Healthcare Strategic Growth Blog

by Lee Ann Lambdin

I hired a great analyst a few years ago. She was skilled with database programs, understood the complexities of the healthcare market, and had previously been a medical records coder—in short, she was very talented. The longer she was in her position, the more our state data was reported accurately and on a reliable schedule. It was a huge win for me and my team!

Recognizing her capabilities, I asked if she could start running "quarterly standard reports" that present key findings which could influence how our planning, marketing, and business development departments would function and what we would focus on in the weeks and months to come. These quarterly updates would be high-level summaries of our market landscape and would cover everything from our hospital’s market share, trended volume, competitor positions, product lines, payor mix, patient migration patterns and more. 

 

Tags: strategic growth, strategic growth planning, strategic planners, strategic planning, data analysis, data analytics, healthcare, healthcare data, healthcare strategic growth, healthcare analytics partner, healthcare trends

Why it’s Critical for Planners to Keep Budget Top-of-Mind

By Aaron Frazier

As strategic planners set their course for growth in the new year, it’s critical for finances to be top-of-mind. Often, the budget isn’t always a primary focus for planners, who are more locked in on market share and growth opportunities. But it’s an important step worth remembering and in this post, we’ll discuss why. We’ll review the following two areas of consideration:

• Do you have all the resources you need to fulfill your plan? If not, what will the cost be to acquire the necessary resources?
• Will the new idea you have planned be profitable? Is it worth the financial risk?

Mindful examination of these questions on the front end will pay off through the year. You’ll hit fewer roadblocks and see more success as you execute upon your growth goals and ideas.

Tags: strategic planners, strategic planning, healthcare strategic planning, Finances

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 Tony Camarata

Discussions around “big data” — what it is and why it’s useful — are infiltrating every arena of the healthcare space. Strategic planning, marketing, business development, patient care, and health outcomes are looking to big data for answers. hi 

While the intelligence gained from big data analysis is valuable, there are compelling reasons to believe that working with the right data is far more important than simply having access to, and analysis of, big data.

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

See Better Results with A Year-Round Planning Process

By Jason Moore

Hospitals have traditionally created an annual strategic plan as a roadmap for achieving growth goals. While still an important step in the growth process, it's becoming clear that a stand alone annual plan won't cut it in today's healthcare world. 

This annual routine has been driven by annual data reporting—a factor that is changing due to increased adoption of the frequently updated all-payer claims data (APCD). Stratasan’s APCD updates monthly, for example, allowing for more frequent market reporting that can lead to plan adjustments.

There is also reason to believe that plans are more widely adopted when more members of the organization are invested in the process. This can be a difficult change in mindset for organizations accustomed to planning that takes place only at the c-suite level.

How can hospitals shift to take advantage of more readily available data insights and make changes that will ensure greater adoption? The answer is an iterative planning process that invites organization-wide input and applies data-backed market insights.

Tags: strategic growth, strategic growth planning, strategic plan, strategic planners, strategic planning, hospital strategic growth, strategic growth plan, Hospital growth plan, hospital growth

By Lee Ann Lambdin

As a healthcare strategic planner, your time is both limited and valuable. Planning departments are shrinking with the evolution of decision support departments. Strategic planners and marketers alike are facing a new reality that requires them to do more with less. Many who have planning and strategy in their title are responsible for marketing as well. This is due to one of two things:

• Either there was never a planning position at all or strategy has increasingly become a more important function for the hospital or health system so this job was given to the department that made the most sense: marketing.
• Or, the planning position was eliminated over time and the function was consolidated with the marketing function. This is often the case in small systems and independent hospitals, where one person is faced with juggling multiple roles.
  

Tags: strategic planners, data analysis, growth planning, healthcare planning, healthcare strategic planning, Hospital growth plan

By Hank Neuhoff

When you’ve invested significant time, capital, and resources in your organization’s growth and expansion, you want to ensure that your efforts are paying off.

You’ve walked through all the right steps for strategic growth planning: you conducted a business and operational analysis, developed a strategic plan, and your team has been executing against it. This planning process can be daunting for any team to manage, but especially so if you are a smaller hospital or one of the many hospital systems trying to maintain a growth mindset in the face of downsizing.

You have now arrived at step 8 of a successful strategic growth process: reviewing your plan’s execution to measure progress. The purpose of this review is to make sure your hard work is paying off and your goals are being achieved.

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

Maintain a Growth Mindset in the Face of Tightening Margins and Shrinking Departments

By Lee Ann Lambdin

As healthcare margins continue to tighten and consolidation remains a reality for many small hospitals, numerous marketing professionals are feeling the need to validate their impact by developing marketing strategies based on reliable, data-based intelligence. The pressure is on to stretch marketing dollars as far as possible, and it’s important for marketing outreach to be focused and data-based. 

Marketers and strategic planners alike are facing a new reality that requires them to do more with less. Many who have marketing in their title are also responsible for planning and strategy as well, and it’s apparent that this phenomenon is due to one of two things:

• Either there was never a planning position or strategy has increasingly become a more important function for the hospital or health system so this job was given to the department that made the most sense: marketing.
• Or, the planning position was eliminated over time and the function was consolidated with the marketing function.

Tags: strategic growth, strategic growth planning, strategic plan, strategic planners, health strategist, healthcare planning, healthcare strategic growth, healthcare strategic planning, hospital strategic growth, hospital strategic planning, healthcare analytics partner, healthcare growth, strategic growth plan

By Drake Jarman

Tags: strategic growth, strategic growth planning, strategic planners, strategic planning, data processing, healthcare, healthcare strategic growth, analytics partner, healthcare data analytics

How to Be More Insightful and Strategic with Data-Based Findings

by Lee Ann Lambdin and Forrest Rich

At the close of each quarter, strategic planners in the healthcare industry have the opportunity to present quarterly findings and progress updates to executive teams and upper-level management. These quarterly meetings often provide critical insight to continued advancement in planned growth-related projects or could be the ideal time to present new ideas. They present an opportunity to share key findings to leadership that can change the course of how a hospital’s planning, marketing, and business development departments will function in the weeks and months to come. Therefore, it is critical that you are prepared to tell the most compelling story possible with the data you have on-hand.

Executives expect these quarterly updates to be high-level summaries of the market landscape and cover everything from your hospital’s market share, trended volume, competitor positions, product lines, payor mix, patient migration patterns and more, to be presented in a brief, insightful, and visually appealing way. Insight to your progress in reaching planned goals and new details about emerging market opportunities will need to be clear and easy to interpret and must readily facilitate productive conversation.

In order to deliver the brief, insightful presentations that are expected from leadership, strategic planners must pull and sift through significant amounts of data to determine what details are most important. Planners are then tasked with transforming these meaningful details into a compelling story. Stratasan has compiled a list of six ways to tell a better story with your data.  

Tags: strategic growth, strategic growth planning, strategic planners, strategic planning, healthcare, healthcare strategic growth, presentations, quarterly reporting