TL;DR
Apple’s 1984 Super Bowl ad took a sledgehammer to the status quo. Healthcare communication needs the same. Large health systems expect smaller agencies to adopt their software before they can talk to them. It is not deliberate, but it amounts to “let them eat cake.” Buzz is our answer: secure, compliant communication that connects every part of the healthcare ecosystem, without expensive, bulky systems.
Remembering Super Bowl XVIII
I wrote this with the Super Bowl less than two weeks out. Everyone was talking about who would win, the halftime show, the sideshows and the commercials.
One commercial did more than sell a product. It changed the game: Apple’s 1984 Super Bowl ad.
Forty years earlier, on Super Bowl Sunday, Apple took on Goliath with the Macintosh. The ad aired nationally only once. A version I find more illuminating is Steve Jobs unveiling the Macintosh at the Boston Computer Society* on January 30, 1984.
The commercial was more than an ad; it was a rebellion.
A woman, in bright contrast to a gray, lifeless crowd, hurls a sledgehammer at a giant screen broadcasting Big Brother’s propaganda. It was a statement against conformity, against the big brother of the tech world.
Fast forward to today’s “1984”
I remembered that ad because it was a sledgehammer against the status quo. It aired in 1984, a nod to George Orwell, and in one reading its heroine stands for the Macintosh saving people from conformity.
In healthcare, that conformity has become real. The system feels antiquated and short on communication. Big platforms have tied healthcare professionals, in small clinics and large hospitals alike, to their setup, with data locked in walled gardens. Who you can talk to depends on which ecosystem you are chained to.
The system feels antiquated, bogged down by a lack of communication, almost an unintended shutdown of any freedom of expression.
The gap is widest between hospitals and allied services: therapy centers, post-op rehab, nursing centers, long-term care and home health agencies.
Picture this. Hospitals, the Goliaths of healthcare, tell these smaller organizations: “License the software we use, then you can talk to us.” Under pressure to survive, the smaller ones cannot take on expensive installations, disruptive EHR implementations and per-seat costs.
“Let them eat cake”
You may remember “Let them eat cake,” the line attributed to Marie Antoinette. The queen ignored peasants who could not afford bread. Today’s system does much the same to most of the people who deliver care.
Smaller healthcare organizations are struggling for bread: compliance headaches, staff retention, readmissions, falling reimbursement, the push for better Medicare star ratings, referrals and an avalanche of paperwork.
They cannot afford the cake: expensive installations, disruptive implementations of large record platforms and per-seat costs. It is like asking people who can barely cover necessities to buy luxury goods.
Enter Skyscape’s Buzz
Buzz is our version of Apple’s sledgehammer.
It is more than a communication tool. It is our way of breaking down the silos that have held healthcare professionals back for too long. Patient-centric approaches have stalled under a sprawl of disparate software and the habit, intentional or not, of locking up proprietary data.
We are taking on the giants that have kept data and communication in a chokehold. Buzz frees providers from inefficient systems, from silos that hoard data, and from walls between them and quality care.
David’s ingenuity inspires us. It is not about a bigger weapon. It is about being leaner, quicker, more adaptive and more inclusive, and about freeing providers from a rigid, monolithic Big Brother.
That is what Buzz is about. Not just a tool, a movement (sorry, I could not resist): toward a more open, collaborative and efficient healthcare system that stays secure at its core.
The biggest victories are not always on the football field. They are in the small daily battles to make healthcare better, more efficient and more human.
Before you ask, here is why it matters.
Why connectivity
The issue health systems name first is connectivity, or the lack of it, between hospitals and allied services (therapy centers, post-op rehab, nursing centers, long-term care, home health agencies) and patients and families.
Proof that matters. Picture a home health and hospice team of 200 staff: providers, coordinators, schedulers and administrators. It cares for about 2,000 patients a year, holds a 2.5 star Medicare rating and has a hospital readmission rate of about 18%. Raising the star rating and HCAHPS scores means a lot to that organization. In a published home health case study, an agency deployed Buzz and moved from 2.5 to 5 stars while serving 33% more patients. Download the case study.
With the right communication and collaboration platform, an agency can move from surviving to thriving.
A pathway through the communication maze
Buzz fills the potholes on the communication highway and finishes the last mile, connecting every part of the healthcare ecosystem. BuzzChat brings the team into one conversation. BuzzLink lets patients, families and outside partners join with nothing to install. EHR and other systems connect through BuzzStreams.
It is about bridging the gaps in a fragmented system. It is for the people told to eat cake while they struggle to afford bread. Secure, compliant communication for everyone in the healthcare chain, without complex installations.
A new era of healthcare communication
Let’s look forward to a future where every player in healthcare, big or small, is connected, where communication is a standard and not a luxury, and where tools like Buzz are essential to how every provider delivers care.
That is the world Skyscape sees with Buzz. We are here to change the game, so that everyone from the largest hospital to a single-provider clinic has a voice and a connection in the healthcare network.
Here is to all of us getting on the same page, efficiently and effectively. Find out why this Buzz is for you, or read the Buzz FAQ. More on finding the right communication platform for healthcare.
* The Boston Computer Society (BCS) was a launching pad for the original Macintosh. In 1993 I attended another BCS launch, Apple’s Newton. The excitement of seeing that new technology was the moment that led to founding Skyscape. The full story is for another day. Explore our LinkedIn newsletter.