Improve the Patient Experience; Improve the Bottom Line

Patient experience is at the top of the “to do” list for healthcare organizations, and of course, with good reason. Not only because it’s part of the Triple Aim, but also because as patients see themselves more and more as consumers, when they make healthcare choices, they are going to choose people and places that prioritize them.

Recently, I read “Why Improving the Patient Experience Is Vital for the Health Care Industry” in Harvard Business Review. According to the article, estimates show that in the U.S., active patient choices can impact more than 60 percent of health care spending. And with U.S. healthcare spending in the trillions of dollars, that’s a lot of money riding on patient choice.

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Another Perspective on Healthcare M&A

I have read and have often written quite a bit about healthcare mergers and acquisitions from the industry perspective. I, for one, happen to believe that done correctly, they are good for the industry as scale can enable more efficiency and productivity.

A new national survey, albeit from the Large Urology Group Practice Association (LUGPA) with a potential vested interest, provides the patient perspective, which is not as optimistic.

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Alive with opportunities

We’re a dynamic company and we’re experiencing tremendous growth and expansion. That growth means that opportunities for our team of MedSpeeders are growing too.

We value the hard work of our team and try to provide ample opportunities for job growth within our company. If there are MedSpeeders who want to relocate, they can take their experience from one of our current markets and help grow new markets.

It’s just good business. When we do a good job of supporting our team members, great things can happen.

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Delivering health

From an outside viewpoint, it might be easy to see MedSpeed as the cog that gets items delivered within a healthcare organizations. But what we do goes far beyond than that.

As a healthcare intra-company logistics company, we’re not merely delivering objects. What we deliver affects patients and their health. We understand the enormity of what we do, and the trust placed in us.

What we deliver is health, by connecting patients, providers & their communities.

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What Patient Consumer Research and Intra-company Logistics Have in Common

Earning the respect of the Healthcare C-Suite

A recent article in Modern Healthcare got me thinking. At first blush “Health systems ramp up consumer research to improve care experience,” doesn’t seem to have much to do with healthcare intra-company logistics, but actually the benefits (and struggles) healthcare organizations have experienced related to consumer research are very similar to what we’ve seen with our own customers.

The article says, “A growing number of health systems are amping up their consumer research investment to enhance patient satisfaction and establish brand loyalty as consumerism takes hold in the industry.”

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More than a driver

Our Logistics Service Representatives, or LSRs, are the MedSpeeders who literally and figuratively drive our business. Our LSRs are much more than drivers because they provide a much higher level of professionalism than driving from Point A to Point B. Simply put: Our LSRs are a vital part of delivering care.

As one of our LSRs so aptly says, “We’re not just driving. A patient’s wellbeing is in our hands.”

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The importance of “What’s in it for We”

We at MedSpeed are continually working on how to best create high functioning business relationships, the kind that can be considered true partnerships (a word, in my opinion, that is among the most overused and misused in business).

The key to doing this is uncovering the areas and methods that can create value for both parties in the relationship. This idea led us to take interest in the Vested Business Model, a framework developed by Kate Vitasek, a professor at the University of Tennessee and someone whose work I admire and have cited before.

In one of Vitasek’s most recent articles, “The art of getting to ‘we’ in negotiations,” she discusses the importance of moving from the old-school “what’s in it for me” (WIIFME) approach to the partnership mode of “what’s-in-it-for we” (WIIFWE). WIIFWE changes the focus of a partnership from a deal to a relationship.

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Going the extra mile

At MedSpeed, we know that what we do for patients on a daily basis is very important. However, on one particular day, the way our team worked together to go that extra mile was truly inspiring and made a significant impact on that patient’s life. This short video tells that story.

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CEOs, Company Culture and Crain’s

Ask nearly any CEO, and s/he will tell you that creating and maintaining the “right” culture is a key part of a successful company. That idea was reiterated repeatedly when I had the pleasure of being part of a panel for a breakfast, presented by Crain’s Chicago Business, last week. Our panel was comprised of four CEOs from middle market companies, representing a variety of industries.

The topic of company culture kicked off the discussion when our moderator asked us about the challenges we faced to maintain growth at this stage in our respective company’s development. Often, growth makes it challenging to maintain and extend culture. And that’s a big deal because culture is an indelible component of who we are as companies, and the fact that culture plays a key role in retaining good employees. While there are many factors that play into someone’s decision to stay at or leave a company, culture is a key influencer.

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With tight labor market, outsourcing to the rescue

The unemployment rate in the US is currently below 4%, which means our economy is doing well, and a large majority of Americans are employed. That’s the good news.

The bad news is, with such a tight labor market, many organizations—healthcare ones in particular—are struggling to fill positions and are forced to come up with creative ways to fill those slots. Dartmouth-Hitchcock, a healthcare system in New Hampshire, has had to find creative ways around the workforce shortage in order to maintain the same level of care. Since a healthcare system requires positions from janitors and cafeteria workers to psychiatrists and nurse practitioners, the challenges are great.

And that’s the rub. The primary goal of a healthcare organization is to provide excellent care to its patients. There are any number of jobs that go into that, but when organizations like Dartmouth-Hitchcock are having difficulty filling clinical positions—and they are far from alone—should other positions be outsourced instead?

I’ve written pretty extensively about the benefits of outsourcing, and of course, our company is founded on that principle. Today, when so many hospitals are struggling to fill their clinical positions, it makes sense for them to turn to outsourcing to alleviate labor pressures.

We think it is always a good argument to do outsourcing in the right, customer-centric way. It alleviates labor pressures while taking care of employees and allowing the team to focus on what they do best.

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