The Crystal Ball 3

“Do I detect, Curmudge, that we are slowly tuning our crystal ball to look further into the future?”

“What do you expect, Jaded Julie? Everything I do is done slowly. I even sleep slowly. One of my friends once said, ‘Sleep is just practice for being dead.’ I practice slowly so I don’t get too good at it.”

“I understand that today we discuss the last of the health care ‘knowledge purveyors’ on our list, Sg2. This is another organization supported by membership dues and fees for services they provide. Fortunately, Affinity is a member.”

“On the Kaizen Curmudgeon scale of consultancies, Sg2 is neither a supermarket nor a ‘mom-and-pop store.’ Their team includes MDs, PhDs, RNs and health care leaders with extensive strategic, operational, clinical, academic, technological and financial experience. According to their home page, they ‘help build a foundation for improving care delivery and overall organizational performance.’ Their logo includes ‘health care intelligence.’ That certainly suggests a forward-looking focus.”

“Sg2 offerings include meetings, courses, and web seminars. Their EDGE intelligence system provides in-depth reports, growth guides, and technology guides on a wide range of medicine-related topics.”

“Jaded Julie, if your aim is to be in health care administration, these statements by the CEO of Sg2 ought to catch your attention: ‘This is 2001 in the airline industry. Make no mistake, the Southwest Airlines equivalents in health care are going to wreak havoc on the mainline health care providers.’ ‘Growth is not going to come from performing more procedures and getting more referrals, it is going to come from providing a fundamentally better product at a lower price point.’ “

“The CEO of Sg2 is obviously a bit of a salesman, but Curmudge, what he said is enough to waken you from your afternoon nap.”

“You be sure to be awake next time, Julie, and we’ll try to conjure up some countermeasures for the day of reckoning.”

Affinity’s Kaizen Curmudgeon

Note: An observation on the practice of emergency medicine in a primitive location may be accessed via this link.