I’ve been spending the day at the Intelligent Insite Build conference in beautiful Fargo, ND. I’ll be on stage later to talk about what’s happening with Healthcare IT. However, the past day at the conference I’ve been really intrigued by the company culture that exists at Intelligent Insites.
While I do almost all of my work in Healthcare IT, I also have a foot in the vegas tech startup world as well. As part of that and my love of tech, I’m always interested in startup culture and the latest trends in startup company creation. What I didn’t expect was to find these startup culture concepts in full bloom in Fargo, ND. I guess I should have known that the Internet and social media were spreading these ideas everywhere. Even in Fargo and even in Healthcare.
Just to share a few examples. It was great to see the whole Intelligent InSites team training on lean startup methodology. The extreme customer service focus is another example. I also loved the way the company has integrated itself into the local startup company ecosystem. I’m sure this is just touching the surface, but is a clear sign of the startup culture they’ve created.
What’s a little surprising to me is that I don’t know of other hospital IT companies that exhibit a similar culture. I’d love to hear if you know of others.
My guess is that we don’t hear about them more in hospital IT because hospitals have a general fear of the “startup” idea. The hospital culture is a no risk culture and the startup culture is seen as one of risks.
What hospitals don’t understand is that a startup is about some business risk, but not patient risk. The former can be a challenge for some organizations, but that’s a risk with organizations of all sizes. A large organization could just as easily cut that department. Plus, a well capitalized startup company is just as stable or more stable than a large company. The patient risk shouldn’t be a concern with a well run startup company.
We need to embrace more of the creativity that startups can bring to an industry. Healthcare can use a bit more creativity.