VHA assesses the hospital environment - VHA Inc - Industry Overview

Health Industry Today, July, 2001 by Donald E. L. Johnson

"Service team orientation builds a sense of community among all employees who interact with patients; and,

"Patient safety is addressed through established protocols and guidelines."

The 10 enablers of success in the personalized health enterprise are:

* Marketing/brand development;

* Financial acumen through effective leadership;

* New organizational design and skill sets;

* Quality of service, application of "employer choice" strategies;

* Make/buy approach to non-core functions;

* Information technology viewed as competitive differentiator;

* Patient safety;

* Alliance approach to biomedical technology; and,

* Service team orientation.

Hospitals, of course, are in a terrible bind. While investor-owned chains are doing well, not-for-profits are hurting. All hospitals are contending with soaring prices for new drugs and rising labor rates. They are looking for new ways to generate revenues, replace labor with automation and cut costs.

When your customers are in turmoil, it is important to stay on top of how they see the world and may change the way they position themselves and their suppliers. The VHA and Deloitte report offers some critical clues to where hospitals are trying to go.

VHA Inc., www.vha.com, 972-830-0000; Deloitte & Touche, www.us.deloitte.com, 800-877-1298.

RELATED ARTICLE: We're bringing buyers and sellers together

by Donald E. L. Johnson, Publisher

The market talks to buyers and sellers. And Health Industry Today and its sister publication Hospital Materials Management increasingly are in the business of helping buyers and sellers talk to each other.

The subtitle for Health Industry Today is, "The market letter for health care industry vendors." And the subtitle for Hospital Materials Management is, "The newsletter for materials management and group purchasing." HMM is as much the market letter for materials managers as HIT is for medical device suppliers.

HIT and its predecessors began as a magazine more than 50 years ago, and it has been published in its current newsletter format since we bought it in 1990. HMM goes back to the mid-1970s, when it was a how-to journal, and has been in its current staff-written, market-oriented format since we took it over in 1988.

The goal of both publications is to be an objective, originally-reported source of news about what and how hospitals, GPOs and hospital chains buy and how and what their suppliers sell.

During the last couple of years, both publications have increased their coverage of e-procurement by hospitals and integrated delivery networks (IDNs). And both have increased their coverage of IDNs and health systems as buyers and customers of manufacturers, distributors and GPOs.

Consolidation of hospitals, IDNS, GPOs and medical device makers and distributors has changed the ways both buyers and sellers track the market. Top level materials managers want more news about their primary contractors, and national accounts managers and sales managers want us to do a better job of reporting on their most important customers.