Healthcare as a Business

Today I participated in a training about developing organizational cultures that retained staff presented by a Ph.D. who remarked how the research presented came from the ‘business side of the house’ but also applied to healthcare organizations.

Wait! What?

Where is the disconnect? When are we finally going to understand that healthcare in ALL forms is a business.

I switched programs mid-stream and completed a doctorate in healthcare administration. A business degree. Why? Because I understand that to effect change IN a system we must be able to speak the language OF the system.

I have a theory about where the disconnect is.

The German sociologist Niklas Luhmann discussed how social systems embrace a binary code that is based on their orientation. For example, in healthcare, the business orientation is about providing care cost efficiently vs. not cost efficiently, while the provider orientation is about providing good care vs. bad care (Madsbjerg, C. (2017). Sensemaking: The power of the humanities in the age of the algorithm (First edition). Hachette Books).

In her Book “Red Thread Thinking,’ Debra Kaye discusses how humans have a preference for this binary approach (Kaye, D. (2013). Red thread thinking: Weaving together connections for brillant ideas and profitable innovation. McGraw-Hill Education).

Albert Einstein famously said “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” As long as we remain constrained in binary thinking as opposed to thinking in systems the problems facing businesses (including healthcare) will not find resolution.