Ryan Crimmins
Professor Bylund
EEE 2083
October 19, 2022
In this week's discussion post, I listened to the podcast “Keith Smith on Free Market Health Care,” Keith was an entrepreneur and an anesthesiologist who founded the Surgery Center of Oklahoma. This idea arose because he noticed that a surgical facility only took cash payment and not insurance, so he wanted to make a change in the market. The aspect of entrepreneurship that this business has is innovation. Innovation is the invention of a new idea or product. Keith and his partner innovated this business by using different methods of calculating the prices of their surgeries. Keith didn't do the traditional method, he wanted to try his own, which was reaching out to surgeons directly and asking what they would charge, then he would add enough to cover their costs and profit. Keith also talks about how his hospital tells their patients how much their procedure is going to cost before their surgery so the patient is aware. They also never perform a procedure unless it is really needed which helps the patient from having to pay so much money.
This is entrepreneurial because Smith saw an opportunity to not just take what he was passionate about, but to create a practice and his own business out of it. I thought this podcast was very interesting, you don't always hear this side of healthcare. It is good to know that there are medical professionals like Smith out there that actually care for the patients and where their money is going. This shows his humility and his leadership which makes me think that is a great entrepreneur who really cares for his patients. When thinking how society affects entrepreneurship there are two aspects: the customers and the industry. Society needs us to run any type of business but in this type of instance society is very important. It requires society to realize that the Surgery Center of Oklahoma is the better choice for many reasons. The only way to have a free market for health care to grow is the help from society, so society is very important in this instance. The more the society supports the entrepreneurial aspect the more society will benefit.
