Independent Thinking » Health care

Second Look: Ford Gets Its Mojo Back, Rethinking Health Care, Pioneering Entrepreneurs

Daria Steigman — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:16:46 +0000

Each week I’m highlighting 3 or 4 posts, surveys, and other news that I have read and/or tweeted about that you may not have seen. As the name implies, I think they deserve a second look.

How Ford Got Its Mojo Back: A must-read post about smart business strategy reveals how Ford CEO Alan Mulally valued employees and used a combination of transparency, energy, and long-term thinking to bring the automaker back from the brink.
Driving Value in Health Care: “Today’s health delivery system and payment framework does not reward innovation around health management, prevention, and real-time consumer engagement… To truly shift the business of health, we need to drive the right combination of structural change, innovation and use of technology to create a better system–essentially, drive real value for every dollar spent.” Smart thinking around shifting the model.
China’s First Entrepreneur: The BBC looks at the courage, smarts, and serendipity it took to become China’s first licensed entrepreneur.

Photo by omniNate (Flickr).

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Hip Hop Doc Takes on H1N1

Daria Steigman — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:45:21 +0000

The H1N1 virus is serious business, but talking about flu prevention shouldn’t be deadly dull. Now it’s not, thanks to this public service announcement by “hip hop doc” John Clarke, whose day job is medical director for the Long Island Railroad.

Clarke had the winning entry in a contest this summer by the Departments of Health and Human Services and Education to solicit PSAs about flu prevention.

I like how the judges thought about their primary audience (H1N1 is disproportionately affecting kids, teens, and 20-somethings) and looked for an approach that focuses on how to communicate, not just what to say.

Second Look: Hospitals, Blind Spots, and Spell Checkers

Daria Steigman — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:11:28 +0000

Each week I’m highlighting 3 or 4 posts, surveys, and other news that I have read and/or tweeted about that you may not have seen. As the name implies, I think they deserve a second look.

Here’s your second look for this week:

Step 2: Fix the Problem: The Joint Commission, which assesses hospitals on their success in meeting patient safety standards, has decided to help solve the problems it identifies. As the Wall Street Journal health blog points out, the Joint Commission decided to launch its new Center for Transforming Healthcare after hearing hospital executives say, “You need to stop telling us only about the problems and start telling us how to fix them.”
Leadership Blind Spots: Good article from Business Week about recognizing three key leadership blind spots–going it alone, situational cluelessness, and silence.
Spellcheck Your Blog: From Download Squad, an announcement that WordPress has acquired a new, much improved spellchecker. Self-hosted blogs can download it as a plug-in.

What Happens the Day After Health Reform?

Daria Steigman — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:52:19 +0000

Enacting health reform is the easy part. What happens the day after?

The University of Chicago held a terrific forum on health care on Sept. 10 in Washington. It was headlined by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who said that “what we’re really talking about is transforming a system of care in America.”

So what comes next? A panel withÂ some very smart people, including Kavita Patel from the White House Office of Public Engagement, offered their insights and a sense of how much hard work lies ahead. Some key takeaways:

Do we really want to reform health care, or do we want to reform the health of Americans? The latter means also tackling related issues, such as food deserts and the lack of sidewalks and open space.
Patients and providers need real-time data, which means we need to create information exchanges for outcomes-driven care based on objective, transparent information.
We need to reform the payment and incentive systems to get to better care rather than more care.
There is a moral imperative for health reform: the health of our community affects us. (Think SARS or H1N1.)
How are we going to handle the 46 million uninsured who will suddenly enter the health care pipeline?
When did it become socially acceptable for physicians not to take patients because they have no money?

My head’s still spinning. Your thoughts?

Photo by seiuhealthcare775nw (Flickr).

Shots, School Kids, and Smart Branding

Daria Steigman — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:49:35 +0000

Children’s National Medical Center is trying to take some of the ouch out of immunizations with this mobile health unit. I shot the picture when the health team was taking a break from getting school kids around the city up-to-date on their required shots.

What a great mix of public health, branding, and core mission.

What’s Wrong with a Public Health Care Plan?

Daria Steigman — Fri, 15 May 2009 18:24:56 +0000

Am I missing something? I really don’t get all the handwringing among insurers and the pharmaceutical industry about a public health plan component to reform.Â One of the latest naysayers is Eli Lilly‘s CEO, John Lechleiter, who said that a public plan is “a slippery slope towards the days when all Americans would get their health insurance through a government-run plan.”

As a business owner, I face competition every day. And almost all of it is from companies that are far bigger players in the marketing communications field. Heck, unless you’re also a solopreneur, everyone is bigger than I am.

I realize that insurers fear that Americans will drop their private insurance and flock to a government plan. That’s likely true. But companies typically lose their customers because they aren’t valuing them or providing value to them. This happens every day. And yet, while cost alone may determine some purchasing decisions, examples abound where we will pay a premium to support a brand we love. Nike makes money selling high-end running shoes; Apple‘s enthusiasts pay top dollars for a mobile phone. In the insurance arena, I’ve accepted higher auto premiums in exchange for terrific service.

My advice to the insurance industry: Stop worrying about possible competition and look at what you can do to deliver what your customers want.

Health Care Reform: Are We Seeing the Perfect Storm?

Daria Steigman — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:50:49 +0000

Is health care reform on the horizon? I posed this question last month to Business Week Editor-in-Chief Stephen Adler in the context of business cost pressures and growing unemployment. Here’s how I live tweeted his answer at the time:

On health care, Adler wonders whether Obama can take this on, or move incrementally instead to make small improvements.

1:33 PM Nov 12th from TwitterBerry

I didn’t agree with his assessment then, but I understood the reasoning. After all, the health care industry is big business, and those who’ve made a lot of money on the current system aren’t going to go gently into a brave new world. In the last month, however, I’ve become increasingly convinced that we might be seeing the perfect storm for wholesale reform.

1. Big business wants reform now. Health care costs are killing big companies, and they’re pushing for lower prices, better quality, and cost transparency. (Small businesses, in many cases, have already been priced out of providing health care benefits, forcing their employees into the ranks of the self-insured and uninsured in America.) Wal Mart’s $4 prescription program isn’t just smart marketing, it’s smart business.

2. As more people lose their jobs, the numbers of uninsured people will grow. This means new strains on already-strained state and local public health systems, and more people walking around unable to access the preventive care that offers an early warning system and saves big bucks down the road.

3. The uninsured won’t be among the ranks of the disenfranchised this time. The current economic displacement is hitting all regions of the country and all income levels.

A lot of people have been looking at different elements of the health care system and how to lower costs while driving better outcomes for patients. And more are putting their stakes down every day. The Institute of Medicine just yesterday released a list of 20 key indicators of the nation’s health and health care. Business Week has a fascinating piece in the current issue that explores the question: Why can’t health care be run like the retail sector?

The Bush administration committed $700 billion to bail out Wall Street, and the Obama team will likely request at least this much for its economic stimulus package. This means that for the first time in a long time we’ll be testing new ideas on a massive scale and finding out what works and what doesn’t. How can health care reform not be part of the mix?

I’ve lived and worked in Washington long enough to know that there are no perfect solutions. But we’ve got to try something new.