saved from a projected-$54 billion company - less than 5% by my admittedly non-McKinsey math. An amount that barely covers McKinsey's travel budget yet it's the best Anthem can do to posit any consumer benefit at all.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I may have been born at night, but it wasn't LAST night. The Appeals Court is dead-on: the savings are too little and the promises too tenuous. Moreover, dear Anthem CEO Joe Swedish, if you want to save consumers $2.4 billion JUST DO IT! What's stopping you?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's my answer: nothing, except the certainty that running a business is hard and not always glamorous while M&A is sexy, adrenaline-fueled and attention-getting. Run intelligently, either Anthem or Cigna </span><u style="border: 0px; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">alone</u><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ought to be able to carve out $2.4 billion without breaking a sweat or removing </span><i style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">filet mignon</i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> from executive dining rooms.</span></div>
<div style="border: 0px; color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961); font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 32px; margin-bottom: 3.2rem; margin-top: 3.2rem; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Combining two big, dumb companies doesn't make you smarter or leaner. And when has creating an even bigger dumb company ever jump-started innovation? No, I'm asking. I'd really like to know.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Walk into Anthem's boardroom swinging a dead cat and you'll smack major savings opportunities in the face, starting with investment bankers, lawyers and executives looking for a fat payday now that they're grand panjandrums of an even BIGGER company.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh wait. I think I see the problem here...</span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-985750195270513762015-04-20T16:18:00.001-04:002015-04-20T16:21:02.560-04:00Why Change Happens, Or NotFrom LinkedIn:<br />
<br />
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-69688690375008837012015-04-20T14:46:00.000-04:002015-04-20T15:47:34.553-04:00Another Day, Another App, Another Satisfied CustomerHow might health care providers use technology to turn customers' mobile phones into information displays and ordering devices? A few years ago, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/27/business/27shop.html?hp"><span style="font-style: italic;">NY Times</span> outlined how retailers are doing it...</a><br />
<blockquote>
"(Designer Norma) Kamali is at the forefront of a technological transformation coming to many of the nation’s retailers. They are determined to strengthen the link between their physical stores and the Web, and to use technology to make shopping easier for consumers and more lucrative for themselves.<br />
<span style="font-size: 180%; font-weight: bold;">...</span><br />
<br />
Cisco Systems, the supplier of networking equipment and services for the Internet, is also a leader in the field. The company’s <span style="font-weight: bold;">Mobile Concierge system</span> is capable of connecting customers’ smartphones to retailers’ wireless networks — so a shopper could type “Cheez Whiz” into a cellphone, then pinpoint its location in the store."</blockquote>
Ms. Kamali's boutique installed a technology called <a href="http://www.scanlife.com/us/">ScanLife</a>, "allowing people to scan bar codes on merchandise and obtain details about the clothes through video."<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 130%; font-weight: bold;">Potential health care applications? Let's see. It could go like this...</span><br />
<br />
Perhaps cancellations and other snafus are making it difficult for your CT department to maintain a full schedule.<span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: 130%;"> Time is money as the hum of an empty scanner proves. </span>Encourage patients needing a CT scan - those with flexible schedules - to download an app announcing their willingness to respond to a "We've just had a cancellation. Can you be here in 10 minutes?" message.<br />
<br />
Now the patient arrives, lost and disoriented from the long trip in from the parking garage. Where am I? Good question. <span style="color: #cc9933; font-size: 130%;">Waving her phone in front of a bar-coded icon on the wall sends a map and location to her phone.</span><br />
<br />
Now the PATIENT knows where she is. You might also benefit from knowing. And of course your CT department is also interested in smoother workflow and improved customer service, so...<br />
<br />
<span style="color: #009900; font-size: 130%;">Create an app to give the department a 10-minute "heads-up" prior to the patient's arrival.</span> Patients who sign up and download the app can be detected as soon as they set foot in the hospital. Their paperwork is ready before they walk in the department's door. They're greeted by name.<br />
<br />
What if she gets lost on her way to CT? Create an app that <span style="color: #009900; font-size: 130%;">recognizes her current location in the facility and delivers turn-by-turn directions on her phone.</span> Sort of a private-label, in-house MapQuest.<br />
<br />
Need to deliver just-in-time teaching information or post-procedure instructions? Scan the appropriate procedure or diagnosis bar code and <span style="color: #009900; font-size: 130%;">download a short teaching video</span> to her phone.<br />
<br />
You know when the patient arrived, now use that same app to <span style="color: #009900; font-size: 130%;">track when she leaves, generating "time-in-the-door to time-out-the-door" </span>data as important additions to your productivity and patient satisfaction metrics.<br />
<br />
Once the system flags the patient's departure, <span style="color: #990000; font-size: 130%;">send an alert to the referring physician</span> saying something like "Thanks for your referral. Your report will be ready in 30 minutes."<br />
<br />
As a <span style="color: #cc6600; font-size: 130%;">thank-you to the patient for keeping your schedule full</span>, send her a real-time electronic coupon for a free latte at your in-lobby Starbucks. The bar code allows for instant redemption and tracking.<br />
<br />
Your patient needs<span style="color: #009900; font-size: 130%;"> reminders for follow-up visits, vaccinations</span>, mammograms, cancer screenings? Apps, apps and more apps.<br />
<br />
And of course nothing in a hospital would be complete without a committee to discuss it all. <span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: 130%;">Wondering if this conference room is available for an impromptu meeting and for how long?</span> Point your phone at the room number and and the embedded bar code will tell you.<br />
<br />
And so ends another day at "Point & Click Hospital."<br />
<br />
Developers include Cisco Systems with its <span style="font-size: 130%; font-weight: bold;">Mobile Concierge</span> system and I.B.M with a product called <span style="font-size: 130%; font-weight: bold;">Presence</span>.<br />
<br />
The Sam's Club division of Wal-Mart, Crate & Barrel, Kerr Drug and Disney stores are among the retailers deploying mobile technology, with major roll-outs starting as far back as 2011.<br />
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-37226698092170827122015-04-13T12:25:00.000-04:002015-04-20T16:03:57.818-04:00Becoming Consumer Friendly In Five Easy Steps...Or Not<div class="article-content">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">An article at hhnmag.com offers hospitals <a href="http://www.hhnmag.com/display/HHN-news-article.dhtml?dcrPath=/templatedata/HF_Common/NewsArticle/data/HHN/Magazine/2015/Feb/teaser-consumers-in-health-care-patient-satisfaction-consumer-friendly-hospitals&utm_source=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HHN&eid=257901985&bid=1008721" target="_blank">5 steps to becoming more consumer friendly.</a></span><br />
<br />
<div class="article-body" dir="ltr">
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">If
you still think there's a secret sauce to your hospital becoming more
"consumer friendly," these 5 steps are as good a place to start as any.
Unfortunately, it's a little like that old Steve Martin comedy bit
where he says he'll teach you how to be rich. The first step is to go
find a million dollars.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Step 1 from the article is realizing that
"...a Medicare beneficiary with chronic conditions is different from a
young mom who brings her kids in for an annual check-up." This is market
segmentation for beginners, and, yes, one size decidedly does not fit
all. I'm sure your marketing team's been saying this for a while.<br /><br />Steps 2-5: have a strategy, metrics, a champion and resources. OK. Hard to argue with any of those.<br /><br />But
those things, alone or together, won't overcome culture. They're
important components to be sure, but insufficient without a dash of cold
water to your organizational face.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">My advice: <span class="underline">begin</span> with <u>culture</u>, which, I'm told, eats strategy for lunch. In this case I believe it.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Broken
cultures prize nothing more than stasis. Metrics proving the
dysfunction won't help. Research and new segmentation schemes will fall
on deaf ears. As a lone voice, will that newly-appointed champion stick
around? And how often, really, does more money cure culture? Doubtful,
on all counts.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">I'd submit that better first steps are honestly
acknowledging that you've got work to do, that consumers are not stupid,
and then challenging the culture that treats them as if they are. What
do I mean? Well, when did consumers EVER win in your organization? </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Name one time. Go ahead. I'll wait. (And fancy private rooms don't count.)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">It's no accident that there's NO hospital branding itself as "the easiest with which to do business."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Name one. Go ahead. I'll wait.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><i>[...sound of crickets...]</i></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Which
is your board more prone to approve: a $100 million bed tower or a $1
million investment in the digital connections that your customers have
come to expect from every other organization in their lives? Did you
even have that conversation? Yes, you have a consumer portal but, absent
Meaningful Use dollars, would you?</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">If your consumers wanted, say,
early morning urgent care hours and your doctors didn't want to provide
them, who won? I can hear the excuses: "Well, yes, but the doctors
refuse to...and we can't force them to..." </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Consumer-friendly organizations don't let excuses drive the conversation.<br /><br />When
consumers wanted easy, convenient, online registration but your revenue
cycle team wanted more forms, more boxes checked and increasingly
complex processes, who won? More excuses: "Well, yes, but the days in
AR might..." </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Collecting cash is terribly important, but consumer-friendly organizations don't let AR metrics alone drive the conversation.<br /><br />Do
physician appointments run on time? Or do you explain away delays, or,
worse, say nothing to an increasingly irritated waiting room? Excuse <i>du jour</i>:
"Consumers just don't understand how difficult this scheduling thing
really is. And our docs are so great you should be happy to wait..." </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Consumer-friendly
organizations run on time and are honest and transparent about those
FEW times when they don't. Period. End of conversation.<br /><br />Yes, it's difficult. But leaders solve the difficult problems, beginning with culture.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">This requires making decisions explicitly and publicly in FAVOR of consumers. Fixing little, frustrating problems
as practice, but then fixing big, difficult problems, the problems nobody
else is even tackling. Using Lean/Toyota methods, 6 Sigma, whatever your
preferred flavor of process excellence. The technique matters less than getting started. (While you're at it, don't benchmark against your
competition across town or a database of other hospitals. Could be that the only
reason you're still in business is that everybody's pretty mediocre. You want to be better than they are, by a wide margin.)</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Making
things easy and fast, not complicated and failure-prone. And while 5
steps won't overcome 50 years of active indifference, you can arc the
curve in your favor by publicly linking 'easy and fast' to being
consumer-friendly. Make it intuitive for your organization to connect the dots from <i>these</i> actions to <i>those </i>outcomes. Your organization won't get it if you don't TALK about it.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Above all, don't outsource the job to a newly-hired "champion." Initially, this is on YOU, dear leader.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana,sans-serif;">Or
make it easy on yourself. Change your branding to "We're no worse than
anyone else." Brutal honesty might just be that first step in cultural
change.</span></div>
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-67354569547640951432015-04-03T15:13:00.000-04:002015-04-03T15:13:38.704-04:00Is Healthcare Exploitative And Extractive?<div>
I've had this post sitting around in draft form for far too long and it's time to get it off my chest.<br />
<br />
Several years ago, MSNBC commentator Dylan Ratigan interviewed Umair Haque, author of <a href="https://hbr.org/product/the-new-capitalist-manifesto-building-a-disruptive/an/12794-HBK-ENG">The New Capitalist Manifesto: Building a Disruptively Better Business</a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null">,</a> founder of Bubblegeneration, Director of the Havas Media Lab and blogger at the Harvard Business Review. Though the topic wasn't healthcare, there was much for healthcare leaders to ponder.<br />
<br />
Haque draws a clear contrast between <i>productive</i> wealth and <i>destructive</i> wealth. Both <i>count</i> toward Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but only the former really <i>contributes</i>.<br />
<br />
Says Umair, <br />
<blockquote>
<i>"It’s easier to make money in the short-term through <b>exploitation</b> and the <b>extraction</b> and much more labor intensive with a higher failure rate and a much greater degree of challenge to actually advance and create something that is new and different and differentiates in its creation of value. “So to me, this is a crisis that is about failing to create real value, but it is a crisis of our institutions. And it’s a crisis that is of things like GDP and corporate profits, and the ways in which we measure and conceive of income. And so to really get to grips with this crisis, I think we have to begin by taking a cold hard look at those things,”</i></blockquote>
A 'cold hard look' at income and value-creation in health care is likely to be all of that AND a little bit uncomfortable. The short-term thinking. The fee for service-driven decision making. The inward-looking, edifice-focused ways we define terms like 'health' and 'success.'<br />
<br />
Maybe you don't think of health care as "exploitative" or "extractive?" What else would you call a willingness to amputate a diabetic's foot while letting the underlying disease process continue apace?<br />
<br />
Yeah I know, we're really, finally, truly getting serious about fixing stuff like that. And though it's been part of every community needs assessment and strategic plan and QI/QA/PI target since, oh, 1965, things have changed. No more business as usual. This time it's different. We mean it. Really.<br />
<br />
Or at least we mean it so long as Medicare guarantees us extra payment for meaning it. Or the payers give us part of their risk pools for doing it. Ahhh, the sweet smell of success.<br />
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-9156319571557949802015-04-03T14:16:00.000-04:002015-04-03T15:38:14.646-04:00Does Your Strategy Account For the Future?"Your rearview mirror is so small and your windshield is so large because what lies ahead is much more important than the past." (@CHRISVOSS)<br />
<br />
What can we say about the future? <br />
<ul>
<li>It's uncertain and the end is always near. (Jim Morrison) </li>
<li>The future is much like the present, only longer. (Dan Quisenberry) </li>
<li>The future is here. It's just not widely distributed yet. (William Gibson) </li>
</ul>
Uncertain. As near as tomorrow. Long duration. Limited (and uneven) distribution.<br />
<br />
Think about how hospital strategic plans account for <i>future</i> competitor decisions. If they do at all, it's little more than simple extrapolation of past performance, a technique which, though understandable since that's where the data reside, is nothing more than crafting strategy in a vacuum.<br />
It's much easier to track competitor performance retrospectively than to forecast future decisions.<br />
<br />
Volume trends, market share, patient satisfaction, quality indicators, financial performance, major capital investments are all in the public domain if one knows where to look. A strategist's job is to synthesize all that data so that a few important, future-oriented questions receive sustained attention:<br />
<br />
<u>1. The Benchmark Question: </u><br />
<b>What is our competitive position relative to the competition?</b><br />
<br />
<u>2. The Trendline Question:</u><br />
<b>Are we improving? I.e. what's the slope of our trend line? How do we know?</b><br />
<br />
<u>3. The Speed To Market Question:</u><br />
<b>Are we improving as rapidly as those around us? Are our improvement cycle times fast enough?</b><br />
<br />
<u>4. The Marketplace Expectations Question:</u><br />
<b>Are we improving as rapidly as the <u>market</u> demands, now <u>and in the future?</u> I.e. is our projected performance sufficient to succeed as customer expectations grow and evolve?</b><br />
<br />
<br />
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-38544098340158826312015-03-31T13:55:00.000-04:002015-04-10T22:46:01.496-04:00Behind Every Resume Is A Potential Customer...and Karma.<!-- AddThis Button for Post BEGIN -->I recently heard from an executive colleague who, thanks to a merger, found herself looking for her next opportunity. Her story, probably depressingly familiar to many of you, was all about the big black hole of rudeness and non-responsiveness that so often sums up employers' attitudes toward candidates.<br>
<br>
This colleague, thinking she'd see the healthcare world from a new vantage point, pursued opportunities with consultants, IT vendors, architects and other suppliers who, far from appreciating her solid resume, were like the 3 Stooges of clueless.<br>
<br>
So back to a senior health system role she went, WHERE SHE NOW INITIATES AND MANAGES RFPs FOR SOME OF THE VERY SAME COMPANIES who wouldn't talk to her as a candidate, but profess their LOVE for her now that she's got money to spend on their services.<br>
<br>
Not gonna happen. Any guesses who's off the RFP list?<br>
<br>
I smiled when I heard her story, imagining the BusDev people working hard to grow the revenue pipeline, all the while being quietly sabotaged by their HR team. Sure, you can't hire everybody, nor should you. But karma is real and, when given an opportunity, why not make a new friend instead of an enemy?<br>
<br>
From <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/31/jobs/31pre.html?_r=1&8dpc">the New York <span style="font-style: italic;">Times</span> comes a modest proposal: treat job-hunters like, well, customers</a>!<br>
<blockquote>
"...in the whirlwind of daily activity, a business can lose sight that there are real people behind all those résumés. And <span style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 130%;">how the company treats those people, well before any of them become employees, says a lot about it, its brand and its values</span>.<br>
<br>
"In the current labor market, where there is a glut of supply, perhaps some companies think they have the upper hand and can afford to skimp on the niceties. They are mistaken, though, because <span style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 130%;">every economic cycle eventually turns, and there is always competition for the best talent</span>, regardless of economic conditions.<br>
<br>
"It’s for this reason that human-resources professionals and company leaders need to treat job candidates like customers."</blockquote>
Pay attention to job-hunters? Treat candidates like customers? They're a dime a dozen, so where's the benefit in that, you ask? "Oh but we're terribly busy HR professionals..." you say? Sure, go ahead and kiss that brand promise goodbye, along with the last remaining thimble-full of your business model's growth potential.<br>
<blockquote>
"A Stanford Business School case study found that some companies get (the concept of treating job hunters like customers) and capitalize on it. <span style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 130%;">Southwest Airlines, for one, recognizes that employment candidates are not only career customers — but that they could also be, or become, customers of the airline</span>.<br>
<br>
"Southwest’s core principles of respect permeate its recruiting, where there is a focus on making sure that no applicant feels inferior or rejected. <span style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 130%;">Many Southwest job applicants have a better experience being rejected by Southwest than they have being hired by other companies. As a result, Southwest gets the best people, and it shows in its superior financial results.</span><br>
<br>
"Another example comes from the food industry, where I recently heard a story about a manager from Nabisco who was attending a human-resources industry conference. When he declared that <span style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 130%;">his company responded to every résumé it received — solicited and unsolicited — he was met with incredulous stares</span> from his peers.<br>
<br>
'“Why respond to every résumé when that’s clearly not necessary?” someone asked.<br>
<br>
"The Nabisco manager smiled and replied, <span style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 130%;">“ Because — everyone eats cookies."</span></blockquote>
I love that: "...because everyone eats cookies." And they always remember how you made them feel.<br>
<br>
<span style="font-size: 130%; font-weight: bold;">The Takeaway:</span> Has your growth trajectory flattened out? Nosedived? Check how your organization treats job-seekers. Go online and try out your HR Department's "application engine." Investigate how (or, if) you communicate with applicants. Undoubtedly, it's no better than how you treat customers...more's the pity. <span style="color: #ff6600; font-size: 130%;">How can your organization surpass HR's performance when it's THEM supplying the talent?</span><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: 100%;"> Wouldn't they be the lowest common denominator?</span></span><br>
<br>
Regrettably, I don't foresee it changing until a generation of HR "professionals" and recruiters spend a few months themselves searching for a new job, sending resumes into the black hole, dealing with recalcitrant web sites. At that point they may figure it out. Until then, as Depeche Mode might have said it, Enjoy the Silence.<br>
<br>
More on <a href="http://healthcarestrategist.blogspot.com/2008/11/knock-knock-anybody-home-in-h-r.html">my feelings about HR, here</a>.<br>
<br>
<br>
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-52774014906071745502015-03-30T21:35:00.000-04:002015-03-30T21:35:47.794-04:00"We decided in 2005 that no hospital executive could apply to work in
this (ambulatory) company. We wanted entrepreneurs who were more open to a different
way of providing healthcare services. That has been very, very
successful."<br />
<br />
--<strong><a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/section/articles?tagID=881">Dan Wolterman</a>, president and CEO of Houston-based <a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/section/articles?tagID=751">Memorial Hermann Healthcare System</a>, Texas' largest not-for-profit health system, from an interview in <a href="http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20150328/MAGAZINE/303289952?">Modern Healthcare</a>.</strong> <br />
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-4124331791282958002015-03-30T16:55:00.001-04:002015-03-30T17:01:50.551-04:00The Answer For Lower Healthcare Costs Is...<span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>...<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/29/upshot/small-company-has-plan-to-provide-primary-care-for-the-masses.html?abt=0002&abg=1">Customer Service. </a></b></span><br />
<br />
From the <i>New York Times:</i> Seattle's <a href="http://www.iorahealth.com/">Iora Primary Care</a> is a new model of primary care, seeking national scale and venture capital funding. Though the ambition may be outsize, the concepts are not new. Daily team huddles. Health coaches. Taking
satisfaction surveys seriously and mining results for actionable
insights. Employer and payer partnerships. Pay-for-performance not volumes. Loose-tight operations
(wellness options are "loose" - i.e. varying from site to <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvzouRyEgtOAQnL8SGtsDhwaeLXwPD0UFy8-eW01RIuofLfAym_-Yw1A7llp4RwxUv9XtJJUxORP8sds-ln4A3lW8BOmeGEUa5faXTH5VZKh9kBoLH3z8XlJyTWRaAGsR_qlAgh3-vsX4/s1600/last-resort-customer-service.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvzouRyEgtOAQnL8SGtsDhwaeLXwPD0UFy8-eW01RIuofLfAym_-Yw1A7llp4RwxUv9XtJJUxORP8sds-ln4A3lW8BOmeGEUa5faXTH5VZKh9kBoLH3z8XlJyTWRaAGsR_qlAgh3-vsX4/s1600/last-resort-customer-service.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
site, while
EHR alignment is "tight" and non-negotiable.)<br />
<br />
According to the article:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="503" data-total-count="2233" itemprop="articleBody">
"...small change(s) can make a big difference in a patient’s health —
what good is the perfect drug if the patient can’t swallow it? — but the
extra-mile work it took to get there can be a challenge for the typical
primary care practice in the United States. Harried by busy schedules
and paid on a piecework model, many doctors rush from visit to visit,
avoid phone calls and emails that don’t generate payments, and often
fail to address the complex social issues that hamper people’s health. </div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="503" data-total-count="2233" itemprop="articleBody">
"This
misalignment of financial incentives is a huge problem for patients,
who often can’t get the care they need. But it’s also a big economic
problem. The United States has the costliest health care system in the
world, even as many patients suffer from preventable illnesses and die
younger than their peers in other countries. The system is so full of
inefficiencies that Americans are often sicker even as everyone —
patients, insurers, the government — ends up spending more money on
care.</div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="503" data-total-count="2233" itemprop="articleBody">
"Iora thinks it may be able to solve both problems and make money doing
so. Its business model is meant to keep patients...out of
the hospital by improving service while earning a dividend on the
expensive care it was able to avoid." </div>
</blockquote>
<br />
Still, despite the intuitive appeal and some preliminary research, hard data on results are scant:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Iora
has little published research on the cost savings it has achieved for
its partners. The company’s small size makes it hard to produce data
with statistical significance. Asked about current evidence of the
model’s success, the company provided numbers about one of its sites,
where researchers have compared Iora patients with similar patients
elsewhere: Total spending was down 12 percent, with hospitalizations
down 37 percent, compared with the control group. That may have been a
practice with healthy patients, like Dartmouth, or one of the
higher-risk patient groups; an Iora spokeswoman said she could not say
which practice it was because of a confidentiality agreement with the
sponsor. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="396" data-total-count="12889" itemprop="articleBody">
"Many
of the basic elements of the Iora primary care approach — longer hours,
more support staff and additional per patient funding — have been tried
in other settings, especially in so-called patient-centered medical
homes. So far, the results for those types of practices have <a href="http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1832540" title="Related material.">not been promising</a>. Few have shown real reductions in spending or in the frequency of patients entering hospitals.</div>
</blockquote>
Many healthcare organizations are chasing the same vision, betting that all the "We Love Customers" talk will finally start to put some results on the bottom line. As a healthcare strategist AND an occasional patient, let's hope they're right and the data begin to show it.<br />
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-58819754644708975492015-02-26T15:52:00.000-05:002015-03-12T22:52:29.425-04:00The FCC, Net Neutrality and HellIt's difficult to see the FCC's Net Neutrality decision as anything other than an anti-Comcast vote. Maybe I'm unique, but I side with companies making my life easier and
better - Google, Amazon, NetFlix, e.g., and against companies making my
life a living hell.<br>
<br>
What consumers want from Comcast, in no particular order are (1) fast connections, (2) fair prices and (3) problem-solving customer service. Welcome to hell, Comcast style.<br>
<br>
It's a good lesson for CEOs everywhere: suck badly enough and publicly enough, for long enough, and nobody will take your side when big decisions are made on the national stage. And it doesn't matter who might benefit. What's important is revenge and YOU LOSE, Comcast.<br>
<br>
Yes, this means siding with the FCC and a gaggle of collectivist nitwits, but my distaste for them and their nitwittery pales against my utter loathing for Comcast.<br>
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-91435450485761750912013-12-31T09:49:00.001-05:002013-12-31T11:31:20.639-05:00Disrupting Healthcare - 2013's BestFrom Leah Binder in Forbes: <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/leahbinder/2013/12/30/the-best-disruptive-writings-of-2013-health-care-edition/2/">"The Best Disruptive Writings Of 2013 -- Health Care Edition"</a> <br />
<br />
From Helen Bevan: <a href="http://blogs.bmj.com/quality/2013/07/29/a-call-to-action-helen-bevans-blog/">Rocking healthcare's boat while staying in it: how to succeed as a radical in healthcare. </a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- AddThis Button for Post BEGIN -->
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-26172402750040189202013-07-23T10:55:00.000-04:002013-07-23T10:55:25.062-04:00How Do Innovations Spread?From Atul Gawande, writing in the New Yorker:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In the era of the iPhone, Facebook, and Twitter, we’ve become enamored of ideas that spread as effortlessly as ether. We want frictionless, “turnkey” solutions to the major difficulties of the world—hunger, disease, poverty. We prefer instructional videos to teachers, drones to troops, incentives to institutions. People and institutions can feel messy and anachronistic. They introduce, as the engineers put it, uncontrolled variability.<br />
<br />
But technology and incentive programs are not enough. <strong>“Diffusion is essentially a social process through which people talking to people spread an innovation,”</strong> wrote Everett Rogers, the great scholar of how new ideas are communicated and spread. Mass media can introduce a new idea to people. But, Rogers showed, people follow the lead of other people they know and trust when they decide whether to take it up. Every change requires effort, and the decision to make that effort is a social process. (emphasis mine)</blockquote>
Read the entire article, <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/07/29/130729fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all">here</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- AddThis Button for Post BEGIN -->
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-19498360607430543902013-06-07T12:23:00.000-04:002013-06-07T12:23:01.535-04:00"Stop Blaming the Patient!"From MedCityNews.com: <a href="http://medcitynews.com/2013/06/mayo-doc-stop-blaming-patients-healthcare-industrys-take-on-non-compliance-is-all-wrong/">"Mayo doc: Stop blaming patients. Healthcare industry’s take on non-compliance is all wrong."</a><br />
<br />
Dr. Victor Montori offers some great riffs on engagement:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Non-compliance is frequently talked about as a cost and a burden put on the healthcare system by patients. But Montori’s theory is that really, it’s the healthcare system over-burdening the patient.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“We have to be very careful not to blame the patients,” Montori said during his closing keynote at MedCity’s ENGAGE on Thursday. “A lot of the conversation (around patient engagement) has been, how do we get them to do stuff? To me, that’s not engagement." </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[...] </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Montori closed by asserting that the U.S. healthcare system will be the best in the world only when it begins to shrink. “Healthcare right now is all about itself. Healthcare right now is about how do we get bigger, more market share,” he said. “That means that patients have to take more medicine, have to monitor themselves more often [...] We will have the best healthcare system in the world when it becomes the first healthcare system that shrinks.” </blockquote>
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-29648343434883187682013-06-06T09:59:00.003-04:002013-06-06T14:38:52.895-04:00Hanging Up On HondaMy phone rang last night, with the caller ID showing an unfamiliar number from Fremont, MI. A quick Google search hinted that it was Honda calling, probably to determine my satisfaction with a recent oil change at one of their dealers.<br />
<br />
I'm not answering their calls. Not now, not ever. Why?<br />
<br />
Several months ago, after a similiar service visit led to a similar call, I told the researcher I was unhappy with the dealer for recommending what I thought were unecessary service items in an attempt to inflate my bill. (So what else is new, right? Whodathunk?)<br />
<br />
Not twenty minutes later said dealer's service manager calls, unhappy that I'd given him and his department less than perfect marks and downright angry that I'd aired my suspicions in the survey.<br />
<br />
So I gave their customer satisfaction researchers honest feedback and they ratted me out to the locals. Seriously?<br />
<br />
Let's make a new deal. Mark down that I said "Honda's service is PERFECT in all respects" and stop calling me. <br />
<br />
And that $1,400 of "recommended" service items? Bite me. Next time I'm going to Jiffy Lube.<br />
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-70066138275029933612013-05-30T14:40:00.001-04:002013-06-04T09:53:16.830-04:00CBS Calls Out UPMCFrom CBS This Morning: University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57586783/non-profit-hospital-makes-billions-should-it-get-a-tax-break/">"made $948 million in profits from 2011-2012."</a> And tax returns show UPMC spending just 2% of its annual budget on charity care. And UPMC's CEO, Jeffrey Romoff, makes almost $6 million a year. And Romoff also has more than a dozen administrators that take in annual salaries of over $1 million a year. And now Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is suing to revoke UPMC's nonprofit status. Good. I hope he wins.<br />
<br />
From the article:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote>
Professor Martin Gaynor of Carnegie Mellon has published papers on hospitals that enjoy nonprofit status but do not always function like charities. </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote>
"There's a lot of concern here in the community," Gaynor told "CBS This Morning." </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote>
"They've taken some actions that don't appear to be consistent with an organization whose mission is to benefit the community." </blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<blockquote>
Some of UPMC's funds are directed at facility improvement, but Gaynor has concerns about even some of that spending. He likened the new, state-of-the-art pediatric center to a palace. <br />
<br />
"It's a tremendous asset to the community," he said. "On the other hand...one has to ask whether it was so important to make it so beautiful, or whether some of those dollars could've been used to better purpose -- to offer lower prices to members of the community, to offer more charity care."<br />
<br /></blockquote>
</blockquote>
Hard to argue with the Gaynor, isn't it? I've worked in and around not-for-profit healthcare for most of my career and it's not that difficult to distinguish community benefit-centered organizations from the edifice-centered. I know which I prefer. And I wish the others would stop kidding themselves, the IRS and us.<br />
<br />
More of my thoughts on hospitals' tax exemption, in <a href="http://healthcarestrategist.blogspot.com/#!/2011/09/battle-over-hospitals-tax-exempt-status.html">this post about the politics of tax exemption in Illinois</a>.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- AddThis Button for Post BEGIN -->
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-1381220637693244602013-05-10T17:18:00.003-04:002013-05-10T17:22:30.138-04:00The ACA's Effect On Entrepreneurs Will Be...?An <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324059704578471122746420826.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_smallbusiness">article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal</a> asked "Will Health-Care Law Beget Entrepreneurs?" <br />
<br />
Will the availability of reasonably-priced insurance through public marketplaces or "exchanges" cause entrepreneurs to strike out on their own, leaving behind the comfort of big company benefits? <br />
<br />
It's a good question, albeit one with no clear-cut answer at the moment. It all depends, I guess, on one's definition of "high-functioning exchanges" and "reasonable prices." <br />
<br />
Still, it's a question to which large companies ought to be paying close attention. How many people work at jobs simply for the health insurance, jobs they'd leave in a heartbeat to follow their passion if insurance wasn't an obstacle? I don't know for sure, but I'd bet the answer is somewhere between "more than a few" and "a whole heckavu lot." <br />
<br />
And those leaving are likely to be those the company wishes would stay - the innovators, the <i>passionistas</i>, those with entrepreneurial drive and burning competitive fires.<br />
<br />
They leave and who stays? The timid, the risk-adverse and the "Yes, but..." crowd. I guess you can always hope that your competitors are as bad at retaining talent as you are.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- AddThis Button for Post BEGIN -->
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-29848690691506186492013-05-08T17:53:00.001-04:002013-05-08T17:53:59.383-04:00Should An Employer Pay You For Interviewing?Asks <a href="http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2013/05/ask-the-headhunter-should-empl.html">Nick Corcodilos, writing for PBS NewsHour</a>. It's a great question. The answer might shape up your HR department in a hurry.<br />
<br />
From the article:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A job applicant treated with disrespect can do as much -- if not more -- damage to a company's business as a dissatisfied customer. Do employers really think word doesn't get around?</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Maybe hiring managers assume that their HR departments handle all the necessary niceties with applicants. But just how accountable are HR departments? Does this company's public relations department realize that while it's spending millions on good press, the HR department is scuttling it? If you're a hiring manager, and you're not sure how job candidates are treated after they leave your office, please read "Respecting The Candidate."</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Your HR department might explain that processing applicants, job offers, hires, and rejection letters is cumbersome. Tell that to your customer who cancels the order that's a month late, or to the prospect who's waiting for a sales rep to return her call.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The technology to keep candidates informed is here. The will isn't. Why? <strong><u>Because job candidates don't cost anything.</u></strong> Companies can get all your professional time they want, for free, without any obligation to you whatsoever.</blockquote>
The article even contains a sample letter requesting payment. Let me know if you try it.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- AddThis Button for Post BEGIN -->
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-85377968973411729502013-04-26T10:11:00.000-04:002013-04-26T12:25:01.669-04:00"...a social strategy doesn’t mean doctors on Facebook"How's your patient engagement strategy working out for you? This article might help: <a href="http://www.hl7standards.com/blog/2013/04/25/engagement-is-a-strategy-iv/">Engagement is a Strategy IV: 10 Reasons Value-based Health Care Orgs Need A Social Strategy<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></a>.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
If you want to influence behavior (which you do or will), you really can’t ignore a social strategy. <strong>We’ll need to get really good at engagement and behavior change on a massive scale.</strong> Social media strategies may be our best bet at influencing behavior on a massive scale. Not to push behavior in a direction, but to provide systems that let behavior naturally migrate toward the health people already seek."</blockquote>
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-50061106755096534592013-03-26T10:52:00.000-04:002013-03-26T10:52:20.377-04:00Rock Health: "The Entrepreneur's Guide to Hospital Partnerships"<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="356" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/14493272?rel=0" style="border-bottom: #ccc 1px solid; border-left: #ccc 1px solid; border-right: #ccc 1px solid; border-top: #ccc 1px solid; margin-bottom: 5px;" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="427"> </iframe><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 5px;">
<strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/RockHealth/the-entrepreneurs-guide-to-hospital-partnerships" target="_blank" title="The Entrepreneur's Guide to Hospital Partnerships by @Rock_Health">The Entrepreneur's Guide to Hospital Partnerships by @Rock_Health</a> </strong>from <strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/RockHealth" target="_blank">Rock Health</a></strong> </div>
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-46220465911835174392013-03-26T10:30:00.003-04:002013-03-26T10:34:00.717-04:00"5 Trends Digital Marketers Should Not Ignore"<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="356" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" mozallowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" src="http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/17502793" style="border-bottom: #ccc 1px solid; border-left: #ccc 1px solid; border-right: #ccc 1px solid; border-top: #ccc 1px solid; margin-bottom: 5px;" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="427"> </iframe><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 5px;">
<strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/ekaterinawalter/5-trends-marketers-should-not-ignore" target="_blank" title="5 Trends Marketers Should Not Ignore">5 Trends Marketers Should Not Ignore</a> </strong>from <strong><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/ekaterinawalter" target="_blank">Ekaterina Walter</a></strong> </div>
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-5915271310988723842013-03-15T16:07:00.000-04:002013-03-15T16:07:08.367-04:00What Tech Trends Do CIOs See As Overrated?<!-- AddThis Button for Post BEGIN --><br />
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<br />
From Chris Murphy, Editor at InformationWeek.com: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/7-tech-trends-cios-call-overrated/240150822?">"7 Tech Trends CIOs Call Overrated."</a><br />
<br />
<strong>Trend #4: "Big data over small data."</strong><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
(Says) Ken Harris, Shaklee CIO: "I'm not convinced that big data for most companies is a promising investment right now. We haven't learned how to handle small data well, let alone throw big data on there. That isn't to say there aren't some companies for whom big data could be a game changer, <u>but most companies don't even effectively handle small data</u>." </blockquote>
Harris is entirely correct, especially regarding healthcare's provider organizations - hospitals and physician groups - who, despite much talk about evidence-based practice, remain too often stuck in patterns of deliberate, <span style="color: orange;">consensus-to-a-fault</span> decision-making. <br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOJfDU8ckBeIrJOQfyrxnoSVuCRNU7hCWjTdNa6t1JJTez57qRtG_uCXrttjfL3msTiiQhDum-qVMNyAocCt7ZKal9-2RJSINWyevPTgozNMjPdDI_hJkzflSS6CCP5ccYtDb-mA0RQzg/s1600/data.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; cssfloat: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="125" psa="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOJfDU8ckBeIrJOQfyrxnoSVuCRNU7hCWjTdNa6t1JJTez57qRtG_uCXrttjfL3msTiiQhDum-qVMNyAocCt7ZKal9-2RJSINWyevPTgozNMjPdDI_hJkzflSS6CCP5ccYtDb-mA0RQzg/s200/data.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">world‑airline‑routes‑by‑josullivan.59‑cc‑by‑e1317968138475.jpg</span><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Shared on Google+. </span><span style="font-size: xx-small;">creativecommons.org.au</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Think that's harsh? <a href="http://www.ahrq.gov/legacy/research/trip2fac.htm">One AHRQ study</a> found that <em>"...(t)ranslation of research findings into sustainable improvements in clinical outcomes and patient outcomes remains a substantial obstacle to improving the quality of care. <strong>Up to two decades may pass</strong> before the findings of original research becomes part of routine clinical practice."</em><br />
<br />
It's not for lack of data, big or otherwise, that this pattern remains. <span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><strong>No, it's culture trumping data.</strong></span> <br />
<br />
What happens when your Chief of Cardiology says "Nah. I disagree with those research findings. That's not what I learned in medical school and I'm not gonna do it." Who wins? Her or the data? I think we've all been around hospitals (and cardiologists) long enough to know the answer.<br />
<br />
So work on that culture thing first. In fact, get the culture right and the rest follows. Otherwise you're just writing <strong>big</strong> checks to <strong>big</strong> IT companies, expecting <strong>big</strong> things and setting youself up for <strong>big</strong> disappointments.<br />
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-1187306234021290422013-03-14T14:50:00.001-04:002013-03-14T14:50:08.228-04:00The Patients Speak!Andrea J. Simon writing at HospitalImpact.org: <a href="http://www.hospitalimpact.org/index.php/2013/03/11/what_do_patients_really_want_and_do_docs">"What Do Patients Really Want and Do Docs Care?"</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
With high deductibles, consumers all expressed how they are less likely to go to the doctor unless they are really sick. A number of them spoke about preempting the healthcare system altogether and instead, using their personal network to speak with friends who are nurses about their situation or that of their child before going to the physicians. <br />
<br />
Most interesting was the degree to which these consumers--all of whom were between 25 and 54 in age--were anxious to get mobile applications that they could use themselves to help diagnose and manage their conditions. DIY healthcare is going to be very hot if we can get it right. </blockquote>
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-40167219453123968902013-02-06T11:14:00.003-05:002015-03-30T16:17:27.397-04:0010 Ways to Stay On Top Of the Innovation HeapThe authors of Booz & Company's <a href="http://strategyand.pwc.com/">"Global Innovation 1,000 Report"</a> offer their Top 10 things innovative companies do right <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/innovative-companies-stay-on-top-2012-12?op=1">(via Business Insider.com)</a><br />
<ol>
<li>At innovative companies, everybody is an innovator.</li>
<li>Innovative companies measure their idea-generation success.</li>
<li>Innovative companies change the idea a lot before it becomes a product.</li>
<li>Innovative companies test their idea with customers.</li>
<li>Innovative companies have an internal "idea czar."</li>
<li>Innovative companies talk to customers and other partners.</li>
<li>Innovative companies find ideas everywhere.</li>
<li>Innovative companies generate ideas in three basic ways:</li>
<ol>
<li>Need seekers: what do customers want?</li>
<li>Market readers: quickly create improvements on market trends.</li>
<li>Technology drivers: letting their tech experts experiment.</li>
</ol>
<li>Innovative companies spend R&D money thoughtfully, not profligately.</li>
<li>Innovative companies systematically create new ideas.</li>
</ol>
Though <u>healthcare</u> (big pharma, mostly) is heavily represented, healthcare <u>providers</u> are not. Not unexpectedly, few of these 10 activities play to providers' strengths or fit naturally into a typical hospital culture. Outside of a few organizations like <a href="http://www.clevelandclinic.org/innovations/about-us.html">Cleveland Clinic</a>, there's a lot more innovation 'talking' than innovation 'doing.' Maybe it's the first step in a journey of recovery - admitting you have a problem, er, opportunity.<br />
<br />
Read the entire article, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/innovative-companies-stay-on-top-2012-12?op=1">here</a>.<br />
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<!-- AddThis Button for Post END --></div>Steve Davishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09271297110508956367noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8947666803255226470.post-46187737387211426952013-01-28T12:09:00.001-05:002013-01-28T12:09:52.547-05:00"...I was fully planning to quit in protest. I’d even started writing op-ed articles. I was going to resign pretty noisily, I’m afraid." Richard S. Foster is retiring this week after 18 years as the chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. <a href="http://www.kaiserhealthnews.org/Stories/2013/January/28/Foster-retiring-actuary-reflects.aspx">From an interview in KaiserHealthNews.org: </a><br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Q: How do we control health care costs in Medicare, Medicaid and the private sector?</span></strong><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A: Years ago, we thought that converting from cost-based reimbursement to prospective payment systems (a set payment that covers the entire cost of the admission) was the magic answer, and it helped a lot. Then, back in the early 1990s, everybody thought managed care was the magic answer. And that helped some, too, although most of their success was in negotiating lower payment rates, which you can only take so far.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We’ve had other instances -- pay-for-performance and consumer-driven health care -- that people had hoped would be the magic answer. <strong>Right now, there’s a great deal of hope that further integration of care, greater bundling of payments and other innovations like that will be the answer. I’m not optimistic that these things will, in fact, be any more successful than the best ideas of the past.</strong> I think they can all help. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All the insurers and payers tend to adopt and pay for just about any new technology that comes along -- even in instances where the value of the new technology is nowhere near its higher cost. So we could be a lot more prudent in how we adopt new technology. But that’s controversial. We saw in the Affordable Care Act the pushback on comparative effectiveness. If you do comparative effectiveness right, I think it could be very helpful. </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong>Q: How would you adopt technology more prudently?</strong> </span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A: If you have something that is 10 times as expensive as the technology it would replace, and it really is not any more effective, why should we bother adopting that? And yet we do it all the time. </span><div class="blogger-post-footer"><!-- AddThis Button for Post BEGIN -->
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