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How Can Digital Marketing Work for Your Business?

There is no question that we live in the digital world and from this perspective; it is significant that your business has magnificent presence in the digital space. Internet marketing or digital marketing is the marketing future across the world with full of advantages as compared to traditional marketing. Here are the few reasons why digital marketing is important for every business:

Provides equal opportunity to all kinds of businesses.

More cost effective as compared to traditional Marketing.

Delivers more conversions.

Helps in generating more Revenues.

Facilitates interaction with targeted audience.

Also caters to mobile customers.

It helps in earning people trusts

All these reasons show that digital marketing or digital modes of communication are quicker, result driven and more adaptable. To optimize your business and drive conversions, it is essential to know about all the digital marketing elements, which are as follows:SEO (Search Engine Optimization)In the layman’s terms, SEO is a marketing discipline, which focuses on organic (non-paid) visibility on search engines. SEO is not only related to making your website or online presence better for search engines but also about making it better for people. To provide relevant results to its audience, Google regularly updates its algorithms. Because of this regular updates by Google, many experts say that their effort is futile but their results or SEO is dead. However the truth is that Google tries to filter the websites that don’t deserve to be on the top of search Engine Result Pages (SERP’s).SEO is one of the most cost-effective strategies that will bring organic traffic to your website. So, there is no doubt in investing in SEO work.SEM (Search Engine Marketing)It is the most effective and comprehensive strategy to grow your business and drive more traffic to your website in an increasingly competitive market. With lots of business presence on digital platform and all of them keeping their eyes on the same, it is significant to advertise online, and SEM is one of the best ways to promote or advertise your business. It is done primarily through paid effort, which is why it is also called as Paid Search Marketing.The SEM domain is diverse and complicated, so on the basis of the structure of your business, you may choose PPC (Pay per Click) or CPM (Cost Per-Thousand Impressions) or CPC (Cost per Click). Google AdWords (Google) and Bing ads (Yahoo) are the most popular platforms for SEM.Content CreationContent creation is an effective marketing method and even after the changes in Google’s algorithms like Penguin, Panda or Humming bird update, content is still the most significant metric while measuring the search results. Content can be presented in many ways, such as blogs, e-books, case studies, how to guides, question & answer articles, banners, infographics, images, news updates, videos or content for social media sites.You can create content on any topic related to your business (if you are creative), and then skillfully link it to your business indirectly. The content should be professional and search engine optimized. It is always better to leave certain things in hands of professionals to achieve success in your business. There are many Content Writing as well as Content Marketing agencies which not only write the content in the professional way but also promote it on digital media to create brand awareness and bring traffic, which in turn convert to your customers.SMM (Social Media Marketing)Social Media Marketing uses social networking sites (like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest etc.) as a tool of promoting websites and bringing traffic towards your business.The basic goal of SMM is to engage or communicate with the users, increase brand visibility and reach more customers. Having an active Social Media Presence (engage on daily basis) has become an invaluable part to expand your reach, which as a result will build your own reputation and brand.Mobile MarketingThe consistent use of smartphones in daily life has brought this technique of marketing. This technique would definitely give more exposure to your business as mobile has become an integral part of our life. Mobile marketing can be done in various ways. Some of them are as:

App-Based marketing

In-Game Mobile Marketing

SMS

Mobile Search Ads

Mobile Image ads

Email MarketingEmailing is one of the easiest and inexpensive ways to advertise your business and products or services as compared to all other digital marketing strategies. Below are some of the reasons how email marketing can help in growth of your business:

Email has wider reach

Email delivers your communication

Email drives conversions

Email results in higher ROI(Return on Investment)

It is an open platform and will remain there forever

All the above reasons, shows that email marketing is the most effective marketing channel that can help you to connect with audience and drive sales and revenue for your business.ConclusionAs a marketer, you have many channels and strategies to promote your business online and reach your audience. It is important to choose different marketing strategies for your business to succeed online. However, the truth is the combination of different strategies can only serve your objectives better. A digital marketing agency offers all online solutions that can help you in achieving a high ROI. These agencies consult, strategize and execute to deliver the best. So, it is highly recommended to opt for professional digital marketing services to achieve online business success.

SEO Consulting For Big Brand Websites – 20 Tips on Dealing With Different Levels of Administrators

SEO consultation for large brand websites challenges the SEO consultants with unique situations. Dealing with the different levels of executives and managers is one of these unique problems.In reality the actual SEO techniques used for small sites and large sites do not necessarily change. However, the problems which SEO consultants have to overcome can be far apart. One factor is of course the size of the web site. Small sites may contain a few hundred pages whereas large corporate sites contain thousands of pages that continue to grow with time. The other major factor is the number of people who are involved in managing and maintaining these large websites. In a small website, it is usually the business owner who will take all the decisions, but with a large website ten persons or more could be involved in the process.The following tips will help SEO consultants survive the experience of providing SEO consulting to big brand companies:1 – The vital element in providing SEO consulting to these big sites is to start an educative training program to inform all involved levels and departments of the importance of applying sound search engine optimization techniques as well as how, when and where to apply these techniques.2 – The top administrative levels are more important to convince of the essential need for effective SEO practices. They are the decision makers and the survival of the whole SEO project depends on them.3 – The staff of different departments must be involved in the process, from the web development team to the marketing team, sales representatives and even financial officers and controllers who determine budgets. SEO is a team effort so anyone who is involved with the web site development, from designers up to the CEO must be included.4 – All levels need education and training to have a common language and realistic expectations. Based on his or her initial evaluation of the company’s website, an SEO consultant should prepare a comprehensive educational and training seminar or workshop for the staff.5 – An SEO consultant must try to arrange a weekly or monthly seminar to all staff and executives involved in the SEO project to explain to them the process and set realistic expectations to avoid failure.6 – SEO consultants must avoid any personality conflicts or issues at all costs; they may cause failure of the whole project. Many SEO companies charge more for the difficulty to work with administrators.7 – As an SEO consultant you must be able to teach and train the executives and staff. In the mean time, an SEO consultant must be capable and ready to learn and acquire new expertise from each member in the team mainly through different questions and challenges that will arise during the long process of SEO.An SEO consultant, executives and other staff members must be able to work together as a productive team, share experience and learn from each other.8 – Be realistic. Every body must know that SEO is a team work and it takes a lot of time and hard work to show results.9 – Be motivational and keep the enthusiasm of all the team high.10 – Evaluate and update knowledge and the information of the executives. A lot of their information is obtained from forums and blogs which are at most times outdated and wrong.11 – Make it clear to all the SEO team that for each hour of SEO consultant’s work, there is 6 – 8 hours needed by the company staff to implement and do the recommended changes.12 – SEO Consultants must be able to explain and justify every recommendation or change they ask for.13- Select areas where SEO will be successful or easy to show quick results first.14 – Explain to the SEO team that all recommendations must be followed, not only part of them. To get to the first page is like competing in the Olympics: every effort must be done to get the gold medal. It is very competitive out there.15 – Company executives usually ask for a Traffic estimate, so you must have a goal.To estimate the expected increase in the search engine traffic, you need to find out the monthly search volume for all the long tail keyword phrases that you are optimizing for. Usually you will get 10% of these searches if you managed to get your long tail keyword phrases to the first page of Google.In reality, SEO is not about ranking, it is about traffic. Every body must start to understand this important fact.16 – Prepare a set of tools to allow you to monitor and track different sources of traffic and every possible change in your progress.17 – Define your base line before you start, so you can evaluate your progress and measure of success. Decide where you are in ranking and traffic and what your goals are.18 – Every executive is eager to see results and success. Explain to everybody that it takes as long as it takes; it is not like PPC. We have no control on Google spiders. Traffic will reach its goal, but how long it will take is not an easy question to answer. Many factors can cause delays. Google changes its algorithm more than 400 times a year. Search engines take time to consider these links, some times up to several months and the competition is optimizing and affecting our results every day.A stable search engine ranking for a competitive keyword can take anywhere from 4-12 months, but you have to remain focused on the ranking objective over time19 -Weekly or monthly prepare reports to show continuous improvement once the SEO strategy is in place.20 – Carefully analyze and interpret the results from different tools, and publish to executives these regular reports about the progress in ranking, traffic and link popularity.By following these recommendations, SEO consultants can ensure a smooth productive relationship with different levels of executives of big brand companies and all other staff members involved in the long exhaustive process of search engine optimization.

What Funeral Directors Must Know Before Selling Their Business To A Competitor

“I have a very highly developed sense of denial”- Gwyneth PaltrowNearly every study done on business succession readiness indicates that 70% or more of all small and medium business owners have no written exit plan in place.Funeral business owners are no exception even though they know, perhaps better than anyone else, the high cost of failure to plan.As a funeral director, you are confronted daily with painful and stressful conditions that occur when your clients don’t make plans and are forced to make important decisions under duress. You probably also realize that most of this failure to plan can be traced to human beings’ intimate relationship with denial.Denial is a powerful, double-edged sword. On the one hand, it helps us cope with devastating occurrences that come our way. On the other hand, it often leads us to eschew preparation and planning in favor of crossing our fingers and hoping for the best.Funeral directors succumb to denial just like anyone else; putting off much-needed business succession planning in lieu of a “wait and see” approach.While most funeral business owners express an intense desire to see the businesses into which they have poured so much of themselves continue after they have retired, few have a plan in place to make that happen.Without such pre-retirement planning, owners are opening themselves up to situations which can severely compromise their ability to sell their businesses for enough money to retire.Many of them believe that when the time comes to walk away from the business, they will be able to sell the business quickly to a competitor for a nice price.Why Selling to A Competitor Isn’t Always A Good IdeaOver the past few years, large corporations have been buying up individually owned funeral homes in record numbers. Many directors have balked at this trend and are not interested in becoming a part of a “McBurial” chain.It’s natural, then, that when the time comes for those directors to retire; they look for other independent mortuary business owners to whom they can sell their profitable business.However, before selling your business to a competitor, be sure you understand some of the potential adverse consequences of such a sale.1. The would-be buyer’s interest may not be genuine. In many businesses such as funeral homes, it is not uncommon for another business owner to feign interest in purchasing a competitor simply in order to gain inside information. By posing as a prospective buyer, competitors may hope to get access to your trade secrets, marketing techniques, or customer lists.You must not give way any sensitive data until you have done due diligence and are satisfied that the prospect is genuine. One way to do this might be to ask for proof that they have the funds available to make such a purchase. ALWAYS ask potential buyers to sign a non-disclosure agreement that has been reviewed by your attorney. This can serve as a deterrent to “fakers” and protect your trade secrets during the selling process. You might also want to ask others you trust in your business about the reputation and integrity of the competitor who wants to purchase your business.2. Competitors sometimes have a “low-ball” game plan. Selling to a competitor means that you are selling to someone who ostensibly has as good an insight into the funeral industry as do you. He or she has knowledge specific to the business that allows them to justify offering you less that the most desirable price.For instance, competitors understand all the stresses and headaches unique to the funeral home owners; they understand the “buttons” that can cause an owner to want to sell. Because they can read you and your situation, they are not as likely to want to give you your price as an equity fund or individual buyer. Additionally, because they can perform the same services as you do, they often try and carve out the “good will” part of the business valuation.3. You are negotiating with a single buyer When funeral services business owners opt to find a competitor to whom they can sell they have greatly diminished their chances for getting their business sold more quickly for a better price. Much as in a real estate deal, the interest of multiple qualified buyers can result in a bidding war which may drive the price up. Having only one potential buyer puts you at a disadvantage.4. If the deal falls apart, your reputation could sufferIt’s a sad statistic, but a true one, that there is only about a 3% success for selling a business in the United States. Even when there are qualified, thoroughly-vetted buying prospects involved, deals can, and do, fall apart.When this happens, expect the business gossips to pick up on the fact that you tried to sell and failed. Word will get around quickly and can cause families who have trusted your establishment to provide services for years to become concerned that you might be in financial trouble. Other competitors might be prone to use this against you to persuade clients to use their services instead of yours.5. Third-party intermediaries could ruin the outcomeYour competitor, especially if this is the first time he or she has ever acquired another business, might hire a third party intermediary, such as a business broker, to provide guidance during the buying phase.Unfortunately, unlike real estate brokers, business brokers have a less-than-stellar reputation when it comes to making selling or buying a business easier. In fact, a close examination of failed deals reveals that many times the failure is due to having too many third parties slowing down the process.Business brokers, in general, contribute nothing but headaches when someone is trying to buy or sell a business. They can make the deal, if it happens at all, take two or three times longer while causing both buyer and seller a lot more stress.These are just some of the important things to consider if you want to sell your business to the competition.If you do decide upon this course of action, then be sure that you have a business exit plan in place, that you have discussed all your strategies and options with your attorney and CPA, and that you have put together a list of questions for the potential buyer.Treat this as you would a job interview, with a view toward getting the best possible candidate.Some questions you might want to ask the potential buyer include:1. Can you really afford to purchase my business?2. What is the structure of your business, i.e.; are you a sole proprietorship, corporation, owned by family, an ESOP or private equity?3. Can you provide a brief history of your company and explain what your goals for the future are?4. What exactly about my business makes you interested in purchasing it?5. What are your plans for my employees and management?6. Have you ever bought or sold businesses before?7. What are you doing to grow your own business?8. Why do you think you would be the perfect owner for my business?Selling your successful funeral business to a competitor, while it might seem easier and less hassle than other methods is full of risks.You must do everything possible to alleviate these risks that could derail your retirement plans and leave you with less money than you need in order to live a comfortable life.You need to be absolutely sure that this move is the right one, for you and your business, and exercise extreme caution and diligence during every phase of the sale.If you have doubts, it pays to seek out the expert advice of another business owner who has been in your shoes and can give you advice and wise counsel.

Buying an Easy Life With a Kids Entertainer

Children love parties. The poor adults who have to arrange them, run them, try and rescue them when everything goes wrong, and finally collapse in a little ball after everyone has gone home, don’t. And little wonder. Running a children’s party ought to be a full time occupation – not something done part time by unwilling volunteers. Fortunately for those volunteers, there are some people out there who actually make their living from running and entertaining at kid’s parties: party organisers like the wonderfully named UK outfit Froggle, whose kids entertainer packages alone have probably saved half the nation’s parents from a party-induced breakdown.Here’s how Froggle, and the other unsung heroes that do the same job up and down the country, save so many poor harassed parents from mental rack and ruin. They come in, they take over as much or as little of the party organisation and running as the parents require, and they let the parents themselves take a back seat. That means there’s more time for the parents to do the really useful stuff, like keeping an eye out for skinned knees and incipient tantrums, while the kids’ entertainer and his or her colleagues concentrate on all the things that usually distract Mum and Dad from doing the necessary. As a result, that necessary becomes far less stressful than it used to be – because Mum and Dad are no longer trying to keep their eyes peeled whilst also entertaining everyone, they find the actual keeping their eyes peeled part a lot less of a strain than it used to be.There’s a very specific advantage to hiring an entertainer for a children’s party. Unlike Mum, or Dad, or even an older sibling or family friend, no part attendee is likely to know the kids entertainer in question. And that means two things. One, the entertainer never suffers from that loss of illusion that Mum or Dad will inevitably feel when one of the guests shouts out “hey – that’s Johnny’s mum!” And two, the entertainer is usually afforded more respect than Mum or Dad would have been. He or she is treated with the better behaved reserve children always put on for strangers – because, with strangers, they don’t know where the boundaries are. The result? A kids’ entertainer actually entertains more, because the children don’t recognise him, or her, and so the illusion isn’t spoiled – and, again because the guy or gal under the makeup is a stranger, the kids behave better too. Which means everyone goes home happy for a change.
A decent kids’ entertainer knows exactly how to keep children interested, when and how to excite them and, most importantly of all, when to calm them down. In the hands of an expert, all the guests at the party will have safely expended the fury of all their pent up excitement long before the end of the party – meaning that they’re easy to get home and relatively tantrum free.There may, possibly, be other ways of controlling a kid’s party – but why bother? Simply hire a decent kids’ entertainer, sit back, relax, and prepare to actually enjoy a child’s birthday for a change. You never know – you might like it.

Lean Methodology in Health Care Quality Improvement

Lean production (Lean) is a type of quality improvement methodology which has been implemented in many industries. Its principles and practices also have been applied to health care organizations with success. This has been accomplished with refinement for the nuances of health care. Lean is a process management philosophy which has its roots in manufacturing and technology. It was developed as part of the Toyota Production System for the process assembly of automobiles (Toyota Motor Corporation, 2009). The Toyota System is comprehensive and spans a large number of methods and practices. It was initially influenced by the work of W. Edwards Deming and Henry Ford and was also inspired by innovation in the American grocery store industry of the 1950s (Keller, 2006). This is reflected in the Just-in-Time philosophy of productivity improvement, which emphasizes producing quality products efficiently through the complete elimination of waste, inconsistencies, and unreasonable requirements (Toyota Motor Corporation, 2009). Though the Lean methodology was initially developed as part of an overall system focusing on the production of automobiles, its principles also have been adapted for health care. As certain case studies indicate, Lean thinking and tools have been successfully applied to specific health care settings. The scope and value of Lean production within this field will be explored in this paper.Significance:ValueA significant component of Lean is the concept of value: the theoretical concept of value, the measurement of value, and the tangible processes behind delivering value. Lean is unique in that it accounts for the reduction of waste in order to achieve both real and potential value. Recovering this value can present itself in the form of saved costs or other tangibles. Lean thinking dictates that the expenditure of resources for any purpose other than delivering value to the customer is considered to be wasteful. The reduced expenditure of time, money, and resources is thought to bring additional bottom-line benefit to the customer. The customer-centric focus of Lean thinking is especially relevant to health care. Broader levels of patient/customer satisfaction are constantly being sought. This mode of thinking has been brought on by increased competition among organizations and the need to differentiate services. It is recognized that providing complete customer satisfaction can be vastly beneficial to health care organizations. Customer satisfaction can be an equally important measure of an organization’s performance as the delivery of quality health outcomes. This is a factor which is exemplified in Noriaki Kano’s model. Lean thinking dictates that processes and methods must be efficiently optimized with the needs of customers in mind in order for organizations to be fully effective.Problem Addressed: WasteLean focuses on the maximization of process velocity through the reduction of waste. It provides tools for analyzing process flow and delay times at each activity in a process. The focal point is the separation of “value-added” from “non-value-added” work. This is complemented by tools which aide in the identification and elimination of root causes of non-valued activities. The primary problem addressed by Lean is waste, which can affect value in a number of ways. It may result in lower quality products, higher costs, less favorable customer experiences, excessive time or effort expended to complete goals, or fewer resources available for innovation which could provide potential value at a future date. Waste can be found in people, processes, tangibles, and other areas. Eliminating waste through the lens of Lean production can help to achieve the goals of health care organizations. There are eight generally identifiable centers of waste: overproduction, waiting (time on hand), unnecessary transport or conveyance, over-processing or incorrect processing, excess inventory, unnecessary human movement, defects, and unused employee creativity (United States Army, 2009). There are variations on these categories of waste depending on the setting or industry. For the purpose of health care Caldwell (2005) slightly refines these measures into seven categories of waste. These consist of “in-quality/out-of-quality staffing or overcapacity, overcorrection, over processing, excess inventory, waiting, motion of patients or staff, and material and information movement (Caldwell, 2005, p. 46).” Regardless of the differences in terminologies used, there are common centers of waste in health care which can be targeted for elimination. These can be identified through Lean processes which focus on root cause analysis.Process: Root Cause AnalysisA crucial process in Lean is the identification of waste through root cause analysis. Root cause analysis in Lean involves a method called 5-Whys (Toyota Manufacturing Kentucky, 2003). This method rapidly identifies root causes and aides in determining the relationship between multiple root causes. It can be learned quickly and does not require statistical analysis. This method is especially effective for an implementation team in the initial stages of problem exploration. The application of this strategy involves asking a series of why-related questions to drill down into a problem area. Asking progressive questions about a perceived difficulty forces team members to think critically about the actual sources of waste and inefficiency. It is suggested that at least five questions (5-Whys) are posed to arrive at the root cause, though a root cause may be discovered in more or less inquires.The following is an example of a 5-Whys exercise used in a hypothetical hospital setting:(Q1) Why are patients being diverted to neighboring hospitals?(A1) Because wait times for our hospital are exceeding industry norms.(Q2) Why are our wait times exceeding industry norms?(A2) Because patient volume is exceeding capacity.(Q3) Why is patient volume exceeding capacity?(A3) Because not enough hospital beds are available.(Q4) Why are not enough hospital beds available?(A4) Because hospital patients are not being discharged efficiently.(Q5) Why are hospital patients not being discharged efficiently?(A5) Because ER staff is not following best practices for proper discharge.In this example, waste in the throughput process comes from incorrect processing. Once hospital management determines the root cause they can implement further training, ensure compliance with existing standards, or eliminate other barriers. In this case the hospital might consider implementing a training program to ensure that ER staff is following best practices for patient discharge. The hospital might also conduct additional 5-Whys analyses to uncover other problem areas. Once root causes of waste are uncovered, the elimination of waste or other related action plans can be executed.Sources of wasteSources of waste vary greatly by industry. The majority of waste encountered by health care organizations occurs in flow and throughput. As a result, Lean implementations in this field are primarily focused on the elimination of waste in staffing and staff/patient processes. Unlike manufacturing industries most health care organizations have very little inventory. Thus, some of the Lean concepts related to inventory control are less applicable to health care. Health care organizations typically spend a larger percentage of operating expenses on overhead and labor costs. This can account for 50 percent of the operating costs while inventory is in the range of 2 percent (Caldwell, 2005). Understanding waste in throughput entails a comprehension of the relationships between process variables and costs. Costs are not causes of waste but are indicators of interrelationships between processes. While the ultimate goal of most Lean implementations is to recover costs as tangible benefits, eliminating costs without fully understanding processes is problematic. Looking at the types of cost recovery is essential to determining an action plan.Solution: Cost RecoveryThe ultimate goal of most Lean implementations is to attain a tangible benefit, often in the form of a cost recovery. However, not all process improvement opportunities will result in immediate returns. The actual realization of a benefit depends on the nature of the improvement as well as the additional steps that management takes to achieve it. Caldwell (2005) cites three types of cost recovery through the elimination of waste: Type 1, Type 2, and Type 3. In a Type 1 situation the process throughput improvement will yield a direct cost recovery. For example, a process improvement that reduces length of patient stay would recover costs in the form of reduced resources expended. In a Type 2 situation, the process improvement saves time but does not result in cost recovery without additional hours worked per unit of service. A provider may spend less time per patient because of reduced length of stay but scheduling will need to be adjusted in order to capitalize on the benefit to workflow. Lastly, Type 3 yields savings in the form of immediate optimization of capacity. In this situation a process improvement in an emergency room, for example, may allow a provider to see more patients in the same staffed time without additional action taken by management. This is similar to a Type 2 recovery but with no changes to scheduling. This can occur if the provider is willing to see more patients per unit of time and sufficient patient volume exists to achieve capacity. Maximum velocity is achieved without additional action needed to be carried out by management. These examples show that throughput improvement may not achieve an immediate benefit without other factors. It also brings to light the fact that throughput improvement may yield different benefits such as recovered costs, time saved, or increased revenues. Regardless of the actual benefit achieved and the way that it is realized, the ultimate outcome must increase bottom-line value and satisfaction to customers in some way.Examples of Lean implementation in HealthcareThe study of actual Lean implementations in health care is essential to understanding their application. One example of a successful implementation is outlined by Fairbanks (2007) at a medical center in Vermont. This implementation dramatically improved overall throughput processes within the organization. An implementation team was assembled and delved into all steps of the processes they were analyzing in order to determine the sources of waste. They utilized various Lean steps and methodologies to conduct root-cause analyses and prioritize process improvements. The team measured time involved, identified activities, and made rapid improvements through the elimination of non value-added activities. A large part of their improvements involved the elimination of redundancy. The topic of redundancy shows the importance of analyzing all processes, even those which are perceived to contribute to customer value. Even though a particular function may provide value in an organization it is possible that a redundant function may exist which can be eliminated. In another case example Lean methodology was used to streamline the physical space and inventory areas of a Denver-area hospital (Gabow, Albert, Kaufman, Wilson, & Eisert, 2008). The implementation team utilized the 5-S approach to organize physical work spaces within the hospital. 5-S is a Lean improvement which incorporates visualization management to organize objects and supplies. The five Ss stand for sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain. These steps involve tasks ranging from simple clean-up and organization to the implementation of detailed visual controls. In a 5-S environment there is “a place for everything and everything in its place, when you need it (Lean Innovations, 2003).” The Denver hospital used this approach in a series of projects focusing on individual offices, nursing stations, entire laboratories, and financial services departments. These spaces were reorganized to achieve optimal work flow and good space management. The successful outcomes included reclaimed physical work space, improved lab turnaround time, reduced time in locating equipment, and better processes which could improve patient care (Gabow et al, 2008). The 5-s method is an excellent first step in implementing Lean programs in a health care organization. Improvement of physical work space can positively affect mindset and mental perception of work. Another case example of a successful 5-S implementation involves a rural health clinic in Georgia. Lean techniques were used in this organization to resolve problems with bottlenecks, turnaround times, customer satisfaction, and overworked nurses (Cross, 2009). 5-S is one of many Lean tools which can provide immediate benefit.ConclusionLean is a multifaceted approach to quality improvement which has tangible benefits to health care organizations. There are aspects which focus on reducing non value-added work and waste to achieve value in various ways. Successfully implementing Lean in health care depends on the setting involved and the motivation of management and teams. Health care encompasses a wide range of organizations and each has unique characteristics which must be considered in light of Lean processes. Important considerations in implementing lean in any environment can be reduced to a few key points: Understanding the concept of value Understanding waste and its sources Learning how to determine and analyze root causes Prioritizing multiple root causes Devising methods to eliminate waste Determining ways to recover costs or achieve benefits Analyzing effectiveness and repeating steps if necessary In addition, it is important to note that eliminating waste through a Lean process may not immediately result in tangible benefit. Management must thoroughly analyze action plans and make adjustments based on actual outcomes. Additional steps may need to be taken following initial process improvements. This is especially relevant in health care where process throughput improvement and staffing are areas which are commonly targeted. These areas may involve more challenges when trying to extract benefit. Freeing time for providers cannot always be capitalized upon without other capacity and throughput improvements. Scheduling or work flow functions may need to be overhauled in order for providers to increase overall process velocity and maximize value per unit for time. It is also crucial to realize that humans are not machines. Theoretical methods of quality improvement in Lean may not always be feasible to achieve at maximum levels. The Lean methodology developed by Toyota is very cognizant of respect for people. It is reflective of a collective culture and a holistic concept rather than a series of parts or steps. This is a fact which cannot be overlooked by management and teams when planning an implementation. People perform processes with normal human variation and improvements must be sensitive, appropriate, and sustainable.

How Did Health Care Costs Get So High?

First, let’s get a little historical perspective on American health care. To do that, let’s turn to the American civil war era. In that war, dated tactics and the carnage inflicted by modern weapons of the era combined to cause terrible results. Most of the deaths on both sides of that war were not the result of actual combat but to what happened after a battlefield wound was inflicted. To begin with, evacuation of the wounded moved at a snail’s pace in most instances causing severe delays in treatment of the wounded. Secondly, most wounds were subjected to wound related surgeries and amputations and this often resulted in massive infection. So you might survive a battle wound only to die at the hands of medical care providers whose good intentioned interventions were often quite lethal. High death tolls can also be ascribed to everyday sicknesses and diseases in a time when no antibiotics existed. In total something like 600,000 deaths occurred from all causes, over 2% of the U.S. population at the time!Let’s skip to the first half of the 20th century for some additional perspective and to bring us up to more modern times. After the civil war there were steady improvements in American medicine in both the understanding and treatment of certain diseases, new surgical techniques and in physician education and training. But for the most part the best that doctors could offer their patients was a “wait and see” approach. Medicine could handle bone fractures and perform risky surgeries and the like (now increasingly practiced in sterile surgical environments) but medicines were not yet available to handle serious illnesses. The majority of deaths remained the result of untreatable conditions such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, scarlet fever and measles and/or related complications. Doctors were increasingly aware of heart and vascular conditions, and cancer but they had almost nothing with which to treat these conditions.This very basic understanding of American medical history helps us to understand that until quite recently (around the 1950′s) we had virtually no technologies with which to treat serious or even minor ailments. Nothing to treat you with means that visits to the doctor if at all were relegated to emergencies so in that scenario costs were obviously minuscule. A second factor that has become a key driver of today’s health care costs is that medical treatments that were provided were paid for out-of-pocket. There was no health insurance and certainly not health insurance paid by someone else like an employer. Costs were the responsibility of the individual and perhaps a few charities that among other things supported charity hospitals for the poor and destitute.What does health care insurance have to do with health care costs? Its impact on health care costs is enormous. When health insurance for individuals and families emerged as a means for corporations to escape wage freezes and to attract and retain employees after World War II, almost overnight there was a great pool of money available for health care. Money, as a result of the availability of billions of dollars from health insurance pools, encouraged an innovative America to increase medical research efforts. As more and more Americans became insured not only through private, employer sponsored health insurance but through increased government funding that created Medicare, Medicaid and expanded veteran health care benefits, finding a cure for almost anything has become very lucrative. This is also the primary reason for the vast array of treatments we have available today. I do not wish to convey that this is a bad thing. Think of the tens of millions of lives that have been saved, extended and made more productive as a result. But with a funding source grown to its current magnitude (hundreds of billions of dollars annually) upward pressure on health care costs are inevitable. Doctor’s offer and most of us demand and get access to the latest available health care technology, pharmaceuticals and surgical interventions. So there is more health care to spend our money on and until very recently most of us were insured and the costs were largely covered by a third-party (government, employers). This is the “perfect storm” for higher and higher health care costs and by and large, the storm is intensifying.At this point, let’s turn to a key question. Is the current trajectory of U.S. health care spending sustainable? Can America maintain its world competitiveness when 16%, heading for 20% of our gross national product is being spent on health care? What are the other industrialized countries spending on health care and is it even close to these numbers? Add politics and an election year and the whole issue gets badly muddled and misrepresented.I believe that we need a revolutionary change in the way we think about health care, its availability, its costs and who pays for it. And if you think I am about to say we should arbitrarily and drastically reduce spending on health care you would be wrong. Here it is fellow citizens – health care spending needs to be preserved and protected for those who need it. And to free up these dollars those of us who don’t need it or can delay it or avoid it need to act. First, we need to convince our politicians that this country needs sustained public education with regard to the value of preventive health strategies. This should be a top priority and it has worked to reduce the number of U.S. smokers for example. If prevention were to take hold, it is reasonable to assume that those needing health care for the myriad of life style engendered chronic diseases would decrease dramatically. Millions of Americans are experiencing these diseases far earlier than in decades past and much of this is due to poor life style choices. This change alone would free up plenty of money to handle the health care costs of those in dire need of treatment, whether due to an acute emergency or chronic condition.Let’s go deeper on the first issue. Most of us refuse do something about implementing basic wellness strategies into our daily lives. We don’t exercise but we offer a lot of excuses. We don’t eat right but we offer a lot of excuses. We smoke and/or drink alcohol to excess and we offer a lot of excuses as to why we can’t do anything about it. We don’t take advantage of preventive health check-ups that look at blood pressure, cholesterol readings and body weight but we offer a lot of excuses. In short we neglect these things and the result is that we succumb much earlier than necessary to chronic diseases like heart problems, diabetes and high blood pressure. We wind up accessing doctors for these and more routine matters because “health care is there” and somehow we think we have no responsibility for reducing our demand on it.It is difficult for us to listen to these truths but easy to blame the sick. Maybe they should take better care of themselves! Well, that might be true or maybe they have a genetic condition and they have become among the unfortunate through absolutely no fault of their own. But the point is that you and I can implement personalized preventive disease measures as a way of dramatically improving health care access for others while reducing its costs. It is far better to be productive by doing something we can control then shifting the blame.There are a huge number of free web sites available that can steer us to a more healthful life style. “Google” “preventive health care strategies”, look up your local hospital’s web site and you will find more than enough help to get you started. Let’s go America – we can do this!

Making Online Education Attractive

All over the world, the numbers of people in school at the different levels takes pyramidal shape. There are huge numbers at the elementary, but as they progress, the numbers decrease, leaving just a few in higher education. In the United States, some 65 million students were expected to enroll from K to K12 in the fall of 2015. In the same period, it was expected that 20.2 million would be attending Colleges and Universities. It is estimated that 25% of fresh high school students in the U.S.A are not able to graduate. For fresh students who enter colleges or universities 1 out of 3 are likely not make it to second year. This dropout out rate hinders national development, because many people do not receive the full training they need to be functional in society. National development would be hugely fostered, if more adults receive education, in order that they become functional in society.I am not saying that all adults who were not fully educated are not playing important roles in society. There are very prominent individuals in society who dropped out of school at some level. Bill Gate, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, for example, at some point dropped out of school. Though this list is not exhaustive, the number of people who dropped out of school or decided not to gain higher education and yet became successful are relatively few. For the majority who dropped out or discontinued education, and could not become successful in their careers, it was because they lacked the knowledge they needed to develop their potential. If you check the history of those who in spite of dropping out or discontinuing schooling have become successful, you would find that appeared to have found their life’s purpose and so pursued those goals and, more importantly, they received some kind of education later.Education as we all know is a life-long activity. At any point in time, whether you dropped out of school or got honors at your graduation, you would need education. The school dropout who has found himself a vocation or gained employment needs education so he/she can be more productive, the dropout who has realized the need to school but has ‘grown past school going age’ and desires to school obviously needs education, managers as well as employees need further education in order to keep pace with today’s rapidly changing world and gain increased wages and status respectively. Somehow, the traditional education dependent society we have created for ourselves and considers the ‘best’, limits our quest for continuing education. For many people, formal education ended the day they dropped out or graduated from High School, College or University, even though, technology makes it possible for us to sit in our houses and still get quality education.When technology – computers and internet connectivity – replaced physical classrooms and made it possible to study by distance in real time, it appeared the issue of continuous education for everyone, including the dropout and the working class have been solved. It appeared, and still does, that now the teacher need not leave his students, apply for study-leave or leave of absence to pursue further education. It appeared the fifty-year-old woman who dropped out of school several years ago could now school from home and it appeared the father could learn what his daughter is learning at College using the same device he uses to call her. That is what it appeared. Those who dropped out of school due to issues of finance and have not since had a breakthrough would not benefit, and those who have the money would not want to put their money into a certificate employers and academicians alike would frown upon. So little appear to have changed for these two groups of people, though online Colleges and Universities abound.Two prime issues are to blame. First, online education is too expensive for the target group of learners and second, there is the perception that online Colleges and Universities do not provide holistic education like the traditional Colleges and Universities. As indicated by Ed Vosganian – founder and CEO of College Funding 123, the cost of on-campus University for undergraduate is estimated at 42,000 dollars while for the same group it cost around 21,000 dollars for online universities. By comparison we would say that it cost far less to study via online. But we need not lose sight of those who mostly enroll in online University. It is those in the middle and lower classes who opt for online universities. They include; the employee who has sacrificed pleasure for higher qualification in return for better wages, the unemployed who wants to gain employable skills, the dropout who wants to get back to school in the hope that there will be a brighter future, and the people living in the remote part of the world, especially in the developing world, who don’t even have the money to pay fees and so would have to learn and work simultaneously. To these 21,000 dollars is money so huge, it is very difficult to raise. There are people of the higher income class who enroll in online universities, but online learning is not popular among these due to low prestige and the myths associated with online education. The online institutions will tell you, they would not put anything on your certificate to show that you received a non-traditional education. This kind of advert speaks of how society values online education. Online education is considered a cheap way of getting ‘watered down’ education. Online Colleges and Universities were until recently considered diploma mills. This perception still exists, though empirical evidence tells us there is no disparity in quality of students from traditional Colleges and Universities on one hand and online Colleges and Universities on the other. The online Universities and Colleges are doing their best to make online learning prestigious and bring down study cost, but they cannot do it alone. With government intervention online learning can become prestigious and lower and middle class friendly.Government should provide a national framework for online education, subsidize accreditation, and grant scholarships and student loans for students in online Colleges and Universities. A national framework to guide the operations of all online colleges and universities should be instituted by the state, through the Department of Education or the relevant government agency. This framework, which would be descriptive and not prescriptive in nature would describe, for example, the minimum courses to be taken at a given level, and the general mode of operation of online universities and colleges without prescribing specific courses or mode of operation. Accreditation is not just laborious for online Colleges and Universities; it is also expensive. This cost is passed to students, souring up program fees. If the government decides to absorb half the cost of accreditation, though there is no guarantee the program fees will be halved, the program fee would be reduced somehow. Lastly, most of the students who opt for online colleges and universities do not receive scholarships and student loans from the state. Those who receive something do not get huge scholarships and student loans like their counterparts in traditional Colleges and Universities. Government should make scholarships and students loans available to students of online Colleges and Universities just as it does for students in traditional Colleges and Universities.The ramifications of these interventions would definitely be awesome. Providing a national framework for online education would take away the false negative perception people have about online learning. Many think online learning is easy and also the number of credits taken are far less than those taken in traditional learning settings. This thinking exists because there are some poorly designed online courses in which certificate are awarded after just a couple of assignments have been submitted. Such practices can be stopped, when a national framework is developed and operationalized. A national framework will give credibility to online learning, because a national standard for online would have to be adhered to and so no online college or university can just sell certificate. Subsidizing Accreditation will yield three results. The most obvious is that, it would reduce program fees because amount to pass to the students would be less. Subsidizing accreditation fees would encourage online Colleges and Universities to seek accreditation from accrediting bodies recognize by the Department of Education or the appropriate state agency. Even though accreditation is not compulsory in some parts of the world, like the united states, some occupation that require state licensing would not accept degree from non-accredited Colleges and University. Prospective online learners are, usually, worried about whether the can easily work with their certificates. Government intervention would remove this worry and remove the negative perception people have about online education as well. Government interventions in the form of scholarship and loans would ease the financial burden and make it possible for those who hitherto would not be able to school to do so. In sum, government intervention would go a long way to produce an enlightened society by permitting many people to receive higher education.There are many people wanting to get higher education through online Colleges and Universities so they gain knowledge and skills, or enhance their knowledge and skills but cannot do because of either the cost or the uncertainty of the acceptability of the certificate. Government intervention in the form of national framework for online universities and colleges, subsidizing accreditation cost and providing scholarships and student loans would open the door for those who want to study from home. Government intervention can give the assurance that online learning is as good as traditional college or university learning, and that their certificate would be accepted jobs that require state licensing. It would ease the pressure on facilities in traditional Colleges and Universities, produce the well-educated citizenry needed for national development and convert the current pyramidal shape into a ‘near’ cylinder.REFERENCEEd Vosganian (n.d.). The Real Price of Online College. Retrieved from http://www.affordablecollegesonline.org/financial-aid/online-college-degree-cost/.

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