Business vs. Healthcare

Let me be blunt and not waste your time by asking a simple (but controversial) question.

 Do you think of your role in your organization as a provider of healthcare services or as a business person who happens to be in the industry of healthcare? 

 

 

 

I ask this question because of the implications of HCAHPS  (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems). HCAHPS is the 18 question perception-based survey to determine how your hospital is performing from the customer’s standpoint. Think of it as the Government’s own JD Power survey, for those of you familiar with the famous survey house that performs a lot of automobile manufacturer surveys. Here is a link to a website HCAHPS or you can download the HCAHPS Fact Sheet 2010.

Another website you should be familiar with is one called hospitalcompare.com. This is the HHS run website that publishes all the results of the HCAHPS survey in an easy to use graphical format for customers to compared hospitals on these survey results.

These surveys and results not only affect how a consumer chooses your hospital for services (which is a HUGE change from the past), but it will also affect your overall reimbursements from Medicare going forward. Starting in 2014, it could be up to 1% of the total Medicare reimbursements for your hospital and it escalates by .25% per year to 2% by 2017. In an industry that runs on small margins, it’s sort of like a business losing a large volume of their #1 customer.

Are you looking at ways to enhance and improve your employee’s efficiency through LEAN methods and different solutions?

Have you looked at using semi-automation in your hospital?  (Think about Ford not using any semi-automation in their factories and ask how much your next F-150 would cost?)

What about the latest technology?  What are you employing that your competitors aren’t to create advantages for you in the marketplace?  

So now more than ever we need to begin looking at ways to make your business more efficient and competitive in the marketplace since that is how consumers will choose your hospital and its services in the future.  

Lean Healthcare Article worth reading:

Par Level Vs Kanban Methods – Which One For Hospital Material Management?

Thanks,

Chris Dierauer

Healthcare Specialist

cdierauer@ssmidwest.com

D. 262.896.7256

C. 414.520.3900