Once upon a time, when I had huge hospital clients, the key was maximum bed utilization for the longest period: capitation. An empty bed was like a missing zero on an income statement.
Today, hospitals want empty beds. Patients with hip replacements, knee replacements (600,000 of these alone annually at this writing, two-thirds for women), mastectomies, and even new mothers are virtually thrown out of the building. Insurers don’t like to pay for lengthy stays, so empty beds are now desirable, fields awaiting new crops.
Add to this the rise of emergency rooms as personal physicians for many, the requirement to treat indigent patients (one of my clients, a 2,000-bed facility, started every year $14 million “on the hole” because of this), and tele-health, and we are watching disruptive changes before our eyes. It’s like not needing to predict when the whale will breech or the glacier will move: it’s happening continually.
Central to this new equation is the healthcare consumer, who is better educated than ever, no longer willing to cower in front of doctors, and insistent on reasonable, quality care and rapid access to services. It’s bemusing and stunning to comprehend that the vaunted Canadian healthcare system, as an example, is slower in treating elective surgery than are veterinarians in the United States treating dogs.
The paradigms are shifting—again, as we watch and observe in real time—and these new consumer attitudes are the pivot point. Judy Chan, who has spent her entire professional life in healthcare consulting, has splendidly profiled these present and future consumers. In The Patient Paradigm Shift she highlights the changes required, timing, transparency needs, and most importantly, the use of data, information, and knowledge required for high quality treatment and efficient operations.
Judy is the interpreter of and guide through these tectonic changes. She makes effective diagnoses and prescribes original and totally appropriate courses of treatment. Her entire work is about the short-term future, and her final chapter, extending her views even farther out, is worth the price of the entire book.
Read on to follow this intrepid explorer of the new consumer dynamics in healthcare and how every healthcare organization can change to meet them profitably and successfully. Not reading this carefully is like healthcare workers not washing their hands. It’s a simple act, yet one vital to life and health.
—Alan Weiss, PhD
—Author Million Dollar Maverick, Million Dollar Consulting
and over 60 other books