Sometimes Dr. Spencer R. Berthelsen doesn’t wear his name tag to work. On those days, he’s not acting as the chairman and managing director of Kelsey-Seybold Clinic. He’s there as a patient.
He goes incognito, literally taking the customer’s place, to better understand the value that his company offers.
“I experience firsthand what that’s like from the perspective of the customer,” he says. “I think the best way is if you can actually transport yourself into the customer’s position, taking advantage of the services that you offer or the product that your company provides.”
Berthelsen devotes himself to increasing the value that Kelsey-Seybold adds for the 400,000 patients who come in annually. Fortunately, the clinic operates under an accountable care model, so the emphasis is already on value. Accountable care organizations (ACO) differ from other health care providers by, for example, focusing incentives on the quality of services rather than the volume and regularly reporting quality and cost measurements.
“We have been oriented toward this concept of accountability in medical care since our founding,” says Berthelsen, who has been at the clinic since 1980. “Our culture has been one of providing the highest value, the most benefit to our patients for the lowest possible cost.”
While the ACO model may be unique to health care, the principles that guide it are not. At the core, it’s about adding value for your customers, in turn creating a competitive edge for your business.
“If you dedicate yourself to increasing value and if all your decisions are governed by, ‘Does this increase value to my customers?’ then you will be making decisions that will make you successful,” Berthelsen says.
Here’s how he does it.
