MORE THAN A NEIGHBORHOOD BUSINESS

While a corner convenience store may be able to rely on business from a nearby geographic area despite having marginal service or product (relying on location and a dearth of competition), great businesses produce outcomes that cause people to go beyond geographic convenience to seek them out. UCLA is an example of a center of excellence that draws people from a wide range of locations—from nearby catchment areas where local residents seek their best healthcare option all the way up to international patients.

CEO Dr. David Feinberg describes how operational excellence provides concentric rings of geographic attraction. “I look at our effectiveness as leading to three almost different types of businesses. The business that has the widest international appeal involves the treatment of complex coordinated diseases, such as transplant cases. To care for a transplant patient effectively, a healthcare system needs interventional skills (great surgeons, for example), but it also needs many other specialties in areas such as anesthesia, interventional radiology, and intensivist doctors who work in the ICUs. It also needs a lot of coordination because it takes many physicians, nurses, and specialized ICU staff members, as these patients may have to wait....