First, thank you for posting such insightful comments.

You bring up some very good questions. I believe it’s dangerous for an ER to focus on speed of care. It simply raises too many questions and too much doubt on the quality of care.

Now, your HCA example is interesting because I wonder if they’re intentionally weeding out false emergencies. Also, the linchpin for the Dominos and FedEx strategy was the the guarantee. Notice that CHP’s promise is unsubstantiated, which again raises disconnect and doubt in the mind of the customer.

There’s probably no way of knowing if speed trumps quality. Although I believe quality has become a cliche in marketing and advertising, which obviously hurts its effectiveness.

I am finding more and more often that speed of service is resonating more and trumping a lot of other important things, including quality.

Here in South Florida, a large, successful health care provider (HCA) is using a similar idea. They are spending a small fortune on specially designed billboards (and are promoting heavily on TV) posting the live wait time in minutes at their ER’s. When I’m driving by, they are usually in single digits. (If you are really in to this they offer a special text number for each of their ER’s listing the live wait time on your PDA).

I wonder if people really use that? If they think the wait is too long, do they decide they no longer have an emergency? Or do they divert to another hospital with a shorter wait time?

I also wonder about the delivery. Does it mean 3 minutes until someone greets you or 3 minutes until you actually get treated? I hope I never have to find out by actual experience, but I would like to know.

HCA must have decided it’s a heck of a lot easier to promote a short wait time than it is to promote quality of care. ER wait time is a big issue, as you stated. It seems they are trying to brand the idea of speedy care and immediate attention while playing off the notion that most of us assume (maybe incorrectly) that all medical facilities provide quality care.

Many smart marketers are putting a lot of money behind speed of service (didn’t it all start with Dominos’s Pizza? Certainly not the highest quality pizza, but guaranteed fast).

Has speed trumped quality as a felt need? Do you know of any way we could find out just how this type of marketing is actually working?