Physicians Immediate Care is based in Illinois and currently operates 20 facilities in 3 states.
1. What are the biggest challenges in the healthcare industry today?
Two of the largest problems are rising healthcare costs and also the growing problem of access to care. With the widening PCP shortage and overcrowded ERs, immediate care (urgent care) alleviates the problems of accessibility and affordability that come with the rising demand for patient care.
2. More specifically, what are the biggest challenges for immediate care providers?
For immediate care providers specifically, the largest challenge is being a seamlessly integrated part of the healthcare solution. We need to cooperate with and coordinate care with insurance companies, PCPs, and hospital groups to deliver long-term sustainable solutions. We also need to be able to scale our concept efficiently and effectively to provide real savings and improved care.
3. What are the biggest opportunities?
The biggest opportunity is becoming part of the long-term solution. When we open the best immediate care clinics, in the best locations, delivering incredible care, leading to extraordinary patient satisfaction, we will be able to truly scale our concept to serve even more communities in the Midwest.
4. If you were giving advice to someone just starting in healthcare (strategic planning, marketing, etc), what advice would you give them?
Deeply understand the current situation in healthcare and where it will evolve in the future. We are in an industry that changes rapidly, but certain truths will hold. Similar to any technological breakthroughs, those effects are often over-estimated in the short-term but under-estimated in the long-term. Consumer-driven healthcare and the affordability crisis will continue to force patients to seek convenient, cost-effective solutions.
5. What is the role that patient intelligence plays in your business, and how does it have an impact on the decisions you make?
Everything in our business revolves around the patient. Knowing and understanding our key patients – how they use our clinics, what drives their satisfaction, how we fit into their healthcare ecosystem – impacts all major decisions that we make. Our location analysis, our marketing programs, our customer experience development, and even the partnerships that we choose to develop, all start with a strong knowledge of our patient.
6. What are you reading now?
I read Wired magazine, and usually have both a non-fiction and a fiction book started at the same time. Lately I have had little chance to read except while traveling, but those books right now are Repeatability which I am just starting and I just finished The Life of Pi.
