When faced with a life threatening situation, a boost of adrenalin surges through the body and triggers a fight or flight reflex. Recently, we’ve observed a similar situation where companies have been hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
During the pandemic, we've had a lot of conversations with dental operators in the UK with NHS focussed businesses. Universally, they have been happy with their lot. "We're getting paid in full" they told us - subject to a small clawback - "and we don't have to see patients".
There is a new threat to healthcare companies across Europe which, HBI hears, has the potential to be more impactful than either Covid or Brexit as far as costs are concerned.
We've previously written blogs about how big, when it comes to companies, is beautiful. Controlling the pipeline by vertical integration, diversifying into other areas and spreading risk, and not having all of your business eggs in one geographical basket is generally seen to be a good thing. So why are we increasingly seeing businesses focussing on their core markets - and looking to sell of anything considered more peripheral?
Almost every healthcare operator wants to move from delivering episodes of care to more continuous care delivery with much more constant patient touch. Ultimately that enables the sale of a continuous subscription and so much higher quality earnings. That is one reason why outpatient chains like Terveystalo and Medicover trade considerably higher than hospital groups.
The health care sector is dominated by women. They make up around 70% of the health care workforce - so why are there so few in senior leadership positions?
Media firestorms exposing poor treatment in for-profit nursing homes have occurred frequently over the last decade. Normally companies respond by chucking their CEOs or by sitting tight-lipped and threatening to sue. Not Sophie Boissard at Korian.
The threat of armed conflict continues to loom over Ukraine. Any escalation could have devastating consequences for the region, threatening lives and livelihoods - and yet the local contacts HBI has spoken to remain remarkably sanguine.