Having worked in logistics for approximately fifteen years one of the industry rags I pick up on a regular basis is Logistics Management.  Recently there was an article titled “The Five Hallmarks of Operational Excellence.”  It was written by Mark Pearson, who is in Accenture’s Supply Chain Management.  This article applies equally as well in home healthcare including DME, Infusion Therapy, and Respiratory Therapy. 

Preface

The focus of the article is that high performance businesses put a premium on operational excellence.  Why?  It creates a source of competitive advantage and generates cash benefits.  In today’s difficult economic times operational excellence offers the opportunity to increase quality, reliability, flexibility, speed, and customer value.  Home healthcare operates in a very competitive environment.  How do you create operational excellence? 

Creating Operational Excellence

In order to achieve operational excellence owners need to step back and look at the big picture.  First, how is the business set up to achieve the established goals.  Second, how is work organized and executed.  There are five main characteristics.  This is the first characteristic that facilitates this -  

1. Identify your companies “dominant vector,” defined as that internal capability that creates customer value more effectively than your competitors.  To put this another way, what mechanism distinctively creates economic value for you and your customer.  This characteristic should change only when the company’s underlying value proposition changes.  

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.