Why you can’t cost-cut your way to greatness
I write quite a bit about price versus value and how true partnerships look at overall value received in order to benefit both organizations. When both parties invest in improving and innovating the process and work collaboratively to develop the right cost structure, everyone can end up a winner. As Kate Vitasek notes In one of her recent posts, “Avoiding the Death Spiral,” “you simply cannot cost-cut your way to greatness.”
Recently, I had the opportunity to record a webcast for the Association for Health Care Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM) about how strategic same day transportation, what we call intra-company logistics, is the backbone of a successful healthcare supply chain.
I also had the opportunity to talk about why transforming healthcare is paramount to ensuring our organizations, patients & country thrive and how intra-company logistics can play an important role in the process of remaking our healthcare system.
You can watch the short (6-minute) webcast here: Intra-Company Logistics: The Backbone of Your Successful Supply Chain.
I had a great experience at last week’s Executive War College on Lab and Pathology Management, highlighted by the opportunity to moderate a panel about next-level logistics infrastructure that enable the lab of the future.
During the session, Aaron Maixner, operations administrator for the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the Mayo Clinic Health System; Khosrow Shotorbani, the executive director, founder and chief executive officer of Lab 2.0 Strategic Services; and Sam Terese, chief executive officer and president of Alverno Laboratories covered how their logistics networks have advanced with their lab’s growth and improve operational efficiency and patient care. Some key outtakes of that discussion included:
I am attending the Executive War College on Lab and Pathology Management in New Orleans next week and I couldn’t be more excited. First, I am eager to see and learn from great lab minds from around the country. Second, I will be moderating a panel of incredible thought leaders from Alverno Laboratories, Avera Health System and Mayo Clinic Health System who will discuss how they have taken on the process of developing a next-level logistics infrastructure to enable the lab of the future.
Recently, 4,000+ people gathered for Becker’s Hospital Review’s 10th Annual Meeting, The meeting is always inspiring and a great opportunity to learn from leaders across the industry. This year was especially enjoyable for me as I had the opportunity to participate in two panels – one as a moderator and one as a panelist.
Key themes emerged from the meeting:
For the past several years, members of the MedSpeed executive team and I have attended the Becker’s Hospital Review annual meetings. This year, their tenth, is no exception.
The annual meeting brings together more than 4000 attendees from hospitals and health systems across the country. There’s always lots to learn from having so many healthcare leaders in one place.
This year, on the first day of the conference, April 1, I am honored to be participating on two different panels.
I am excited to announce that MedSpeed’s Chicago-area operations and central support team recently moved to a new location to better accommodate our growing teams. After years of working in nearby, but separate locations, we are now together in a 40,000 square foot, stand-alone building.
This new location is designed to foster collaboration and camaraderie and I couldn’t be more enthusiastic about that. I am also extremely appreciative of our incredible team of MedSpeeders and the trust and confidence of our customers who’ve fostered our growth that made this move necessary.
Thanks to everyone who has made MedSpeed what it is today!
You’ve read it here, and you’ve heard me say it repeatedly: supply chain (and healthcare transportation) should not be viewed through a transactional lens because done right, it is a strategic asset.
It was very gratifying, therefore, to read the same sentiment from John Kupice, CEO of H-Source, in Healthcare Finance’s 7 supply chain predictions for healthcare in 2019: “Supply chain is viewed today as a transactional model. That view needs to shift to one of strategy.”
I couldn’t agree more.
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.
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.