How to Fix Healthcare using Management Consulting Approach

Before analyzing and optimizing, it is a good idea to estimate how much we really spend on the Healthcare System. We will look at direct and indirect costs, along with externalities.

Let’s start by looking at what goals the Healthcare System can have. We will discuss 5 main goals. Most Healthcare Systems will concentrate only on 2-3 of them.

In most cases, unfortunately, there is a too big focus on the direct costs of healthcare. We will look at all related to the health costs, including lost productivity and externalities.

Imagine that you were asked to calculate all the costs (direct and indirect) of the health problems that a country is experiencing. Let’s see how it can be done.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

Let’s briefly look at the main groups of actions that we can take to achieve our goals when it comes to healthcare. We will discuss them in more detail later on.

The optimal solution is to fully eradicate a health problem. This is quite often possible, however, not enough money is invested in this area. In this section, we will see what kind of tools you can use and how you can do a cost-benefit analysis in this area.

Let’s see what we can do to eliminate health problems.

Imagine that you have to analyze the speed at which you will be vaccinating the population for a contagious disease. Minimize the overall costs for the economy.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

There is a huge benefit coming from the fact that you treat faster patients. Patients can faster get back to their normal life and you have more resources to treat others. In this section, we will check the most useful tools and we will see how you can analyze their impact.

Let’s see what you can do to treat faster the patients.

Imagine that you have to decide which treatment for a disease is better, given all the pros and cons. We will see how you can analyze the data and draw conclusions.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

Almost always you have more people that need to see the doctor than available doctors. That is why we will discuss now how you can try to treat more patients.

Let’s see what you can do to treat more patients

In every company, you have bottlenecks that limit your ability to go forward and deliver more goods and services. Here I will show you how to estimate what is the impact on the whole system and how you can remove and improve them. 

Your friend Ivan works in a content marketing agency and wants to improve the work of his team. Help him use the bottleneck framework

In this lecture, I will show you the solution to the previously introduced case study.

Let’s look at examples of bottlenecks in the office

Let’s look at examples of bottlenecks in the office

Let’s imagine that you work for a firm that operates a chain of clinics. You were asked to improve their results by optimizing the typical visits done in their clinics.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

Now, let’s analyze the demand and supply of doctors in the whole country. We will try to improve the relations between supply and demand.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

One of the ways to help the Healthcare System is to decrease the need for treatments. This can be achieved also by lowering the frequency of occurrence of the Health Problem.

Let’s see how you can lower the frequency of health problems

A surprising number of people die or have health problems due to air pollution. Let’s see how we can address this problem and whether it will make sense.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

One of the biggest reasons for death is cardiovascular disease. We will try to estimate the full impact of these diseases on the economy and how we can reduce it.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

In this section, we will discuss how you can cut the costs of the Healthcare System, without reducing the quality of service and the number of patients we are treating.

Let’s have a look at the general framework we can use to cut costs

When it comes to cutting costs of treatments, we have 4 main directions. Let's discuss them

Imagine that you have to analyze the usage as well as prices for 3 selected drugs. Your goal is to estimate potential savings coming from the centralization of purchases.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

Imagine that you have to optimize the costs of a clinic. Let’s see what kind of data you were given by the CEO of the clinic.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

It’s time to see how we can set priorities when it comes to money allocation. In most cases no matter what you do the funds will be not sufficient to take care of all problems.

In this lecture, we will talk briefly about applying the low-hanging fruits in practice. I will show you the principles of using it as well as a practical example.

Let’s look at how the quick win framework looks for savings. We will look at 2 dimensions:

• What are the potential savings we can achieve

• How easy it is to implement it?

We will have thanks to 4 categories of projects that we can consider:

• Cow savings – easy to kill and big

• Elephant – difficult to catch yet big

• Chicken savings – easy to kill yet you need to kill a lot of them not to be hungry

• Bat savings – small and difficult to catch

Remember that the potential reduction in costs depends on 2 elements: potential percentage cost reduction and the cost starting point:

• Potential % cost reduction

• Cost starting point

We will discuss this in this lecture

Imagine that you have to identify quick wins in cost reduction for an international chain of drugstores. We know their cost structure

• A few pieces of information about the firm that we will be analyzing

• They have 4000 stores

• We have their cost structure

• They have sent us a list of projects that will help them reduce costs

• Estimate the potential and group them using the quick wins framework

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

There are some ways to estimate the potential reduction in costs

• Get benchmarks

• Carry out a 1-day audit

• Measure a sample

• Ask experts

• Ask suppliers of tools / IT solutions/machines

• Organize auction/tender

• Do a consulting project with a consulting firm

Quite often you have options that you want to somehow compare and rank them. Thanks to the ranking you not only give points but you can sort them from the most wanted to the least desired. In this lecture, I will show you how to use rankings and when 

Creating an expansion strategy requires you to do several things. I will show you in this lecture how to approach this subject

In this lecture, I will start the case study that we will be solving for the next few lectures. Imagine that you are a Spanish fashion retailer and you want to figure out which countries you should enter. Therefore, you prepare a ranking of countries that show attractiveness and the size of every market.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

Let’s have a look at a milk producer that wants to expand its product range. In this case, you will be asked to analyze and find the best candidates for brand expansions. 

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

Now, let’s try to rank the health problems that we are dealing with and see how we can use it to allocate money that we use to tackle health problems.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.

In this lecture, we will solve the previously introduced case study.