Your Good-Paying Customers....for Now

We've talked previously about your hospital's customers here.

I think a lot about who our customers are at hospitals. Are they the patients, the doctors, or the third-party payers? It's probably a little bit of all of them. Tonight let us consider the scenario of the third-party payers as our customers.

What does this customer want? I believe the only thing that matters to this customer is what kind of return on investment are they getting from your hospital. In other words, how much cost must be incurred to provide a positive outcome for their customers, the patients. The third-party payers, along with much of the public, agree. Hospital care costs too much.

How do we know this? I think the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 is a good example of this. Would the American public approve of hospitals receiving less reimbursement for their care if they believed they were getting a good return on their investment? I don't think so.

3 Questions You Must Ask About Your Managers

"When you have able managers of high character running businesses about which they are passionate, you can have a dozen or more reporting to you and still have time for an afternoon nap." - Warren Buffett

Berkshire Hathaway is a holding company of about 10-15 businesses. Your hospital probably consists of about 5-10 different departments. You should manage your departments in a similar manner to the way Buffett manages his businesses. This means doing little of it. The key to effective operation is to evaluate your departments in this manner:

Is the department management rational?
Is management candid with their stakeholders?
Does management resist the institutional imperative?

These questions drive an important point in the evaluation of managers of your departments. You must have managers that you can trust and that have a passion for delivering service to the public.

Marry Your Community

When was the last time you made your patient's hearts flutter? Woo your community by following these steps.

Beautify yourself - The relationship starts on a physical level. Your hospital must appeal visually. No one does business in an establishment with dirty floors or bugs in the room (believe me, I know).

Begin a conversation - Love develops when two people know each other. They talk about their future. Tell your community what will do for them. Be open and honest about your strengths and limitations and never ever lie.

Become a shoulder to lean on - It's the difficult days when you learn how much you love someone. Hospitals have good days and they have bad. Celebrate during the good, and show empathy when needed.

Make the commitment - You've bared your soul to the community, now prove your commitment. In sickness and in health, regardless of profit or loss, the hospital will be there and your core qualities will always stay the same.

Strong relationships help you to know what your patients need and how you can provide for them. By making this commitment, your hospital will build a deep, long-lasting relationship with the community. This will not only be good for the bottom line, but the health of your patients.

Coloring Between the Lines

Children love coloring. Half the joy comes because when you are a child you can scribble how ever you like. Purple tigers and a green sky are beautiful and it doesn't matter if you make it between the lines.

Then people tell you that tigers aren't purple. You ask yourself why and no one can really give you a good answer. Your creativity starts to wither and die and you begin to perform based on what people tell you is correct.

The health care industry has for so long been doing everything between the lines and never asking why it must be that way.

Word of Mouth

Thank you to all of my readers. If you find that you enjoy the topics in this blog, please let your peers know. I am a big believer in the good work of word of mouth.

If you have any feedback for me please email me at the bottom of the page, or here.

Revamping Your Hospital's Mission Statement

Who am I? Why am I here?

Oh the questions of human existence. They should also be the questions of your hospital's existence. Mission statements can be for the organization as a whole, but also for each part of the organization that feeds into the larger mission. Whether your mission is for the organization or for the med/surg first floor, your mission should have the same characteristics:

1. Missions should be broad in scope but specific in action - You don't want your mission statement to put your organization in a box. "We will treat elderly women who have breast cancer." That may be a great mission for a department, but it doesn't allow innovation and creativity in the services your organization offers.

2. Mission statements aren't meant to change with the newest fad - Mission statements are meant to last the test of time. Your mission statement in the 90's may have been to develop an organization to meet the needs of managed care. However, we have seen managed care decline dramatically, and that would not be an appropriate mission for today.

3. Your mission statement should specifically identify the market that you serve - This is the who, what, when, and where of your statement. Some hospitals may serve a town, some may serve at state, and some may serve a special group (think the VA).

4. Your mission statement should convey the special qualities of your organization - This is about how your differentiate yourself in the marketplace. It helps you to distinguish your hospital from the one in the town 10 miles away. As we talked about in earlier posts, service quality can be a great way to differentiate yourself from your competitor.