Becker's Hospital Review

22 EXECUTIVE BRIEFING EXECUTIVE BRIEFING 1 The key link between mission, margins + growth: Lessons of bold leadership & steadfast commitment to healthier communities E very successful strategic plan is framed by an organizational mission and strong leaders as the guidepost. However, delivering on these plans and fulfilling these missions has become more challenging for many hospital and health system leaders. Margins are razor thin and workforce challenges persist. In the current environment, bold leadership is a must. Nationally recognized top 10 assurance, tax and advisory firm FORVIS, LLP recently worked with a large multi-hospital system and its leaders on enhancing their margins. When FORVIS sees outsized margin gains in the market, the approach, culture, resources or source driving those results are all varied. Largely, the common denominator is leadership — particularly those leaders who are committed to their organization's mission and adapt goals and efforts to market dynamics to stay on plan. This health system is a notable client for FORVIS, with an impressive executive team that embodies this concept of progressive, bold leadership, which led them to more than $100 million in margin turnaround in 18 months. Several years ago, this health system developed a long-term strategic plan to upgrade its facilities, but then a series of unexpected events jeopardized this vision. First, in 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic erupted. Then, in July 2022, the region experienced an unprecedented flood. Danielle Solomon, FORVIS' national healthcare leader, reflected admirably on the health system's leadership team sharing their process. "They believed in their strategic plan and thus, the health system's leaders committed to fulfilling their goals and focused on improving margins to fund the plan," she said. "The unwavering commitment and sense of urgency generated long-term benefits for the communities they serve and is a testament of model leadership." To learn more, Becker's Healthcare spoke with other FORVIS leaders involved in the health system's journey to enhance margins, which enabled the system to focus on improving the health of residents throughout all of the communities they serve: • Eric Rogers, leading partner for FORVIS' healthcare performance improvement practice unit • Peter Stille, managing director for FORVIS' healthcare performance improvement team, specializing in non-labor cost reduction Organizational sustainability requires investment in the Triple Aim To fully understand the extent of the health system's challenges, it's important to consider socioeconomic and population health factors within the communities this health system serves. The decline of the communities' economic engine has gone hand-in-hand with increases in opioid abuse. Much of the region is a food desert, since the rugged topography makes access to fresh produce difficult. The only demographic group that is growing is the 65-and-older population, and dependence on government payers for healthcare is considerable. Yet in the face of these conditions, the health system's leadership team remained steadfast on their mission to improve the health and well-being of their residents. "The health system's mission is really ambitious, but also incredibly important for their strategic vision," Mr. Rogers said. "This health system operates in one of the most challenging geographies in the United States. So it was essential the leadership team remained focused on their strategy." To make its mission a reality, the health system created a strategic plan organized around three pillars: 1. Grow communities from within 2. Provide a distinguished experience 3. Curate high-value services that emphasize value-based care "These pillars are laser focused on the Triple Aim: population health, patient experience and reducing healthcare costs," Mr. Stille said. "The health system has limited human resources and financial capital to invest, but their leadership team understood that investment in those three pillars will be key to their sustainability moving forward. The leaders also recognized that without a positive patient experience and high-quality care, they won't be able to maintain sustainability." To deliver on strategic objectives, leaders must invest in key enablers Given the labor shortages in healthcare, the health system had relied heavily on expensive contract labor to fill staffing gaps. One way the organization has addressed that issue is by taking a long- term view and allocating resources for workforce development. "The health system's leaders were cognizant of their need to build their talent pool for every type of position," Mr. Stille said. "The health system strategically worked with local academic centers to build their recruitment pipeline to help meet patient needs and support future growth opportunities, as well as made investments that strengthened their organization's ability to identify growth opportunities through data." Through these investments, the health system made great strides in their data-driven decision-making with new decision-support tools and a new cost-accounting system, as well as external benchmark data and key performance indicators. "When leaders make wise investments in data, they are better equipped to identify and quantify opportunities and really focus investment on the areas where they have the greatest chance for organizational success," Mr. Rogers said.

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