The Driving Results Blog is a space for MedSpeed’s CEO, Jake Crampton, to share insights about a variety of healthcare topics. Occasionally, other members of the MedSpeed leadership team will use this space to discuss matters of particular importance to them.
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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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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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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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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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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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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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.
Last week, MedSpeed was named to the Inc. 5000, a highly-regarded ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. This is the second time that MedSpeed has received this honor and been named to the list by Inc. Magazine. Earlier this year we were also named to Crain’s Fast 50, another growth-based recognition.
MedSpeed works to eliminate waste and provide exceptional quality. In today’s environment of value-based care and system consolidation, this kind of value is more important than ever and we are honored by the trust health systems, laboratories and other healthcare organizations have in us.
That aside, our growth has only been possible due to the invaluable contributions of our customers and our incredible team of MedSpeeders. MedSpeeders care deeply about our customers and understand how important our work is because there is a patient involved in everything we touch and move in our 100+ hubs.
We are certainly humbled to receive this recognition. But more so, motivated to keep working harder to make healthcare better for our communities.
At today’s healthcare organizations, the role of CFO is evolving. CFOs continue to be involved in high-level financial strategy, but they are also increasingly looking at ways to improve day-to-day operations. It’s really not surprising since in this era of diminishing margins, well-run operations are especially important to the financial health of hospitals and health systems.
To delve further into these new roles of CFOs, Becker’s Healthcare and Bank of America Merrill Lynch conducted a survey of healthcare financial leaders and a subsequent roundtable discussion from which they created an eBook, The Quest for Sustainability and the Evolution of the CFO.
Here are some of the takeaways that resonated most with me.
As the role of CFO overlaps more and more with that of the COO, one CFO commented, “I think that the two roles definitely should be … joined at the hip. … It just makes for a much stronger approach to the type of problem solving that we’ll need to have in the future.”
Increased financial pressures are forcing healthcare organizations to consider cost-cutting initiatives in areas of operations that are often outside the purview of the CFO, including labor management and supply chain. The result is a far more collaborative relationship between CFO and COO.
The eBook points out that hospitals that have CFOs and COOs working closely tend to have a more cohesive culture, but these relationships need to place an emphasis on the real-time exchange of financial and operations data between leaders instead of retroactively assessing data at the end of every month. In other words: work together; collaborate; because there’s no room for Monday morning quarterbacking in healthcare.
One of the CFOs discussed the importance of creating partnerships and collaborating in ways that are transparent. “We can’t be hospital-centric anymore,” she said. “We’ve really got to be able to look at the entire delivery system and invest in the right places.”
And then (in my opinion), she really gets to the heart of the matter.
“You need to draw the line and understand what you’re good at, what your core competency is and then look for partnerships where they can help you shore up your strategic initiatives. Don’t try to be all things to all people … look for partners that can help you be successful in [your] core competencies or engage in a new strategy in an area where [they’re] strong … all of that is going to be absolutely critical to the future financial sustainability of an organization.”
Collaboration has to happen inside and outside of the hospital walls. If we’re going to succeed at delivering better care at lower costs, it’s going to take everyone working together to make it happen.
By Angie Gray, Vice President of Human Resources, MedSpeed
Last week, seven college students wrapped up their summer internships with MedSpeed. We were fortunate—as we have been in the past—to host students from universities across the country. The “Class of 2018” worked at seven different MedSpeed locations, most of them focusing on operations, and one who focused on marketing here at our support office.
Every summer, our company is infused with the fresh perspective and innovative ideas of our interns. MedSpeed’s intern program is a significant source of talent for early career positions and leadership development. In fact, last summer we had an intern who we hired as a supervisor who has now moved into implementation, and this year we offered a full-time position to one intern upon graduation.
Internship programs are a great (two-way) learning experience and our human resources team partners closely with intern program leaders to ensure that our interns are given meaningful assignments and a rich experience. We want to drive greater engagement and attract and retain the next generation of MedSpeeders.
Thanks to our 2018 interns for their hard work, commitment and enthusiasm. We hope that you found this experience rewarding, both personally and professionally, and thank you for sharing your summer with us.
If you, or someone you know, is interested in exploring careers or internships with MedSpeed, please reach out to our HR team at hr@medspeed.com for more information. We can’t wait to meet the Class of 2019!