The headline was laughable; the premise somewhat preposterous.

At least for one quarter, Wall Street investors stressed a deeper interest in sales over cost cutting and operational efficiencies.

Their bottom line for growth and sustainability? Revenue to boost quick share price profits. The top line.

Of course, Americans bailed their industry out a while back. And this industry represents a significant chunk of the economy.

Concerned yet?

That may be premature. The healthcare industry, a relatively vibrant ribbon in the economic fabric clearly isn’t that short-sighted. Or stupid. Yes, people get hurt or sick on a regular basis so revenue should always be present, regardless of the success of wellness programs and despite the efforts of public and private payers to stretch reimbursement reduction logic.

But healthcare also is one of the most inefficient industries around. Ironically, however, the industry rumbles forward. Remarkably, things get done. People heal. It’s one of the few overt oxymorons in business. Healthcare is an industry seemingly broken that actually continues to work.

You could dip efficiency evangelist Toyota into that pool, too.

Yet striving for cost savings and operational efficiencies never should be overlooked. The strategy of cutting costs to improve the bottom line as a way to back into increased profits may have a finite life span, but cutting costs as part of a larger strategy to improve operational efficiencies may be endless.

Just witness the content strength and depth of interest and participation during the annual Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management conference in Denver last month. Sure, revenue cycle connections and perceived healthcare reform effects on reimbursement were prevalent, but the speakers and conversations never strayed too far from the fundamentals that fuel top-flight supply chain management: Controlling costs to increase efficiency.

Reinvigorating an economy by rekindling hiring is too convenient an excuse to render cost containment and operational efficiency as spectators in the background. They represent drivers to revenue generation and ultimately profitability as much as sales and short-term share price spikes.

Unfortunately, timing reigns. In desperate times, short-term overrules long-term nearly every time. And desperate carries a floating definition – one tuned to the ambition, pride and selfishness of those defining it.

So if fickle Wall Street wants to eschew what matters most in long-term business development, growth and momentum, let it. Everyone else on the sidewalks and along the curbs knows better. Icing requires cake to have any substance. Sales would have to so rapidly and widely outpace judgment errors, management myopia and wasteful spending. Ravenous investors would have to wait for it to happen unless companies simply hired more sales reps to convince people to spend money they no longer have. Then again, we elect those people regularly.