A physician makes a mistake, commits negligence, and what’s the result? It can be horrific. Malpractice suit. Medical staff discipline. Medical board discipline leading even to loss of licensure. Reputation destroyed. Now ask yourself what happens if a hospital executive, say the CEO of a publicly held hospital chain, commits the equivalent type of error, […]
Category: Competing
At a time when telemedicine and telehealth are poised for rapid expansion, many state medical boards are doubling down on what appears to be their true purpose: enacting and enforcing anti-competitive measures to protect those already licensed in the jurisdiction. Medical boards, like all professional licensing boards, are bureaucratic barriers to open competition. Sure, they […]
It’s what you do about a problem that makes the difference. Ignoring it is a fools game; the problem will fester. Solving the problem is neutral — you think you’re back on an even keel, but chances are there’s still lingering anger.
From the 1950’s through the 1990’s success was about doing what was always done – the actual delivery of care. So the better groups delivered better care. If a group was “broken” the result was that its level of care dipped. The fix was to return it to the standard of working well, that is, […]
Covenants not to compete are not inherently bad. It’s just the laws of some states that make them so. In other words, it’s an issue of policy. The purpose of covenants not to compete is, of course, to broadly protect your group’s business. But even if your group practices in a state that will not […]
Steve Jobs famously believed public demand wasn’t important in terms of identifying the market for new products. Instead, what Jobs envisioned the public would want wasn’t even on the public’s radar. On the other hand, the famous marketing expert Gary Halbert held, using a restaurant as an example, that the most important element in the […]
Unfortunately, this attitude impacts medical group thinking as well. As in “we deserve the exclusive contract,” or “I deserve her referrals.”
Creating additional levels of bureaucracy – more paperwork, more direction, more top-down control – leaves less time for patient care, at least for care that is customized as opposed to cookie cutter. It leads to physician dissatisfaction and less, not more, job security.
Creating value in the context of a professional service involves delivering both an exceptional service and an exceptional experience. The mindset of an entrepreneur is tuned to deliver accordingly.
Although many in healthcare operate on a purely commodity-level basis, in reality, it’s not simply about money – it hardly ever is.
