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By Root 3162 0

from the United States and other Western countries go to countries like India, Brazil, and Costa Rico to get treatment. U.S. private insurance companies encourage some people to go to India for hip or knee replacement where the cost to the insurance company is one third of the cost they have to pay to providers in United States. It is cheaper for U.S. companies, but it is a premium for the other countries. They have to develop their reputation, speed, and reliability to accommodate the growing demand for such procedures. Strategy is to know the significant needs of high premium customers and design the treatment plans and delivery systems that result in high quality outcomes in a surprisingly short lead time. It is also important to know how to market and sell to these premium customers effectively.

A tactic is to offer and deliver services for a premium with suitable training in marketing treatment planning, selling, communication, and coordination with the network of doctors, laboratories, imaging services, and suppliers.

The necessary assumption behind this tactic is that it is possible for the lead time to be surprisingly short using TOC, Lean, and Six Sigma tools. In Fig. 31-14 we see, as an example, the steps leading to this dramatic reduction in lead time. Steps in Strategy and Tactic for all of the elements for enhanced growth appear in Appendix A, Tables 3:8, 4:81, 4:82, 3:9, 4:91, 4:92, 3:10, 4:101, 4:102, 3:11, 4:111, and 4:112. It is also possible to train the front office staff and doctors in identifying the right opportunities and, despite the price sensitivity and insurance industry involvement, opportunities still exist to close deals with hefty premium treatment plans.

The sufficiency assumption is that when the patient has the pressing need and is made aware of a certain health care facility capable of fulfilling that need, a sale is likely to occur.

FIGURE 31-14 S&T for enhanced growth—3: build (cut LT to 1/4) and 4: implement improvement program and shorten lead time.

A Case Study of VV Success

VV was developed as a logical step-by-step procedure to help companies convert their sales figures into profits in less than 4 years. This template has been applied in some dental practices and an oral and maxillofacial surgery practice. The company grew from making minimum profits after paying the doctors to $3.5 million in profits. All of the seven steps in 2.1 Base Growth were applied to achieve the success. The practice is again working on another vision to double the value of the practice in the next 4 years. VV helps to develop a common language for all the staff members including doctors, medical support staff, management staff, and front-line staff. It holds different people accountable for the results.

This company set and made a goal of achieving a100 percent increase in the value of practice in 4 years. In order to achieve this goal, the company had to attract the right kind of patients, provide high-quality care, and then flow these patients rapidly without wasting the doctors ‘or the patients’ time. Increasing the velocity of the flow of patients does not put any stress on doctors to perform faster. They must work to get perfection in their work so that the patients do not have to be readmitted into the system (wasting many resources). The other reason for providing high quality service is to develop good word-of-mouth referrals for future patients. The velocity of patient flow improves when we eliminate queues. The patients usually wait due to improper communication among several providers including laboratories. The company applied various tools to ensure doctor time is not wasted due to poor communications, and used TA to select the right kind of patients to flow through their systems.

Once the staff learned how to provide quality service, which is a POOGI, the staff was trained in marketing and sales. The practice made an unrefusable offer (URO) to the referring doctors by accepting their patients whenever the patients ‘need for specialty service was identified. The practice developed