During a recent webinar, someone raised the question, “What is the difference between industry analysis and analyzing competitors for potential partnerships?” The answer might be worthwhile to share with our larger audience:
When you analyze the industry, you are asking questions about the work you want to do, where you want to do it, how to do it best, and so on. Who else does it (competitors) is part of the analysis, and interviewing them about their experience with the work is an important step, but the questions are broader than that. What types of organizations succeed at doing this, and what exactly did they do that helped them succeed? This last is called a “key success factor” – and it’s very important. One team this year is planning to operate a primary care clinic at the health department. They know it’s needed in their community, mostly by the uninsured, but they’ve learned through their industry analysis that a key success factor for such programs is to include patients who have insurance (but who may not have a primary care doctor) in the mix of clientele. To ensure that they can include this factor in their program, the team is working on the customer service angle of their organization – making the waiting area more welcoming and time-efficient, and making sure that customer service is considered as their organization builds a new facility in the coming months.
Now, making competitors into strategic partners is the next step. Use your industry analysis to figure out what you bring to the table, what you need from your partners, and how you two can most effectively work together, mutually beneficially, to get the job done in a sustainable way. So, you’ve identified you need clientele from a broad range of “ability to pay,” then think about what partners would help you get there. If you only partner with the local hospital, you’ll get all of their uninsured patients and none that can pay. Is there a health network in your area that works to coordinate care for the under-insured poor? Is there a Community Health Center that has trouble keeping providers, or needs a place to send the overflow of patients? Talk to specialists who will take referrals, and private practitioners who will refer to you or work with you to provide care.
This example may not seem exactly like “public health” work, but unfortunately public health providing primary care is a reflection of the current economic times. And ideally, public health brings prevention to the equation, making the whole community healthier over the long haul, than they would be without your participation in primary care.
More to come.
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The Public Health Business Planning author, Anne Menkens, stresses the importance of analyzing your industry for potential partnerships. In these tough economic times, strong, effective leadership is built on being more creative at handling our current problems. Are you developing new and unusual partnerships in order to address issues? Although I am not a fan of the term “Thinking out of the box”, I think this is the perfect phrase – are we searching for other possibilities that may be more ingenious than we have been in the past?
The title of the recent North Carolina State Health Director’s Conference was ROI in Tight Economic Times. The CareShare Alliance was on the agenda and their session focused on “Community Collaborations to Care for the Uninsured”.
Their session centered on the problems associated with the United States healthcare system and how North Carolina is making strides to address the high cost of health care, increasing numbers of uninsured patients, poor health outcomes and the fact that only about half of all patients receive quality recommended healthcare.
The Alliance will provide a:
--Technical assistance center to assist Care Share Health Alliance communities in developing coordinated systems of care for low-income uninsured populations
--Funders collaborative that will help coordinate safety net grant making by the state and private foundations
The CareShare Alliance funding partners include the following:
--NC Office of Rural Health and Community Care
--Blue Cross Blue Shield NC Foundation
--The Duke Endowment
--Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust
--NC Health and Wellness Trust
Questions for you – public health professionals across the state of North Carolina – Are you familiar with the Care Share Alliance? Are you looking forward to connecting with them to develop partnerships and coordinate the system of healthcare in your community?, Are you considering partnerships outside the usual realm of public health?
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