The waiter at San Antonio’s Beat Street Coffee Co. Bistro held the large vintage door for a long time while my mother entered with her walker. The restaurant’s hipster ambiance was just what she needed as a meal break from living with 24 other people aged 80-103 at Chandler Estate Assisted Living. Needless to say, neither Mom nor I looked like the other diners. But this waiter treated us throughout the evening as if we were his target market. The food at Beat Street is terrific, each menu item offering unusual ingredient combinations. It was the kind of food that attracts the first-timers the restaurant needs for a chance to succeed. Its service, however, is what will build the repeat visitors any restaurant must win to secure its future. After our second visit Mom asked the waiter if he was the owner. “No,”…
Move up the food chain to move up the profit curve
Are you losing customer loyalty or competing increasingly on price? Perhaps it’s time to redesign your business model to solve a higher-level problem. I call this strategy “moving up the food chain.” Let’s look at two recent examples in the news. Target is adding solution-focused advice and services for college students to help them answer the stressful yet fun-filled question, “How will I decorate my dorm room?” Like other chains, Target has the products college students need; it even built brands to address small-space needs with on-trend products. Its new additions will reinforce Target’s value promise – enjoy your shopping experience and feel confident about your purchases. A newly produced YouTube series “will provide tips and tricks that college students can use while designing their own dorm or off-campus spaces. YouTube stars Todrick Hall, Mikey Bolts, Tiffany Garcia and Ann Le will each…
Healthcare data: The promise and peril
In this last of four blogs reporting from WTN’s Disruptive Healthcare Conference 2014, I focus on a realization I came to during the conference: Big Data and the Internet of Things have finally come-of-age in healthcare. Examples of how data, analytics and mobile platforms connected to cloud-based data centers are transforming healthcare were woven into many presentations. Here are some examples: Aurora Health Care, which spends $780 million on its supply chain annually, is using data comparing different surgeons’ supply usage to identify savings that do not hurt quality of care. It is also identifying frequent users of ERs who could be served less expensively in a primary care location. Specialists and primary care physicians are able to collaborate virtually or via e-referrals that, according to PDS CEO Jonathan Ravdin, are reducing the need for visits to specialists or wait times for appointments….
Will these three disruptive healthcare changes be enough?
In this third of a series of four blogs about WTN’s 2014 Disruptive Healthcare Conference (DHC), I’ll focus on three disruptive innovation waves reshaping healthcare. These innovations could lead to better care for less cost. But will they happen fast enough to allow us to channel wasteful healthcare spending into efforts that would make our economy more competitive globally? New reimbursement models and incentives Slowly but surely, payers are adopting new approaches for reimbursing providers. One is pay-for-performance (e.g., Medicare won’t reimburse hospitals for avoidable re-admissions). Another is making providers financially accountable for a population’s healthcare (e.g., Accountable Care Models, introduced in Obama’s far reaching reform). These new models create financial incentives to keep people healthy, surface health issues earlier, move care to less-expensive settings, and avoid unnecessary tests and procedures. In addition, Obama reforms preclude insurers from kicking out the chronically ill,…
Why does the US have so much waste in its healthcare system?
In an earlier blog about WTN Media’s Disruptive Health Care recent conference I argued we spend between $900 billion and $1.3 trillion on non-value-added healthcare, aka waste. Why? First, we pay hospitals and physicians to do procedures, not to keep people healthy. Jeff Grossman, CEO of the University of Wisconsin Medical Foundation and a dean at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, pointed out that while there is talk of new models of care, providers still get paid largely on a fee-for-service basis; Aurora Health Care officials confirmed the same. Grossman added, “We are all focused on this efficiency thing right now, but I have to tell you that we make our money on waste … that is the name of the game. The focus on hospitals has to end before we can deliver healthcare. Delivery of healthcare (procedures) only accounts…
The opportunity cost of our healthcare system failures
The Disruptive Health Care 2014 Conference, hosted by WTN Media, exposed attendees to a range of observations about today’s healthcare system, its gaps and future trends. This blog the first of four related to the conference. “Why Does the US Have So Much Waste In Its Healthcare System?” “Healthcare Incentive and Landscape Changes: Trends Underway,” and “Healthcare Data: The Currently Weak Link” will follow. First, let’s look at the context for the conference speakers’ insistence that system disruptions are needed. I for one cringe when I look at comparative healthcare costs and outcomes across developed nations. According to data published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which represents 34 democracies with market economies, in 2011, the US spent on average $8,508 per person on healthcare compared to an OECD average of $3,332. But, you might say, the USA is a…