Most health care organizations ave operating under an "old paradigm" wherei
n the needs of physicians and third party payers drive the organization. In
the current hypercompetitive health care markets, executives need to focus
more directly an their increasingly assertive and knowledgeable patient cu
stomers. This article describes practices of the best guest-services organi
zations that may be transferable to health services organizations. It also
proposes ten principles that constitute the "new paradigm".