Belmont University

December 01, 2007

Retirement Homes--A Better Way To Do Business

Life Care Centers Logo.jpgYesterday, a few of us from Belmont were treated to a first-rate tour of the national headquarters and on-site assisted-living community for a company that is continuously improving the post-retirement living experience for numerous U.S. seniors and their families.

Life Care Centers of Americahttp://www.lcca.com/index.cfm, was started in 1970 as a single-unit retirement home in Cleveland, Tennessee by Forrest L. Preston in his hometown of Cleveland, Tennessee. Since then, that initial concept has been continually refined and improved as the company has grown to more than 260 skilled nursing, assisting living, retirement, home care and Alzheimer's centers in 28 states. Their corporate culture is grounded in the Judeo-Christian ethic of treating people (which includes their residents, families, employee associates, and any stakeholders) with respect and dignity. As many of us already believe, that's a winning recipe for both the short- and long-term horizon.

The company's mission and values have been highly-defined from the outset, and everyone from the Owner and CEO all the way to the front-line "associates" (leadership views everyone in the company through that lens as an associate instead of the more traditional title of employee) know why they exist in that organization and how they add value through their service to all customers and company peers.

If you're in the market for an assisted-living community, I'd check them out. But if you're a business leader looking for a winning recipe for your organization, you also ought to take a look more closely at how this company operates. I'm convinced their recipe for success translates very well to any industry.


November 30, 2007

Who Will Win?

Once again I've been asked, "Who has the best Health Care solution" among the presidential candidate hopefuls? I have had to explain that it doesn't really matter at this point in the race for me. I'll make my choice once the candidates have been decided and I have to make the real decision of who I want to run this country for the next four years. For some folks it is not very easy to navigate the double speak of politicians, especially when it comes to matters of health care, I'd like to offer a potential solution.
The Kaiser Family Foundation has developed a mechanism to view the key points of each of the major candidate's offerings. You may even do a direct comparison of plans. It can be accessed at http://www.health08.org

Ultimately, it boils down to where is the money coming from to support the initiaitve and what will you gain/lose in the process.


November 27, 2007

Letterman-Like Top 10 List for Healthcare Management

hpp logo.gif One of our friends, Charles Hagood (Massey MBA, '93), from Healthcare Performance Partners has worked with his colleague to develop a very creative Top 10 List for how to kill one's "lean healthcare transformation". Lean techniques are making rapid gains in the healthcare industry as companies struggle with skyrocketing costs, nursing shortages and poor employee satisfaction while simultaneously facing pressure to improve healthcare service to customers. The entire Top 10 list can be found at http://www.leanhealthcareexchange.com/ As an academic myself, I related particularly well to Item #7 (unfortunately, this far too true a statement in many cases). One of the differences that first attracted me to the Massey program was our faculty focus on solutions to real-world problems.


November 02, 2007

Healthcare Moving in the Right Direction

healthcare employees.jpg Twice in the last two weeks I've spent the better part of a day discussing performance excellence systems with area healthcare companies. As someone who is peering toward his own healthcare horizon with the perspective of an aging baby boomer, I have to admit I like the trend I'm seeing these days. We can debate issues of "motive," but the reality is that the quality and performance of healthcare systems in the U.S. is becoming an area of increasing focus by the healthcare companies themselves. Plagued by skyrocketing costs and employee resource problems, even maintaining current healthcare quality levels is no easy task.

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