Setting values for a healthcare entity. How to walk the talk.

What is healthcare’s value agenda?

It’s an easy question. The Healthcare Value seeks to strike a balance between patient outcome/satisfaction and the cost of getting there.

But there is a world beyond Value Agenda where healthcare’s Values live.

?Value and Values are mutually dependent. Value can be measured by the rate of improvement in a patient’s health based on the cost of enabling that outcome. It is at the core of healthcare, and right within this core, adjacent to Value, are Values. At PRIME, we uphold Transparency, Customer Centricity, Cost Effectiveness and Speed of Care as our essential Values.

And how does a healthcare entity pick values that embody its purpose? After all, there are many attributes to own, each significant in helping make healthcare a progressive and positive experience.

I think one’s mission and intention inherently lead to values selection. If you link Transparency, Customer Centricity, Cost Effectiveness and Speed of Care, it creates a complete circle of objectives. Why? Because each of these values is among every patient’s primary concerns. Let’s examine every segment in this Circle of Good Practices.

Transparency: Healthcare systems must be transparent because opacity is a patient’s worst nightmare. Patients and their loved ones want transparent, honest, unambiguous, and supportive processes and information during their most vulnerable period. It gives them reassurance and hope and helps them embark on the healthcare journey with knowledge rather than doubt or uncertainty.

Customer Centricity: It is a self-evident value and the foundation of healthcare, and precisely due to these factors, it is indispensable. At PRIME, we call it Personalized Care, Personally. We have chosen these words carefully. They represent the two halves of a whole: the patient needs personalized care because everyone is unique and has specific needs, and we offer this care as a personal responsibility.

However, to live this Value in everyday operations requires discipline, dedication, and commitment to the patient. We must eliminate complex processes, bloated systems, profit focus, and status quo and work towards a single-point focus on the patient or the consumer-first principle that helps us stay on track.

Cost-Effectiveness: What’s a patient’s worst fear apart from an adverse health outcome? The cost of treatment. Healthcare’s abiding commitment must be to balance Value-Based Care (as defined above) and the Values of Patient Satisfaction. We can achieve that balance by delivering cost-effective but best-in-class treatments. This approach is about healthcare’s commitment to society.

Speed of Care: Just as justice delayed is justice denied, the absence of efficiency in healthcare amounts to the opposite of care. It can have severe consequences for both the patient and the institution. The entire infrastructure, excellence of healthcare professionals, advanced systems and values-based operating principles come to naught if the speed of care does not underline their roles.

These values are the four pillars of PRIME’s healthcare edifice. They are deep-rooted in our purpose and mission and rise high to hold our vision aloft - to usher in a healthier tomorrow for humanity.