Three survival strategies from Mr. Taylor are detailed below.
1. Change liabilities into assets. According to Mr. Taylor, a problem can become a solution if looked at from a different perspective. For example, when Mr. Taylor first opened Ozark Community Hospital, the facility was largely excluded from commercial insurance patients: 90 percent of their patients were Medicare or Medicaid patients, and reimbursements from the commercial insurance companies were significantly lower than the federal programs. Mr. Taylor decided to turn this perceived liability of a predominant Medicare/Medicaid population into an asset, and converted the hospital to an exclusively governmental center.
Because there was a huge access problem for Medicare and Medicaid patients in Springfield, Ozark instantly saw an increase in their patient volumes.
“There aren’t many animals like us around,” Mr. Taylor said.
2. Don’t focus on competition. Mr. Taylor emphasized that too many opportunities in the healthcare industry are lost because of competition instead of cooperation.
“I don’t believe in the zero-sum game,” he said. “Too much of our industry for too long has centered around this idea. You have to look for the win-win.”
According to Mr. Taylor, neighboring facilities can work together by letting patients know the kinds of complimentary services each offers.
3. Turn an undesirable situation into an opportunity. Another strategy Mr. Taylor relayed is taking what may seem like an undesirable situation and turning it into a chance for an organization to grow.
For example, Ozarks hospitals and clinics have made a concerted effort to address the population of patients with behavioral, mental and narcotics problems, as these patients are typically treated in emergency departments, if at all, according to Mr. Taylor.
“Our push now is to say, ‘send them to us.’ We’ve put together integrated care teams to take care of these patients because no one else wants to. We make it clear to the patients so they want to come to us,” Mr. Taylor said.
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