Healthcare Strategic Growth Blog

How to Succeed in the Midst of Challenging Dynamics

By Lee Ann Lambdin

Note: This post is an excerpt from my SHSMD 2021 conference presentation. You can download the slide deck from this presentation here.

It’s true, the COVID-19 pandemic has been unlike anything our healthcare system has seen in recent history. In many cases, teams have been short-staffed and budget dollars reallocated. How can growth departments rebound from such challenges, often with no additional resources? By learning from those familiar with overcoming similar obstacles. 

Staying nimble and adaptable in the face of challenges is something many veterans know how to do well. Experienced leaders are accustomed to making adjustments when there are unplanned changes, budget reductions, or higher demands on the same few resources. 

Over the past year, I’ve worked alongside and advised numerous Stratasan clients as they’ve navigated shifting priorities and supported their staff through COVID-19 related challenges. In this post, I’ll share how I’ve seen these hospitals respond and how we can all learn from their experiences.

I’ll also share some of Stratasan’s story of rebounding from loss. I’ll provide some of the insights we’ve learned on how to focus priorities, make risk/reward calculations, and automate more.

By Lee Ann Lambdin

The Society of Healthcare Strategy & Market Development (SHSMD) annual conference is the biggest healthcare strategy conference nationwide. With the goal of changing and leading the future, it’s a must-attend event for healthcare marketing, communications, business development, and strategic planning professionals. Headed into its 25th year, SHSMD Connections 2021 is taking place in person on September 19-21 in San Antonio, TX, and virtually on October 20-21. 

SHSMD Connections is primarily focused on education and it provides many opportunities to learn best practices you can take home and share with your team. I’d like to personally invite you to the session I’ll be leading titled “Your Budget Has Been Slashed! Now What?” It’s taking place on Tuesday from 11-11:50 am. I hope to see you there!

This year, the conference theme is “It’s a New Future: Change it and Lead it,” based on how much has changed and will continue to change for those of us who work in the healthcare industry. With so many healthcare marketing, public relations and communications, and strategic planning professionals expected to be on-site, hours of educational sessions, and more than three hours with keynote speakers, this conference can easily be an enriching experience. However, it can also feel like you’re drinking from a fire hose.

The keynote sessions are always great, but this year I’m particularly excited to hear Derreck Kayongo, Entrepreneur, Global Soap Project Founder, CNN Hero, and Former CEO of the Center for Civil and Human Rights lead the opening talk. Our team was so looking forward to this event, that we decided to sponsor it, and will be offering free margaritas at our booth afterward. (Come say hello at booth #117!)

Test Your Music City Knowledge With These 10 Questions

By Megan Reeves

The Stratasan team loves trivia. In fact, we have a team that regularly competes in a weekly trivia night in Nashville, TN where we are based. With SHSMD 2019 in our hometown, we saw the perfect opportunity to pair our love for trivia with our love for Nashville.

The following quiz is filled with questions referencing unique and little-known Nashville lore. Take a few minutes to test your Nashville savvy and for those of you attending SHSMD 2019, take away a few conversation starters you can test out with new friends you make during the week.

Just How Nashville—and SHSMD—Ready Are You?

By Sean Conway

How to Gain Leadership Trust, Support, and Collaboration

By Stephanie Johnson

Many healthcare organizations have a physician relations effort, but the value that c-suite leaders place on this effort can vary significantly. Leading programs establish a system for how to communicate the right information and demonstrate the right value to their leaders.

This session, titled Does Your Organization Really Value Physician Relations? Was led by Kriss Barlow, Principal of Barlow/McCarthy, and Mitzi Kent, Vice President of Strategic Growth and Provider Recruitment/Relations for Lifepoint Health. It had the following key learning objectives:

• Understand the need for aligning program goals with the organization’s strategic goals
• Clearly describe the must haves for demonstrating value to the internal stakeholders
• Create a plan that details the steps to achieve a stronger value with internal leaders

The Huggins Hospital Strategic Planning Success Story

By Monika O’Clair, Huggins Hospital VP of Strategy and Community Relations and Lee Ann Lambdin, Stratasan SVP Healthcare Strategy

Measure Effectiveness and Communicate Value to Your Organization

By Brian Dailey

One of the great things about attending the Society of Healthcare Strategy & Market Development (SHSMD) annual conference is talking directly with our customers. If one were to build a Venn diagram of SHSMD attendees and Stratasan clientele, the circles would very nearly overlap.

A common thread I've heard in these conversations is that proving the value of planning and marketing to the rest of the business can be very difficult. Businesses want to see a very clear return on investment, and it's on marketing and planning departments to not only do their jobs, but also communicate the value of their jobs to the rest of the organization. This is especially true as the industry continues to do more with less (as has been very succinctly described in SHSMD's "Bridging Worlds.")

Up Your Pop Culture Game With These 10 Questions

The Stratasan team loves trivia. In fact, we have a team that regularly competes in a weekly trivia night in Nashville, TN where we are based. As we prepared for SHSMD 2018, we saw the perfect opportunity to pair our love for trivia with one of the key events of the conference—the 2018 networking social being held at Seattle’s Museum of Pop Culture (MoPOP). The following quiz is filled with trivia questions referencing exhibitions currently on display at the museum. Take a few minutes to test your pop culture savvy and for those of you attending SHSMD 2018, take away a few conversation starters you can test out with new friends you make at the networking event.

Restaurants, Breweries, and Hotspots You Won’t Want to Miss

By Sean Conway

You’ve made it to SHSMD Connections 2018, congrats! While your main goal over the next few days will be to make lasting connections with some of the estimated 1,200+ healthcare professionals on-site and attend as many sessions and keynotes as possible, it’s not a bad idea to plan a few local activities as well.

The Washington State Convention Center and surrounding hotels are located in the heart of downtown Seattle, the ideal hub to access all of the city's best drinking and dining opportunities. Take advantage of this and check out the Seattle foodie scene to bond with co-workers or mingle and connect with other SHSMD attendees.

By Lee Ann Lambdin

In 2013, Centura Health was a four-hospital system in the Denver area on the verge of becoming irrelevant in their market. Solely hospital-centric and expecting people to come to them, they had no ambulatory presence. In search of some fresh ideas and guidance on how to implement change, they engaged Health System Advisors to increase their ambulatory services in the market.