Why not us?

Recently, I was struck as the “Titletown, USA” sign came into view above the dashboard of my rental car while on my way to train a group of medical staff officers in Green Bay, Wisconsin.  Sure the Packers have won more football championships than any other team, including 2010, but prior to that, there had been quite a drought. 

I am a dyed-in-the-wool New England sports fan who was very disappointed that my New England Patriots fell to the New York Giants in the “big game” last weekend.  In the last ten years, my adopted hometown of Boston, Massachusetts, has seen every major sports team win the championship of their league.  All of that success may make it hard to believe that winning was not always the culture in Beantown.  There was a time where the belief in my town was that the only luck they had was bad luck – Bucky Dent, Bill Buckner, and Aaron Boone amongst others – but in 2004, the team needed to win four games in a row against their archrival to reach the World Series. That was when someone finally asked the question, “Why not us?” and the rest is history.

Whether you’re a fan of sports or an executive in an organization that hasn’t “won” in a while, I hope you’ll ask the same question because change is possible and patient flow is the key – starting with a transfer center.

One of the transfer centers I started was for a system that had consistently stayed in third place out of four in market share.  By the end of year one, our transfer volumes were growing upwards of 500%, market share was headed in the right direction, and our competitor reported a drop of over 40% in overall patient traffic. That was when the question, “Why not us?” was finally answered.