6 Reality Checks: What It Takes to Lead a Healthcare Business in Today’s Environment

As Optime Care reached six years in business recently, I began reflecting on what has changed since its inception and what hasn’t. The steadfast core to Optime Care, that which it was built on and remains our mission today, is patient-first care. It’s our driving force. Serving some of the most vulnerable patient populations, those with rare and orphan conditions, means putting the individual patient at the forefront of all we do.

When I look at where we were six years ago and where we are now, our growth has no doubt come into play. No matter what plan you set forth, in our world, there’s always the unexpected. And therefore, there are always lessons to learn.

As I performed a bit of a mental maintenance check as an owner reaching our years in business, here are the reality checks of being in business that may help your business bend enough to succeed.

Reality Check No. 1: The unexpected will happen.

Be able to roll with it and take on things as they come. Have a plan and stick to it as much as you can, but also be able to pivot. And when you do have questions for the inevitable turns in the road, have people to mentor you, to turn to for answers, advice, help. Find people who have been there before.

Reality Check No. 2: Change your thinking to fit where you are.

As your business grows, think of how that impacts everyone within your organization. As you grow from three to over 70 employees, it’s an entirely different dynamic, different way of thinking and different way of being part of something. You have to learn to hand things off – a difficult ask for most owners, me included. Then you have to trust the people you bring in to handle the things you’re handing off. It’s constant learning, reevaluating, and understanding the effects of growth and change.

Reality Check No. 3: Be intentional about relationship management.

Keep showing your appreciation, even as your time is limited. When you start a company and have a team of four, each member felt really important. You were all there. You all knew what was going on. As the company grows, though, do your employees feel less important? I look at it like a family. In my family, when my son was born, for 3.5 years, he got everything. Then a younger sibling came, and he got less attention. Then another. Even less attention. While my original employees are just as important, there is more complexity in our business and less time. We all have to communicate how much we appreciate our employees, old and new. Our communication needs to evolve with our growth. Seek ways to show your employees they are important. While spending time cultivating a new team doesn’t mean the old employees don’t matter, make sure to continue to show appreciation and attention to everyone.

Reality Check No. 4: Find the people who share your core beliefs.

For us, this meant onboarding team members who put patient care and patient-first understanding first without letting other objectives get in the way. There are people who believe in what they do vs. people who just doing a job. There are people who got into it because of their personal or family background or because they innately care about rare. At Optime Care, everyone here has a core belief that they want to help people. They put the patient first.

Reality Check No. 5: The easy choice is not always the best choice.

Sometimes people stick with the status quo in healthcare because it’s easier. When people in healthcare realize something isn’t patient first, they try to patch solutions together. They add a call center or a dashboard but don’t move away from a legacy way of thinking, the one that seems easier. Sometimes it’s easier to manage through what you have without making a change for the better because of the fear of the unknown. But we have found that we should not confuse “easy” with “familiar.” We constantly evolve our practices and make the tough decisions to keep the patient first. That is true even when it is less familiar. Because, in the end, sticking to our core values of putting the patient first is actually easier and natural for what matters to us and our clients.

Reality Check No. 6: View complaints as an opportunity.

Pay attention to the little things. Be cognizant as you’re walking through your day. If you feel like an employee complaint is insignificant, it’s not. People complain or offer challenges because they care. As a leader, I have learned (and am still learning) how to listen, reflect, and view all complaints as gifts. It’s an opportunity to understand someone else’s point of view. Be present. Be available. Acknowledge the person and offer a positive avenue for the energy they are displaying through complaints.