“Just because a good idea isn’t your idea doesn’t mean it’s not a great idea. Don’t let your pride show your employees the exit. Studies of successful organizations will tell you that never have great ideas [for your practice and business] and motivated employees been deflated and silenced so quickly than when they hear these words from you say … ‘That’s a nice idea, but we’ve always done it this way.’ This will sabotage your office culture and quickly derail your vision for a healthy work environment.” ~Editor, Concierge Medicine Today
By Editor-in-Chief, Concierge Medicine Today
I’m probably the last Canadian on the planet to think that Concierge Medicine is a good thing and is doing something pretty incredible in our healthcare marketplace right now.
Conversely, I’m open minded enough to realize that every business model and idea has it’s challenges and concerns. However, I’m going to show some love to Canada to having interviewed many Physicians here at Concierge Medicine Today and say that Canada’s system has it’s pros … and cons too.
So, there you have it. Objectivity.
In all seriousness thought, I think that Concierge Medicine is in a category all its own. It is something in my research that every Doctor can and should aspire to do and be.
Love it or loathe it, it is rare to find two words in healthcare that in our English vocabulary elicit an important discussion about the importance of the Patient-Physician relationship, time spent with the Patient, administrative burdens that impact a Doctor’s day and the cost of healthcare.
#fordoctors #conciergemedicineforum #conciergemedicine #conciergemedicineconference #learning | Photo Credit/Source: Staff, Concierge Medicine Today | Healthcare Industry Trade Publication
Without Concierge Medicine coming onto the scene over two decades ago or more, a lot of these conversations would still be literary diatribes and blog posts complaining about the same old thing.
I’m a fan of anything in healthcare that brings the Patient and Physician into sync. If that’s through tele-medicine visits like what we observed during the pandemic or text chats and sending Apple Watch data to our Doctor at 9:38pm EST and getting a response from your Doctor a few minutes later, it’s all important.
In my opinion, what makes Concierge Medicine, more specifically, your version of Concierge Medicine uniquely better than traditional, plan reimbursed medicine?
Well, uniquely better in the business setting, outside of healthcare, we learn that companies have adjusted their approach to meet the needs of their customers.
We see this many examples we use every day.
For instance, Starbucks. The founder had an idea that the experience matters. A lot of his critics thought he needed better beans and better harvests that yielded a better coffee crop.
He stuck to his vision though and here we are years later and the Starbucks experience is almost equally as good, if not better than the coffee. Depending on your order, of course.
There’s often always a resistance to uniquely better when we bump into though.
In our healthcare culture which is used to being slow to change but talking a big game at conferences and on blog posts or medical stories, we can all see that when confronted with a new idea in healthcare, we’d all rather sweep it to the side and analyze it, resist it and recognized that uniquely better isn’t going to work because well, ‘We’ve always done it this way.’
Never have good ideas and great employees been silenced so quickly than hearing words from you that say … ‘That’s a nice idea, but we’ve always done it this way.’
A few years ago you might recall that a similar question was asked when the company called Netflix was competing with Blockbuster.
The way Netflix pivoted towards the concept of uniquely better is a perfect example of a brand that recognized a uniquely better way of doing things and adjusted to meet future needs of its customers.
So much so that we probably all use their services or have within the past week, right?
According to IndieWire.com … Still, those three million subscribers are dwarfed by the approximately 130 million users currently signed up for Netflix’s streaming service. Speaking to Variety, CEO Ted Sarandos said that the company “never spent one minute trying to save the DVD business” and this was always the direction things were headed.
Fast forward to today, the responsibility of Doctors to create a culture of kindness and gratitude in their practice is what separates in a Patients POV the good from the great Doctors.
Doctor’s that can create a culture, a relationship and ongoing friendship with Patients is the currency that will drive the future of healthcare forward.
I don’t know about you, but some of the finest Doctor’s I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting over the past twenty years have recognized rather than resisted this idea that uniquely better is the future of healthcare and the key to a long, happy, healthy career in medicine.
It’s not to say Concierge Medicine has it all figured out. But, it is a unique better example of how healthcare could be and should be delivered. Decades after its introduction to the marketplace it is now recognized as having achieved something most health systems, hospitals and practices strive for, they’re uniquely better.
“Uniquely better is often the by-product of circumstances successful organizations are trying to avoid.”
~Author Unknown
In summary, we have all experienced a decline of customer service just about everywhere. The Post COVID-19 Pandemic customer service and supply chain issues have only spotlighted certain businesses retreat from customer service where most errors, responses and customer service recoveries are blamed on things like shortages, supply chain and workforce.
Customer service in healthcare has a big void to fill. And, Concierge Medicine is doing something about it, every day. It is one of the reasons why so many people when they bump into it at first find it so polarizing. Because well, ‘We’ve never seen it done this way.’
There will always be resistance to new ideas. But decades later, Concierge Medicine is strong. It’s so impactful in fact that aspects of it are now being studied, emulated and replicated in hospitals, health systems, academic medical centers, urgent care environments and more.
Article Mention/Source/Credit: IndieWire.com; https://www.indiewire.com/2018/08/netflix-dvd-subscribers-three-million-1201997787/
