Healthcare Strategic Growth Blog

How to Stay Productive and Healthy in a COVID-19 Remote-First World

By Carly Farlow and Jennifer Keller

COVID-19 is throwing us all for a loop in so many ways. Those who are able to, are shifting to a work from home (WFH) reality. Some are experiencing WFH for the first time, under the duress of self-isolation, and for families, with the added bonus of having new office associates... our children. When you’re used to going into an office everyday, shifting to a remote-first work environment can be challenging as you and your team adjust to new rhythms, distractions, schedules, and expectations. Recognizing that this virus may keep us all working remotely for some time, it’s critical that this setup not be looked at as a temporary situation. For the sake of everyone's mental health and job productivity, it’s advisable to take some steps now to make this new arrangement more amenable and pleasant. 

Leaning into Our Core Values as We Grow

By Jason Moore

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Bob Dylan wrote these lyrics in 1963 (released in 1964) concerning much bigger issues of the world, but they certainly feel applicable for this time of growth at Stratasan. With growth comes change. With change comes challenges. And our challenges are not unique to us. Our goal, though, is to be unique in how we solve them. As we face these challenges on a regular basis, we lean on our core values as a foundation of our approach.

Practical Guidance for Marketers and Planners Trying to Navigate Change

By Lee Ann Lambdin

Healthcare mergers and acquisitions across the US continue at a rapid pace. According to Becker's Hospital Review, about $2.35 trillion in deals occurred globally [in 2018], up 57 percent compared to the same period last year. “Whether it’s hospitals buying up independent medical practices, hospital systems swallowing one another, or insurance companies merging with pharmacy chains, the prevailing attitude now is that bigger is better,” Medical Economics.

Gist Healthcare recently shared this graphic, which highlights how consolidated the hospital sector has become. Gist’s graphic displays how health systems account for more than 90 percent of all discharges in the US, with the largest 11 systems accounting for a quarter of discharges, and the largest 67 accounting for half. 

How can healthcare strategic planners and marketers stay focused, yet flexible, during these times of consolidation and change? This post provides practical tips for how to deal with the inevitable challenges that will come during an integration. Key elements include: 

• Uniting separate strategies
• Managing and merging multiple brands
• Using your influence to affect change

How Small Hospital Planners and Marketers can Manage Multiple Responsibilities within One Role

By Hank Neuhoff

For planners and marketers at small or independent hospital systems, prioritization can be one of the greatest challenges. 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:

• 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.

Regardless of why or how things progressed in the way they did, one thing is certain; planners and marketers in these situations must be strategic in their efforts and find ways to accomplish more work with fewer resources. In this post, we’ll offer some tips and suggestions on how this can be done.

Learning SQL and a Smattering of Python

By Scott Burns

I want to let you in on a little secret: our product, strategic resources group (SRG), and data services team members are the real healthcare experts here at Stratasan.

Our team of developers are pros at what they do: running data warehouses and computing infrastructure that our applications use to store and analyze complex healthcare datasets. But we rely heavily on the expertise of our team members to prioritize what needs to be developed within our applications.

Based on their direction, we learn what our customers are asking for and then determine what new features and products to build. Working hand in hand, our teams create useful tools that can derive insightful meaning from healthcare data.

Recognizing the need to close the gap between our development know-how and their healthcare insight, we’ve taken steps to improve the flow of communication between our teams and proactively facilitate interdepartmental collaboration. Our goal is to decrease the time it takes to get a product to market so we can more efficiently address the needs and goals of our partners.

Reduce Friction and Promote Teamwork

By Carly Farlow and Chris Graffagnino

As mentioned in a previous post, our team at Stratasan strives to be trailblazers in the healthcare space, developing innovative tools and services that address our clients' growth goals. The best way we can effectively lead our clients and provide value is by innovative thinking that challenges the status quo. And the only way to be innovative and develop products and services that truly make an impact is through cross-department collaboration—uniting the best thinking from every team.