From sports journalist to editor of an international trade magazine to Marketing Director for 3 companies before founding WBK Marketing, eventually one of the 50 largest promotional marketing agencies in America. Dale has pioneered "contextual marketing" for successful brands at P&G, Pepsi, Disney, Toshiba, Compaq, Imation, 3M and many regional hospitals and healthcare insurers. “From my days in college as a pre-med student and working as a transporter for Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, to developing marketing programs for hospitals and health insurers, I have always had a passion for how science and medicine can help bring sick people back to health. Hospitals are incredibly complex organizations, with two large clinical teams (doctors and nurses) and many highly skilled specialists and therapists. There are times when various groups working in medical centers have opposing view points that can lead to dissonance, which at the extreme can potentially impair patient safety and quality outcomes. The work we do at Compass Clinical Consulting guides many of these hospitals through contentious issues, process failure or breakdown with a negative impact on financial stability. Our department of education and information services has been assembled to produce high-value content for hospital leaders. Our goal is to help these leaders transform their organizations into better hospitals by reducing the cost of delivering safe, quality healthcare.” Dale has been an active blogger since 2004 when he launched The Perfect Customer Experience (www.perfectcem.com); recently recognized as one of Top 20 CRM blogs and on healthcare improvement (www.better-hospitals.com) where we now communicate about issues that impact making better American hospitals.
Healthcare in Handcuffs
The American Academy of Family Physicians predicts that the shortage of family doctors will soar to 40,000 within the next decade. Worse yet, the overall shortage of doctors is expected to climb to nearly 160,000 by 2025, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.
“I don’t see anything in the legislation that will [...]
What everyone wants, in the end, is healthcare reform that accomplishes the goals of wider access and lower cost. But there are many different tracks to achieve this needed goals.
But when “reducing the cost of healthcare” by mandating lower fees to providers, this should be more carefully analyzed to prevent a future of continuous change. Best to [...]
53% of nursing schools and 45% of medical schools include Web 2.0 tools in their curricula. 58% of nursing schools plan to implement social networking tools in their curricula in the upcoming year, compared with 50% of medical schools.
On the Lean Blog, Jesus “Chuy” Ellin, HT PA andPeter P Patterson, MD MBA noted that the histopathology laboratory at their hospital recently had a breakthrough in the lean journey begun in 2007. The monthly defect rate in the order entry process has fallen precipitously from 33.5% to 2.5% over the past five months, after [...]
Force multiplication, in military usage, refers to a combination of attributes or advantages which make a given force more effective than another force of comparable size. A force multiplier refers to a factor that dramatically increases (hence “multiplies”) the effectiveness of a group. A hospital team can use this concept by combining labor cost management with case management.
The Institute of Medicine has released a report recommending 100 areas that should receive priority attention with comparative-effectiveness research, including atrial fibrillation, the effectiveness of primary prevention methods vs. clinical treatment, and the success of comprehensive-care programs such as medical homes.
Freestanding EDs are growing. Are they also a threat to acute care full service hospital patient flow?
An urban legend poem strikes at the heart of why all of us who care for patients want to create better hospitals. It is inside our hearts where we see the patients as real people.
Three “lost” chapters were yanked from Accidental Genius right before publication. Now you might be wondering, “Yanked? Why were these chapters torn from the thin, yet virile, body of the book?”
The newest Wal-Mart special is the walk-in clinic at the end of Aisle 14, just behind Home Furnishings. It seems like a wierd place to find a doctor, but it appears that brand name hospitals are ready to go retail.
As reported in WebPage Today, a randomized trial showed that homeless hospital patients who were provided with housing and other services after discharge were less likely to be readmitted or to require emergency treatment.
The intervention was associated with 29% fewer hospitalizations (95% CI 10% to 44%) and 24% fewer ER visits (95% CI 3% to 40%) [...]
In the United States, Google Trends has identified a remarkably close relationship between the number of people searching for flu-related topics and the number of people who actually have flu symptoms.
The “Practical Advice for Surviving the Joint Commission and Survey Process” advanced educational seminar explains how to prepare for the survey process, focusing on the issues that hold the greatest risk for hospitals in 2009. It provides practical solutions for taking immediate action towards the best possible survey outcomes
Culturally competent care will lead to a better patient experience. The National Quality Forum recently issued a framework for culturally competent care that it believes could serve as a model for accreditation standards.
Medicare resident caps on Academic Hospitals have been in place for more than 10 years while the nation is considering universal access and facing a potential physician shortage. The caps have a chilling effect on the ability of teaching hospitals and medical schools to increase the nation’s physician workforce and meet the needs of local communities.
It is suggested on leanblog.orgthat now’s a good time for starting a new business — many successful companies were started in recessions: Microsoft and Disney as two examples.
I would suggest it is also a good time for existing hospitals to consider changes that can make them into better hospitals. Bad economic times practically force change [...]
Front office staff, listen up! You could find yourself in a very embarrassing spotlight that negates years of advertising, millions spent on upgraded facilities and more millions on attracting physicians, nurses and specialists to deliver care.
I just happens that we have a recent case history for how to destroy a hospital’s reputation.
Talk show host Glenn Beck was, according to his story, actually ignored by the front office staff when he came to the hospital in severe pain. He decided to do a short video about the way he was treated — not by the doctors but by the administrative staff.
I share this one portion of a cancer patient’s blog as she tells her journey.
She was astounded at apparent inept systems at the hospital where she was getting chemo. Mind you, she’s been in this routine for weeks but upon entering the hospital for the now-routine therapy, here’s what she experienced:
Context within a medical center … delivered by of all things, one of the first blogs from a healthcare provider.
Toby Bloomberg at Diva Marketing has a great profile on why Windber Medical Center’s CEO Nicholas Jacob took the risk of blogging out in the public. What’s so remarkable to me is the honest candor that [...]
The Washington Hospital, a 265-bed hospital in western Pennsylvania, plans to install wireless public Internet service to enhance the patient and guest experience.
By Dale Wolf
Hospitals are beginning to figure out what hotels have known all along – customer satisfaction is critical to market share and share of wallet. Yes there are nay-sayers who tell us that there is little evidence that customer satisfaction and creating customer advocates has a financial payoff. I see too many examples [...]
By Dale Wolf
Perhaps no industry should be more centered on improving customer experience than healthcare … where the experience has enormous personal implications and where buzz around experiences at hospitals can dramatically impact market share and revenue growth.
At a recent HealthLeaders Media event, it became apparent that C-level managers are catching on fast to the [...]
When you turn 19 or graduate from college, you fall off your parents’ health insurance (assuming the parents had coverage). That, according to the New York Times, has created a rise in “do it yourself” medical care by a lot of 20-somethings.
“They borrow leftover prescription drugs from their friends, attempt to self-diagnose ailments online, stretch [...]
Recognized by US News & World Report as one of the top hospitals in the nation for digestive disorders. The Florida Hospital Digestive Health Center provides innovative care and access to the latest and most advanced digestive treatments and procedures not always available at other hospitals. Because Florida Hospital’s Digestive Health Center care team is [...]
Case studies to learn more about ways in which Compass Clinical has worked to create better American hospitals.