The Ankota Healthcare Delivery Management Blog

Balancing Act to Ensure Home Care Agency Success – 4th of 6 parts

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Question -

What in the balancing act you need to execute to ensure the success of your Home Care Agency?

Preface

You have your “dominant vector,” the structure to support it, and you are out-executing all your competitors.  Now comes, shall we say …, the tight rope of high performance businesses with operational excellence.  This needs to be carefully walked to maintain a competitive advantage and generate the associated cash benefits.  In today’s difficult economic times operational excellence offers the opportunity to increase quality, reliability, flexibility, speed, and customer value.  This is the fourth of six blog posts hiliting the five characteristics that facilitate operational excellence. 

Creating Operational Excellence

Looking at the big picture of how the business is set up to achieve the established goals, and how work is organized and executed may have the most impact on this the fourth of the five characteristic focuses.  This is the Feng Shui to facilitate operational excellence - 

 4. Balance structure and execution by identifying and articulating that “dominant vector.”  The real challenge comes in determining that balance between structure and execution.  Companies need equilibrium.  Companies that focus to heavily on execution develop processes that create quality and productivity, but sometimes not customer value.  While companies that underplay structural advantage lack agility and resource flexibility to respond to rapidly changing market opportunities. 

The focus of this series is that high performance businesses put a premium on operational excellence.  The installments have been –

1st - Identifying your "Dominant Vector." 

2nd - Points out the need to establish a structure to that creates an advantage. 

3rd – Out-Executing other Home Care Providers.  The link for this is http://bit.ly/9dFRw8.

This fourth installment addresses the balancing act to ensure success of your Home Care Agency.

Ankota provides software to improve the delivery of care outside the hospital.  Today Ankota services home health, private duty care, DME Delivery, RT, Physical Therapy and Home Infusion organizations, and is interested in helping to efficiently manage other forms of care.  To learn more, please visit www.ankota.com or contact Ankota.

Out-Executing Home Care Competitors - 3rd of 6 Parts

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Question -

Do you have the understanding, drive, and alignment to out-execute Home Care Competitors?

Preface

Now your “dominant vector” has been identified and the correct structure is in place to ensure execution; however, you can not just go through the motions of execution to have operational excellence.  Why?  Going through the motions does not create a competitive advantage nor does it generate the true potential cash benefits.  This is the third of six blog posts hiliting the five characteristics that facilitate operational excellence. 

Creating Operational Excellence

There is a reason for the saying, “You can not see the forest for the trees.”  You are in the trenches and cannot see the big picture of how the business is set to achieve the established goals, and how is the work organized and executed.  This third characteristic is the most dynamic one to ensure operational excellence - 

1. Seek to out-execute competitors by simplifying, standardizing, and the eliminating waste, which includes wasted time.  Emphasis needs to be on executing correct business processes to achieve significant and measurable performance improvements by improving flexibility, speed, quality, reliability, and customer value.  Those companies that out-execute rivals –
   • Understand what customers’ value and what customers are willing to pay.
   • Drive asset productivity, using return on invested capital to guide value creation for the customer. 
   • Stress process excellence.
   • Ensure close alignment of business strategy, goals, metrics/measurement, and initiatives.  Remember you can not improve what you can not measure. 

The focus of this series is that high performance businesses put a premium on operational excellence.  The first installment in creating operational excellence was identifying your company’s “dominant vector.  The second points out the need to establish a structure to that creates an advantage.  The link for this is http://bit.ly/bsjKp8.

Ankota provides software to improve the delivery of care outside the hospital.  Today Ankota services home health, private duty care, DME Delivery, RT, Physical Therapy and Home Infusion organizations, and is interested in helping to efficiently manage other forms of care.  To learn more, please visit www.ankota.com or contact Ankota.