[NRSKarenRN]

is due to listening to marketing guru's extensively, grrr


From: HealthLeaders Media

Value Innovation to Win in Healthcare (Part 1 of 2)

By Brian McDonald and Greg Bonofiglio for HealthLeaders News, Oct. 25, 2006

Healthcare organizations face tremendous change in the next decade. A significant driver of this change is attributable to consumers who are increasingly responsible for their healthcare purchases. Consumers are seeking value--the axis of service, results and price. Healthcare can learn much from the retail industry, which operates in an ever more value-driven environment. ...

[ In retail, being value-driven means continuously asking the following:

• Who are the potential customers in our market, and what do we need to know about their lifestyles and demand requirements? How can we fulfill these requirements in such a way to differentiate ourselves from our competitors and achieve our profitability objectives?
• Who are our best customers? What is it about those customers and their needs that we can serve better so as to create increased loyalty and additional revenue streams?
• What is driving market share change in terms of consumer demand or competitive action?
• How will the competition react to our plans and will our strategies change accordingly?
• What product mix and service options should we implement to best match our strategy?
• How and where should we compete on price? On service? On quality?
• How can we drive profitable traffic into our stores and reduce product- or category-specific “cherry picking” by customers?

• http://www.healthleadersmedia.com/vi...ure/84308.html

Value Innovation to Win in Healthcare (Part 2 of 2)

Value innovation to win

While a consumer-as-purchaser environment represents a threat to the status quo, value innovation represents unmatched opportunities for the forward thinking health system. As health leaders approach the subject of value innovation, they should do so with the following in mind:

• Healthcare is over-qualified. Highly skilled clinicians treat the simplest of problems.
• Healthcare is overly complicated and fraught with barriers. Complex processes and problems frustrate consumers and add costs.
• Healthcare protects the status quo. Healthcare is resistant to change and adverse to innovations that are valued by consumers; long-established organizations often are entrenched with a “we know what is best” attitude. ...

[jjjoy]

Wow! Structuring medical care delivery after a typical business model can only go so far. When you're talking about a "commodity" that our lives literally depend on, "free market competition" has some major draw backs. We already see the marketing of expensive diagnostic testing (body scans!) and new drugs which are profitable but with questionable health benefits. I think health care is like public transit, road works, infrastructure... something that can't be solely left to private business to coordinate. That doesn't mean I necessarily think it should be all government sponsored but I do think the it's a government's role (and our role as taxpayers and voters) to offer incentives to encourage the provision and wide availability of affordable, less profitable services. I think access to affordable health care is important, and I don't mind my taxes helping support such things, even if I don't currently need it or if I choose to not use them (eg maybe I choose to go to pricey plush health clinic because I can afford it).

[Angie O'Plasty, RN]

Healthcare is over-qualified. Highly skilled clinicians treat the simplest of problems.

They're kidding, right? As in "the expert makes it look easy"?

[ChayaN]

Originally Posted by Angie O'Plasty, RN

They're kidding, right? As in "the expert makes it look easy"?

If they're kidding, why the rise in demand for NPs and PAs?

[Angie O'Plasty, RN]

Originally Posted by ChayaN

If they're kidding, why the rise in demand for NPs and PAs?

I consider NPs and PAs highly skilled.

[ChayaN]

Originally Posted by Angie O'Plasty, RN

I consider NPs and PAs highly skilled.

Sure they are, but they are paid less and require less training than MDs. Poor choice of words in the article, I guess.