When it comes to health tech partnerships, hospitals have a seemingly endless list of startups and companies from which to select. Becker's talked to three hospital executives to determine red flags that reveal a company is not partnership material:
- It doesn't have a genuine mission. Companies are not partnership material if they are "mostly focused on the art of the sale and not on the overall patient outcomes the partnership is intended to drive," according to Jason Wells, chief strategy, consumer and innovation officer at Roseville, Calif.-based Adventist Health.
- It hasn't earned your trust. When assessing a company, Geisinger talks to the company's current customers to see if it has lived up to its commitments, Karen Murphy, PhD, RN, the Danville, Pa.-based system's chief innovation and digital transformation officer, told Becker's. Inadequate funding and the terms of the partnership fluctuating during negotiations are some red flags to look out for, according to Dr. Murphy.
- It lacks responsiveness. Responsiveness doesn't necessarily mean fixing problems instantly or custom-modifying a tech service overnight, but it does mean a willingness to listen to and address pain points in "the never-ending troubleshooting that is contemporary healthcare operations," according to Daniel Durand, MD, chief clinical officer at LifeBridge Health in Baltimore. He said responsiveness is ultimately what allows hospitals to implement and tweak technology to a point where it can be used reliably.