Creating customer-focused health care organizations

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."