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Hospital Equals U-Haul Truck In Back Filled With Corpses Was Not A Good Marketing Slogan
I’m amazed when someone says something so perfectly emblematic of the topic I'm planning to address. So my hat is off to Maureen Tarrant, CEO of Denver’s Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center and Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children.
Earlier this month, Ms. Tarrant told Denver’s ABC television affiliate that, “I think we made people afraid to come back.” Talk about nosocomial infection; this one infected hospitals themselves.
Although it’s too late, Ms. Tarrant now understands that Denver isn't New York City; her hospital was never overwhelmed with Covid patients, yet they scared almost all of their other patients away by, in essence, defining hospitals as infected.
It’s not just a problem for Ms. Tarrant’s hospitals.
Earlier this week, Baylor Scott & White Health, Texas’s largest not-for-profit health system demonstrated its nonprofit status by announcing the layoff of 1,200 employees. After all, no profit from all those elective cases (and the cardiac and stroke and cancer patients) that they chased away leads to no need for 3% of their workforce.
Also earlier this week, the 150 hospital St. Louis-based Ascension system announced a $2.7B net loss in for its quarter ending March 31 — who knows how deep its loss will be for the quarter consisting of April, May, and June.
But BS&W and Ascension are among the lucky. Year to date, at least 15 U.S. hospitals have closed.
On the physician side, many if not most physician leaders are running scared. After all, the nosocomial “virus” spread to infect almost every medical practice in the country, putting them on a several months long economic quarantine. As a result, many physician leaders are too demoralized to think about strategizing for the future. Heck, if you don’t think you’re going to have a future, why strategize for it. Just react to what’s happening, react to what you read, react to what you watch on TV. Problem -> Reaction. Fear -> Reaction. Crisis -> Reaction.
But of course, not everyone thinks that way. Instead, they see opportunity: Problem -> Opportunity. Fear -> Opportunity. Crisis -> Opportunity.
Let’s take Walmart for instance. They’re moving ahead with their third “Walmart Health” center, a facility designed to take food off of your plate if you’re a primary care physician, the operator of a clinical lab or of an imaging facility, a radiologist, a psychologist, a dentist, an ophthalmologist, an otolaryngologist, or a dietitian.
Walmart doesn’t think like any hospital and like most physician leaders. They have a strategy to seize opportunity. They make decisions quickly. They act on those decisions quickly. They will open their third Walmart Health while the primary care doctors/labs/imaging facilities/radiologists/psychologists/dentists/ophthalmologists/otolaryngologists/dietitians they’re about to displace can’t even figure out how to reopen after the “shut down.”
But the interesting thing is that the concept of maneuverability, taking fast action that iterates and iterates so quickly that your competitors cannot predict what will happen next, thereby creating confusion and the inability of your competitors to cope, has nothing at all to do with size. It lies at the core of the key to victory in the Civil War Battle of Missionary Ridge [read about it here] and at the core of the story of The Flea That (Metaphorically) Killed the Medical Center CEO [read about it here].
And, it also lies at the core of developing and deploying the strategy for your group’s overall existence and for each and every “negotiation” that takes place.
***
We’ve designed a program for medical group leaders like you who want to understand the secret sauce underlying opportunistic action. See the announcement immediately below.
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| | How to Deploy the Secret Sauce of Opportunistic Strategy - Webinar
They say that COVID-19 has changed the world, creating the "new normal." Many of your colleagues and many hospital administrators are running scared.
Others, leaders like you, know that crisis means opportunity.
Let me provide you with the strategic tools and insights that you need in order to seize opportunities, whether they’re in the context of your current business relationships, the expansion of your business activities, or the creation of new ventures.
Join me for a live webinar event on June 25, 2020. Only by participating will you learn:
•Defense as a defective default: It’s necessary, but not sufficient.
•Exploiting weakness: Drop the guilt and identify opportunity.
•Flat line negotiation is fatal: Understand its myths and limitations.
•Negotiation reality: Learn to identify and deploy on multiple planes to affect the outcome.
•Maneuver: Harness the power of maneuver, both in overall strategy and in specific negotiation strategy.
Others see a crisis and freeze in fear. Learn how to see the opportunities and obtain the tools to increase your odds of obtaining them.
The price to attend is $479. The cost of not attending is astronomical.
In order to respond to live and emailed questions, attendance is limited.
You'll receive a recording of the webinar if you can't attend live.
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| | | Newsflash: Business Life In the Time of Coronavirus - The Way Out
The coronavirus crisis, especially as it's become politicized, raises a number of business issues and, quite frankly, business opportunities in regard to future disruptive events.
Check out our mini-series, with actionable business lessons for medical group leaders.
Sooner or later this crisis will end. You can’t allow yourself to be too busy, too occupied, too concerned with current events, to devote time and effort to strategizing for your future.
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| | | Wisdom. Applied. 138 - Walmart Understands Action Most Physician Leaders Just Understand Reaction.
Your local newspaper and even that national one that claims to print everything that’s fit to be printed is telling you that the world as you know it is over. It probably is.
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| | | At the Ritz Carlton, at least before it became just an upscale Marriott, the employees were famously empowered to make things right for guests, able to spend up to $2,000 of the Ritz’s money per incident without asking a manager.
That’s how important it was to the Ritz to make things right.
At the Home Depot, making it right doesn’t appear to be in stock. Take last weekend for instance.
After I grabbed the pack of lightbulbs that brought me in in the first place, I headed to the front of the store toward the check stands. I could see long lines at the 3 of who knows how many registers, the rest of which were closed.
Ah, I spotted the customer service area where they process returns and, as they’ve done many time before, ring up purchases.
Five or six employees were standing around behind the counter, chatting with one another. There were no other customers within ten feet of the counter. I approached one of the employees and asked if she could ring up my purchase. No, she said, I’d have to pay at the check out lines, and pointed toward the other registers about 50 feet away. She then went back to chatting.
Why? Obviously, it’s because at Home Depot they don’t give a shit about customers.
True, I didn’t mistake Home Depot for the Ritz. But I did think it was like Lowes or even the local True Value store. I guess I was wrong.
What message are your employees sending to your customers, some of whom will obtain tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars of medical care from you? That they’re important, or that they’re just, well, hardware?
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| | Help Us Help You With Helpful Content
What tailored content would you most like to see during this time? How can we focus on solutions to your most pressing strategic concerns?
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| | Podcast Compilation Greatest Hits - Strategy Edition 1.0
We've curated our most popular podcasts on strategy into our first compilation album.
Sit back, enjoy, and think about your future.
Listen here. |
| | | | | | We all hear, and most of us say, that the pace of change in healthcare is quickening. That means that the pace of required decision-making is increasing, too. Unless, that is, you want to take the “default” route. That’s the one is which you let someone else make the decisions that impact you; you’re just along for the ride. Of course, playing a bit part in scripting your own future isn’t the smart route to stardom. But despite your own best intentions, perhaps it’s your medical group’s governance structure that’s holding you back. In fact, it’s very likely that the problem is systemic. The Medical Group Governance Matrix introduces a simple four-quadrant diagnostic tool to help you find out. It then shows you how to use that tool to build your better, more profitable future. Get your free copy here.
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| | | Whenever you're ready, here are 4 ways I can help you and your business:
1. Download a copy of The Success Prescription. My book, The Success Prescription provides you with a framework for thinking about your success. Download a copy of The Success Prescription here.
2. Be a guest on “Wisdom. Applied. Podcast.” Although most of my podcasts involve me addressing an important point for your success, I’m always looking for guests who’d like to be interviewed about their personal and professional achievements and the lessons learned. Email me if you’re interested in participating.
3. Book me to speak to your group or organization. I’ve spoken at dozens of medical group, healthcare organization, university-sponsored, and private events on many topics such as The Impending Death of Hospitals, the strategic use of OIG Advisory Opinions, medical group governance, and succeeding at negotiations. For more information about a custom presentation for you, drop us a line.
4. If You’re Not Yet a Client, Engage Me to Represent You. If you’re interested in increasing your profit and managing your risk of loss, email me to connect directly. |
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