title: Creating customer-focused health care organizations.
abstract: Most health care organizations are operating under an "old paradigm" wherein the needs of physicians and third party payers drive the organization. In the current hypercompetitive health care markets, executives need to focus more directly on their increasingly assertive and knowledgeable patient customers. This article describes practices of the best guest-services organizations that may be transferable to health services organizations. It also proposes ten principles that constitute the "new paradigm."
authors.affiliation: Business Graduate Programs & External Affairs, College of Business Administration, University of Central Florida, Orlando, USA.
authors.forename: R C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Ford
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Fottler
mesh_terms: D001071:Appointments and Schedules; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003256:Community Participation / Q000639:trends; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003266:Continuity of Patient Care; D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006272:Health Facility Environment; D015285:Hospital-Patient Relations; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services; D015279:Organizational Culture; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000592:standards*; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000379:methods*; D014481:United States