Health care management As management specialists, the Galan Group is conscious of the dilemmas facing our clients. Whether it concerns a strategy to be adopted by a healthcare insurer for the procurement of healthcare, plotting a new strategy for a hospital, or an assessment by the Supervisory Board of a medical institution, our advice always deals with the actual situation and is specifically prepared for the client. Each client who asks our opinion requires a customised solution and looks for a procedure by which to arrive at that solution. We offer the desired result in close consultation with our clients. Having ample experience in organisational development, once we have completed our commission, change is guaranteed and you will be able to proceed with the subsequent steps. We possess all the management experience, knowledge of the care industry, and knowhow of and experience with inter-human organisational processes necessary to achieve this. Healthcare insurers We offer services to healthcare insurers who wish to define their healthcare procurement strategy. Insurers increasingly focus on the purchase of quality care. This requires a good relationship with healthcare providers and new contracts containing transparent agreements. However, these efforts will only bear fruit if patients are willing to undergo treatment from providers that offer a higher quality service. General practitioners are a vital link between patients and healthcare providers. If an insurer wishes to steer this choice effectively, it has to establish a proper relationship with the GP. Many insurers struggle with reconciling the quality of the purchased healthcare with achieving commercial results. Furthermore, many care providers are in an awkward financial situation. Due to the liberalisation of the market, insurers find themselves increasingly forced to seek means to guarantee that the healthcare remains accessible, which is their responsibility. Do you opt for forward integration, offering financial support, or is liquidation ultimately preferable? The Galan Group has the necessary knowledge and experience to address each of these issues. We can assist you in establishing relationships with healthcare providers, reaching terms on the content of the care, and establishing the necessary cohesion between the various elements of your organisation. Combined with our financial know-how and experience, this expertise offers the certainty of sound solutions. Hospitals Now that more room is given to entrepreneurship, it is becoming more advisable, if not necessary, for institutions to reassess their strategy: Are you all things to all men, or do you keep a sharp profile that allows you to offer unique services to your patients and financers? Questions such as: “What do my clients want?” are becoming increasingly important. “Am I able to surprise them, so that they will turn into my ambassadors?” “How do I set up a ‘top-performing’ organisation?” These are strategic questions that you cannot afford to ignore these days. Healthcare insurers select preferred providers, and patients are becoming ever more vocal. An ageing population, plus an increase in chronic disorders, means that your customers are becoming well-informed lay experts who critically assess your services. Your internal organisation faces choices as well: How do I define my relationship with my medical staff? Do I keep them at arm’s length or, on the contrary, do I become more closely involved? Do you prepare a joint new strategy and do you offer them a share in the profits if performance improves? Perhaps you might even want to consider welcoming medical staff as full members of the Board. We can advise you on these and other questions. We have the required knowledge and experience at our fingertips. Specifically as regards marketing issues, we work closely together with TNS NIPO. For more information, click here to the link to the Financieële Dagblad article and the presentation. Medical specialists The partnership as business enterprise. There are ever more possible alternatives for partnerships and professional groups. Just like hospitals, you face the decision of how to approach the customer. What can you offer your patients and insurers to guarantee continued growth? Do you opt for specialisation and (international) concentration on unique medical expertise, or alternatively, for efficient care aimed at the needs of the patients in your geographical area? Will you continue working within the boundaries of the hospital or do you require more room and independence? These are questions medical specialists have to address. How do you succeed, as a partnership, in setting up a proper strategy and in ensuring that all partners execute that strategy? How is this realised within the hustle and bustle of daily practice? The Galan Group can share its experience in this field as well. We can help you agree on a strategy with your partners and offer guidance and coaching in its execution. (Integrated) primary care cooperatives The Netherlands, together with the UK, offers a prime example within Europe of effectively organised primary care cooperatives. This is one of the reasons why the costs of healthcare are still more or less manageable in the Netherlands. But primary care is under pressure. Government and insurers alike wish to increase integration and to have more insight in the performance. Patients’ need for care is becoming increasingly complex and may only be addressed by optimal cooperation between primary care providers and between primary and secondary care providers. How do you organise yourself as a primary care provider? How do you form and give substance to the cooperation? How do you ensure that care providers continue to be motivated to work towards improving the joint performance? How do you set up a professionally organised primary care centre? The Galan Group knows how primary care professionals work and is intimately acquainted with the dynamics of professional groups. We provide the organisational and financial expertise you require to offer your patients proper care and to respond, and keep on responding, adequately to the changes in your environment. Prevention and municipality Prevention and healthcare improvement: How do you, as a municipal authority, shape your directing role? Which processes do you introduce and how do you improve the public health in your town or area, in conjunction with the Regional Health Service? This requires different skills from your departments and officials; cooperation and liaison, and working as an integrated whole. But how is this realised in practice? The Galan Group has intimate knowledge of stakeholder procedures and knows how difficult it is to change from a project-based approach to effective platforms on which various stakeholders, both from within and outside the municipality, work together on improving public health. The Galan Group sponsored and co-organised the most recent G-paper, which may be downloaded here. Supervision As a result of the liberalisation of healthcare, the government has transferred part of the external supervision to internal supervisors. You are now accountable for everything that does, or does not, occur within your organisation. This has an ever greater impact and demands a lot from you in your role as supervisor. Our Healthcare Institutions toolkit enables you to gain insight in the quality of your performance as Supervisory Board, but only if you are prepared to look beyond the bare check lists and to thoroughly assess the cooperation and joint efforts of your Board. Together with your director(s) you can ensure that you are able to take the right decisions even in turbulent times. The Galan Group is able to offer you this certainty. We will be pleased to assist you in making your assessments and selecting new members for the Board.