When one thinks of a boutique, a hospital is not usually the first thing that comes to mind; however, it’s a trend that makes sense.
A boutique hospital is small, specialized and dedicated to delivering highly personalized health care services. And, this is exactly what you will find at Coral Gables Hospital.
“A boutique-like influence is imbedded in the culture and mission of an organization and its employees,” says Jay Miranda, the CEO of Coral Gables Hospital, which is a part of Tenet Healthcare Corporation. “It’s integral for a small hospital to advance with top-notch technologies yet remain small in size, which allows it to focus on what’s most important: patients and their families.”
Smart Business spoke to Miranda about the small hospital trend, and how to maintain the culture of a family-centered service while advancing into the future.
Describe the boutique or smaller hospital trend.
Many South Florida communities, and Coral Gables in particular, have been recognized for exemplifying a particular type of style and living by creating a small town feel within a larger city. This feeling of community and identification with it creates a pleasing environment. As part of the local community, a smaller hospital strives to emulate this theme and bring this same feeling of comfort and familiarity into the health care environment.
The boutique hospital trend is growing because communities are becoming more educated and selective when it comes to their health care; they want very high quality care delivered with service excellence. It is generally smaller in size, distinguished by specialized service lines, and can offer high-quality health care within a more intimate, family-centered setting.
What are the advantages of maintaining a smaller, more family-centered health care delivery organization?
A smaller hospital often strives to put the patient first. It often has the resources to treat each patient and his or her family with respect and understanding in a family atmosphere. In a larger facility, patients and their families can get lost in a mass of ‘bricks and mortar,’ and because of the larger number of employees and organizational loopholes, it can be difficult for patients to get the special attention that they may need. With strategic planning, smaller hospitals can deliver a high degree of attention to patients, yet still maintain the same level of clinical equipment and diagnostics as a larger facility.
A smaller organization may also have more control over selecting employees that have a passion for quality service and who reflect the cultures of the community they serve. For example, at Coral Gables Hospital the majority of our staff is bilingual in English and Spanish. Our employees can relate to our diverse patients and cater to their needs. We look only for employees that exemplify the same feeling of compassion, warmth and service that our hospital is known to provide.
How can a company maintain the influence of a small, specialized company while continuing to develop and expand into the future?
Just because a hospital or ‘boutique’ organization is small in size, it is not necessarily short on resources. From a service line perspective, many smaller hospitals advance technologically and expand specialized services based on community needs. One example of this at Coral Gables Hospital is our stroke program. Many of our patients were coming to our emergency room experiencing signs and symptoms of a stroke. We knew we had to expand this level of service to meet the needs of our patients so we went through the proper processes and recruited neurologists to establish our hospital’s stroke program.
Every hospital — despite its size — must continue to upgrade its facility; continue to seek the most qualified employees that fit the organization’s cultural environment; and continue to recruit experienced physicians that can appreciate practicing family-centered medicine.
What are the challenges of running a specialized health care delivery organization and how have you overcome these challenges?
The challenges one faces today are challenges within the complex health care industry as a whole. A hospital is merely one piece of a much larger structure that is constantly evolving and changing. We have to adapt with the ever-changing industry, but as a small hospital, our No. 1 priority will always be maintaining our family atmosphere and patient-centered culture. Every day, it’s the patients who experience health care and it’s a hospital’s job to simplify the process for them and make it as comfortable as possible.
While the challenges are great, there are also many rewards, such as helping people and being a positive influence in the local community. When each staff member walks out of a hospital, he or she feels an intrinsic reward knowing that he or she has had a positive impact on a human being’s life. In patients’ most important critical, vulnerable and often anxiety-driven moments, they are helping them to feel secure that they are receiving the best care possible. This motivates them to achieve the most positive outcomes possible with each patient.
What strategic advice would you give other smaller, boutique-like companies on advancing into the future while staying true to their very consumer-oriented environment?
In a small hospital, building a family-like culture starts from the top, down through interactions between administration and management, physicians and nurses, and, most importantly, patients. This is the true challenge. Machines don’t talk to or touch people; people touch people. Purchasing equipment is something you to do to advance and support the medical professionals in their ability to deliver the best patient care, but the culture is created through the relationships fostered each day. For any boutique business, building relationships is key.
Jay Miranda is the CEO of Coral Gables Hospital, which is a part of Tenet Healthcare Corporation.
