A year in review: Healthcare in 2024

It seems like only yesterday that I was planning for 2024. Scheduling out projects for the year, booking speaking engagements, and lining up interviews for the podcast were in full swing. Then, in the blink of an eye, we arrive at the end of 2024. And what a year it has been. From cyberattacks to breaking healthcare innovations, 2024 has had its share of big news stories. So, this week, I take the time to do a "2024 Year in Review: Healthcare".

What we cover in this Episode:

-The Change Healthcare Cyberattack and it's downstream effects
-The Expansion of & Breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare
-Hospital and Healthcare Closures and Financial Troubles
-Remote Patient Monitoring and Telehealth & Virtual Healthcare
-Anti-Trust issues and litigation in Healthcare Tech
-Health Equity comes to the forefront of healthcare policy discussions
-Integration & Interoperability in Healthcare Tech
-Leadership in healthcare amidst tragedy and turmoil
-Healthcare policy shifts and the future political landscape for healthcare in the US

Full show notes: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com/better-outcomes-145

Learn More: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com
Podcast: https://www.betteroutcomes.show
Get the Book: https://amzn.to/3M2UZ6x
Book a call with me: https://calendly.com/rehabu/discovery
Connect with Me: https://www.rafisalazar.com

If you'd like to learn more about Strata EMR & RCM and achieving a 99.99% reimbursement rate for your PT, OT, or SLP Clinic head over to stratapt.com and book a demo with their team!

How do we begin implementing technology-enabled healthcare services?

We cover this topic a lot on the show, but technology-enabled healthcare continues to receive a lot of attention. Much of the conversation and media around technology and healthcare innovation revolves around the innovation itself. We hear about the benefits, features, and capabilities of these new solutions and innovations. But, one often overlooked topic in healthcare innovation includes practical implementation. How do you actually take these new innovations and tools and use them to meaningfully improve healthcare? How do we make sure that a new software, device, or platform ends up actually making healthcare better, rather than just a neat marketing ploy?

So, this week, I dive into the research around technology-enabled healthcare. Parts of this podcast come from a few different presentations I've recently given on this topic covering digital health, implementing virtual healthcare services, and using data in healthcare decision-making.

What we cover in this Episode:

-Define digital health & virtual service delivery
-Applying digital health tools in clinical practice
-Research around digital health and its effectiveness
-Remote Patient Monitoring and Telehealth
-Will artificial intelligence replace clinicians?
-How technology enabled healthcare solutions will alter reimbursement and revenue models
-Achieving Better Outcomes by implementing technology in healthcare

Full show notes: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com/better-outcomes-144

Learn More: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com
Podcast: https://www.betteroutcomes.show
Get the Book: https://amzn.to/3M2UZ6x
Book a call with me: https://calendly.com/rehabu/discovery
Connect with Me: https://www.rafisalazar.com

If you'd like to learn more about Strata EMR & RCM and achieving a 99.99% reimbursement rate for your PT, OT, or SLP Clinic head over to stratapt.com and book a demo with their team!

A Few Thoughts on Healthcare Positioning Strategy

I'm talking to a lawyer the other day about business, scaling, growth, and specialization. As we're talking, he says something in passing that totally exemplifies both the concept and the power of a strong positioning strategy. He says, "You know, it's like if I was a furniture maker and someone asked if I could give them a price to build a deck. Sure, I have all the tools necessary to do that job, but if I say yes, they're not going to be happy, and I'm not going to be happy. So I just say "no" to those types of inquiries, even if there's good money involved."

I know I've said this before on interviews: but the worst deals I've ever put together —the worst clients, worst results, most stressful projects— have all come from saying "yes" to jobs that I should have rejected. I quickly learned with my consulting work to only accept projects and clients that fit in my positioning. And, in broad areas, healthcare has adopted this idea of specialization. Orthopedic MDs don't accept cardiology referrals etc.However, within each specialty area, there are countless specializations or sub-specialties. For example, take Physical Therapy as an example...Often times, I hear one of two problems from practice owners, each of which can be fixed with a good dose of positioning:

1. Too many referrals
2. Not enough referrals

Interestingly, no one ever says "I think we're good. We have enough referrals." It's either "we have way too many" or "we need any referrals we can get". But how does positioning help solve either of these problems? It solves these problems like this:

Too many referrals? Look through the variability in those referrals. If you have a selected specialization (positioning strategy), and you have more referrals than you have capacity to handle, you simply take all of those excess referrals that don't fit in your stated specialization and refer them out to other providers.The patients will be happy, because they're not on a wait list. The referring provider will be happy because their patients will get seen sooner, AND they'll think of you with more respect in your area of specialization...

Too few referrals? Reach out to ONLY the referral sources that match your stated positioning (specialization). Often, when the schedule gets light, clinic owners and managers reach out to anyone who could possibly refer them a warm body to treat...

This does harms the practice in 2 ways:

1. Patients don't get the best results (which means less positive reviews and likely less referrals from that referring provider)
2. They just sound desperate (no one like groveling...)

In addition, you only have so many resources to commit towards marketing & business development. Having a clear and specific positioning keeps you from spreading those resources too thinly to make a real, meaningful difference in referral generation.

What we cover in this Episode:

-Positioning Strategy in Healthcare
-Putting positioning to work in Lead Generation
-Building a team and culture at a healthcare business using positioning
-Reducing the stress involved in business development strategy
-Achieving Better Outcomes by dialing in your healthcare positioning strategy

Full show notes: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com/better-outcomes-143

Learn More: https://rehabupracticesolutions.com
Podcast: https://www.betteroutcomes.show
Get the Book: https://amzn.to/3M2UZ6x
Book a call with me: https://calendly.com/rehabu/discovery
Connect with Me: https://www.rafisalazar.com

If you'd like to learn more about Strata EMR & RCM and achieving a 99.99% reimbursement rate for your PT, OT, or SLP Clinic head over to stratapt.com and book a demo with their team!