There are a lot of changes afoot in primary care. One such change can be observed with use of the PCP (Primary Care Physician) as observed across generations. Among the Silent Generation, or those born between 1928 and 1945, 92% made use of them, according to business consulting industry leader Accenture. But this number dropped to 82% for Baby Boomers, 73% for Gen Xers and a mere 57% for the millennials. This has ramifications on the talent recruitment and residency programmes for hospital chains. The Accenture report also worked out the use of digital devices in healthcare management. It stood at a mere 9% for the baby boomers, but 25% for Gen Xers and the much higher figure of 37% for millennials. These changes afoot need to be put into operational practice such as by planning physician demand and matching this demand to physician productivity.

Source:https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/health/digital-health-primary-care

Uploaded Date:09 November 2018

Social media of course has a lot of impacts on modern culture-formation, plus benefits for corporates in digital marketing. However, it can also lead to an addiction which is harmful for individual users’ health. As a result, four experiments were carried out to break this, each having some positive impacts. The first one was a complete elimination from one’s life of social media sites for a month. Tiredness disappeared to a large extent as a result. The next experiment was to inflict daily time blockers. Time was tracked using the Rescue Time app. Overall productivity increased. The third was to dedicate a “happy hour” for social media usage. This period helped reinvigorate the dopamine effect which status posts undoubtedly provide. Contrary to what was expected, the laptop wasn’t the biggest culprit for the addiction, instead it was the mobile phone. Another doable experiment was to adopt 24-hour cycle breakers. Particular days were taken as rest days towards social media. This has been most successful for younger people.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/10/i-ran-4-experiments-to-break-my-social-media-addiction-heres-what-worked?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=hbr&utm_source=twitter

Uploaded Date:27 October 2018

Emotions are always universal, even if body language remains a cultural matter. That is why facial micro-expressions matter so much. For people working in the international market, this is a crucial trait they must try and understand. In some cultures, openly expressing anger or happiness is considered normal, as in the Philippines. But in others, one needs to mask the same as with the Japanese. Before any foreign visit, one can always look up local body language and the masking techniques. One must also follow one’s natural intuition in this. Attention needs to be paid at the moment. Specific management training sessions may also be taken for individual requirements. This may especially be important when addressing an audience during business presentations.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/09/how-to-get-better-at-reading-people-from-different-cultures

Uploaded Date:26 September 2018

It is often wrongly attributed that volume reductions will automatically lead to cost savings. This does not always work in the healthcare industry out due to several challenges in cost reduction. One reason for that is that the impact of the care to be taken is unknown before it actually gets executed. Also, the impact per department and individual initiative is rather low. An unintended consequence of cost reduction is inefficiencies creeping into the operational system. In some sectors, cost reductions are easier but in others such as healthcare it backfires. Health care relies a lot of talent management and social welfare, which cannot be replicated by machines. Staff optimization can be proactively performed in three ways, starting with lowering the number of scheduled hours. Another is to optimize the staffing during peak consultation hours. Finally, some structural changes ought to be introduced where departmental staff can be shared during non-peak hours or the specialist to assistant ratio be reworked.

Source:https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/nl/qualityasremedy/turn-volume-reduction-into-cost-saving?sf197180787=1

Uploaded Date:15 September 2018