Healthcare Strategic Growth Blog

By Lee Ann Lambdin, Taylor Smith, and Jackie DeGroat

Why It’s Critical for Measuring Progress, Driving Growth, and Meeting Goals

A Playbook for Independent Hospitals and Small Health Systems

Most marketing, strategic planning, and physician relations teams recognize the value of tracking the ROI of their outreach efforts, but it's challenging to do. This is especially true for independent hospitals and small health systems.

But for these smaller healthcare providers, it's especially important that they strategize and track success in tandem, because they don't have the money or bandwidth to duplicate efforts, nor the support of a corporate office or hospital support center.

Tags: strategic growth, strategic growth planning, healthcare, healthcare strategic growth, analytics partner, healthcare service area, service area growth, data analyst, healthcare analyst

Time is everything.

Regardless of the size of your organization or your position, it’s a reality in healthcare today that your job will require you to wear many hats and to work smarter, not harder. You may find yourself responsible for multiple departments or teams in several different locations. Maybe your organization has experienced a merger and you are now involved in marketing, business development, and strategic planning. Whatever the case may be, it’s critical now more than ever that you master the skills of productivity and time management, finding resourceful ways to be more effective with your limited time.

Tags: Blog, strategic planning, health care, healthcare, healthcare professional, productivity, time management

We hope it’s been a wonderful year of growth and learning through Stratasan's Strategic Growth blog series. As we close out the year, we thought it would be helpful to share the 5 most popular blog posts from 2017. These posts received the most hits and seemed to provide the most helpful strategic growth guidance to you, our readers.

If you’re traveling over the holidays, this is a great way to review helpful blog posts that you may have missed or revisit your favorites for fresh insight.

 

Tags: Blog, physician relations, strategic growth, health care, healthcare, healthcare marketing, healthcare strategic growth, marketing, software, healthcare service area, physician recrutiment, service area, 2017

By Tony Camarata

Is your healthcare system failing to meet annual strategic goals due to a lack of organizational alignment? Studies show that the highest-performing healthcare organizations have a strategic plan that sets a clear direction for all functional teams. This plan succeeds or fails depending upon organization-wide understanding of the goals, tactics, and measurable outcomes needed to fulfill the strategic goals. Conversely, if your team is unable to establish alignment, your health system risks stagnation and year-over-year frustration about your inability to meet goals and expectations.  

Here’s a look at how to improve your hospital’s organizational alignment from top to bottom and why getting this right could be the key to meeting your annual strategic goals.

Tags: strategic growth, strategic growth planning, strategic planners, strategic planning, data, healthcare, healthcare strategic growth, alignment

By Drake Jarman

Tonight is the last night of SHSMD Connections 2017 and you won’t see your conference friends for a year. What better way to end things on a high note than by taking the karaoke stage at the Block Party at Universal Studios City Walk?

Based in Nashville, TN, often referred to as “Music City,” we at Stratasan love our karaoke. While we may not be nearly as talented as our neighbors in “the biz,” we never miss an opportunity to channel our inner Taylor Swift.

Tags: conference, healthcare, healthcare conference, SHSMD, shsmd17, healthcare meetings, meetings, nightlife, orlando, karaoke

Session Summary: Physician Relations Inside and Out—Launching and Fueling Your Program for the Long Haul

By Sean Conway

The first day of SHSMD Connections 2017 was jam-packed with excellent educational opportunities, just as you would expect. The SHSMD website promises a conference that will equip healthcare professionals with the information and resources needed to face the rapidly evolving future of healthcare, head-on. Day one of the main educational sessions lived up to this commitment.

The “Physician Relations Inside and Out” session was a perfect example of an instructional, learning opportunity created with future growth in mind. Carol Koenecke-Grant of Valley Health System has built a physician relations program from the ground up, using a well-planned strategy. In this session, she shared how to develop a business plan integrating communication best practices, gain ongoing access to physicians, and deliver results.

Tags: physician liaison, physician relations, conference, healthcare, healthcare conference, physician liaision, SHSMD, healthcare physician strategy, shsmd17, healthcare meetings, meetings

By Sean Conway

You’ve made it to SHSMD Connections 2017, congrats! While your main goal over the next few days will be to make lasting connections with some of the estimated 1,400+ healthcare professionals on-site and attend as many sessions and keynotes as possible, it’s not a bad idea to plan a few after-hours activities as well. Take advantage of the Orlando nightlife to bond with co-workers or mingle and connect with other SHSMD attendees.

Tags: conference, healthcare, healthcare conference, SHSMD, shsmd17, healthcare meetings, meetings, nightlife, orlando

By Morgan Atkins

No surprise for a conference with a primary focus on education, SHSMD Connections 2017 kicked off with a couple of day-long intensive sessions. These focused learning programs are designed specifically to develop key skills identified in SHSMD’s Bridging Worlds: The Future Role of the Healthcare Strategist.

Tags: strategic growth, conference, healthcare, healthcare conference, healthcare strategic growth, SHSMD, shsmd17, healthcare meetings, meetings

By Lee Ann Lambdin

The Society of Healthcare Strategy & Market Development (SHSMD) annual conference is the biggest healthcare strategy conference nationwide. As stated on their website, it is “the premier conference for healthcare marketing, public relations and communications, and strategic planning professionals.” Headed into its 21st year, SHSMD Connections 2017 is taking place September 24 - 27 in Orlando, FL.

With an estimated 1,400+ healthcare marketing, public relations and communications, and strategic planning professionals on-site, 60 sessions to choose from, 8 targeted learning tracks, and more than 4 hours worth of keynote sessions, this conference can easily be an enriching experience for attendees, but it can also feel like you’re drinking from a firehose.

Tags: strategic growth, strategic growth planning, conference, healthcare, healthcare conference, healthcare strategic growth, SHSMD, analytics partner, service area growth, shsmd17

Stay IRS Compliant and Improve the Health of Your Community

By Lee Ann Lambdin

The August 17th issue of Becker’s Hospital CFO Report details how the IRS has revoked an unnamed hospital’s tax exempt status for failing to conduct a community health needs assessment (CHNA), adopt an implementation strategy, and make it widely available to the public. This punishment is beyond the standard $50,000 excise tax penalty typically issued for failure to meet the CHNA requirements. The article states the IRS referred to "egregious failures when reviewed in the context of [section] 501(r)."

When asked why they failed to fulfill the CHNA expectations, officials at the small rural hospital said they lacked the staffing to comply with 501(r) requirements. While this is the first revocation of tax exempt status that I’m aware of, I know that having your tax exempt status revoked can financially devastate a hospital.  

Tags: chna, community health, healthcare, Community Health Needs Assessment