Outcome Health Starts Internal Review, Strengthens Policies, In Wake Of WSJ Report

October 13, 2017 by Dave Haynes

In the wake of a Wall Street Journal report Tuesday suggesting Outcome Health was engaging in misleading advertising practices, the high-flying Chicago digital OOH media firm has posted a statement on its website that doesn’t address specific allegations, but instead lays out how it “appropriately” operates and outlines steps to strengthen its policies and review any allegations of misconduct.

Integrity is the foundational value at Outcome Health — that has always been our commitment. Shradha and I, alongside our entire leadership team, have been building a company that operates appropriately, delivers effectively for our customers and continuously strives towards excellence in all of our operations.

We have taken many actions to elevate the standards of reporting and transparency in our nascent industry, and I’m sharing just a few recent steps below:

  1. We have adopted the most rigorous platform and campaign audit standards in our industry and have received certifications across 15 distinct areas including Advertising Delivery Process, Inventory Management, Click Measurement and Documentation Standards — see BPA Worldwide press release
  2. Effective immediately, we will provide every customer the capability to include a 3rd party BPA Worldwide audit on every program we sell so they can fully verify all campaign delivery.
  3. We demonstrate transparency and ensure the integrity of our data through direct, platform-generated campaign reporting and we are constantly adding more checks and balances through the automation of our data and analytics processes.
  4. We have hired Winston & Strawn’s Executive Chairman Dan Webb to thoroughly review any concerns that have been raised about the past conduct of certain employees. Based on the findings of this review, we will take strong, decisive and appropriate action.
  5. If at any point we learn that a customer was misled in any way, we will share that promptly with the customer and remedy the situation immediately.

https://twitter.com/OutcomeHealth/status/918602197990084608

Outcome Health is committed to and has always expected all of our employees to operate with the highest ethical standards and in accordance with our values. Customer success is our number one priority. We appreciate the hard work of our dedicated employees, and want to reiterate that adherence to our policies is not optional – anyone who violates them will be held accountable.

The fundamentals of our business are strong. Bringing health information to patients, caregivers and physicians at critical moments of care is proven to be effective and we must all persevere to unlock the full impact of our mission. Our network is growing, our products are improving and we are making transformative investments to our operations and infrastructure.

As we continue on our journey to build a world class company, we will always address challenges openly and with determination to resolve them. We know that it is only together with our customers that we can achieve our mission: activating better health outcomes for every person in the world.

The Chicago Tribune has a story up today saying three Outcome Health employees, in the wake of the WSJ report, have been placed on leave.

Though relatively well-known in the digital OOH and digital signage sector, Outcome’s core business of putting screens in condition-specific medical office waiting rooms is getting mixed reviews from people growing familiar with the firm through this WSJ report.

It’s impossible, sitting here in the bleachers, to do much more than watch how this plays out. As one observer notes, this may well have been incentive-hungry individuals up to no good, or I suppose it could be systemic. But tier 1 investment partners like Goldman Sachs and Alphabet (Google) would have (let’s assume) done a lot of due diligence before writing big checks, and would have (again, presumably) had a good look at operating  practises.

Whatever comes out of this, the heady, can’t miss, high-flier startup days are over … as big money and PR also attracts a lot more scrutiny.

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