Becker's Hospital Review

19 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP How teaming up with competitors benefits Adventist HealthCare By Kristin Kuchno A dventist HealthCare's 2025 strategy is focused on improving access to care and addressing health inequities, particularly in inpatient services across its market, CEO John Sackett told Becker's. "For example, in an area that should normally have a 150- bed hospital, they have a 31-bed hospital," he said. "We're working with the state to try to fix that problem." Health inequities lead to missed early diagnoses for conditions such as cancer and cause a greater burden of disease than individuals would if they had proper access to care, he added. Partnerships play a central role in Adventist's efforts to tackle these challenges. The Gaithersburg, Md.-based health system has a strategic partnership with Washington, D.C.-based Howard University, which Mr. Sackett described as "a great honor." Adventist has managed Howard University Hospital since 2019. "Our efforts are to partner with the university in improving hospital operations, accessing outside capital funding, building a new hospital and allowing the residents from Howard University to access the rest of Adventist HealthCare's care delivery network and model," thereby improving the physician shortage and delivering on addressing inequities, he said. Adventist's collaborative efforts extend beyond Howard University. "We work with our competitor hospitals," Mr. Sackett said. "While they're competitors, we actually collaborate more than we compete. We do a common community health needs assessment, and we address those needs as a community, more than just as an individual organization." Adventist also partners with federally qualified health centers, which Mr. Sackett praised for their work in providing outpatient care in the Washington, D.C., area. The system supports these centers by offering a reliable source of inpatient care when necessary, he said. "We are primarily an acute-care hospital company whose mission includes going beyond just acute care to take care of patient populations," he said, elaborating on Adventist's mergers and acquisitions strategy. "We're looking for any alignment that will allow us to advance the continuum of care." The system sees growth opportunities in outpatient rehabilitation centers and recently launched a sports performance institute aimed at injury prevention through proper conditioning. Adventist is also expanding its home health agency to further support patient needs. As the organization implements these strategies, Adventist's leadership has prioritized fostering excellence throughout the workforce — efforts that have been recognized by the National Institute of Standards in Technology. "Healthcare is very complex, with many problems, but at the end of the day we are privileged to take care of people in our community from the earliest time in their life, all the way through their life," Mr. Sackett said. "Very few companies have the opportunity to do that, and that's why we're in this business. I personally couldn't be happier in the role that I have because of that special purpose." n 500,000 individuals per year to over 1.1 million. About half of the 1.1 million are engaged in some type of value-based care arrangement. "Our plans for next year are to continue growing the number of lives we touch and ensuring we're serving them in a way that allows them to get all of their care within the Atlantic Health System," said Mr. Gragnolati. He said Atlantic will also continue growth through strategic partnerships in 2025 with its acquisition of New Brunswick, N.J.- based St. Peter's Healthcare System, pending federal, state and church approvals for the proposed deal. Additionally, CentraState Healthcare System in Freehold, N.J., finalized its 2021 agreement to join Atlantic whereby Atlantic became the majority corporate member of CentraState. Mr. Gragnolati said Atlantic will continue to advance plans with CentraState and help the system grow in New Jersey. Additionally, Atlantic is focused on alleviating the administrative burdens physicians face in their roles, as well as supporting team members. "Part of our strategy is to continue to be the best place where people want to practice, where people want to work — not just by having appropriate compensation levels and benefit levels, but also opportunities to grow, opportunities to help with education, … and create a work environment where everybody's working as a team," said Mr. Gragnolati. "Recently, a member of my family needed some pretty significant heart surgery, and so I saw firsthand the work that we do at the bedside and how our team members collaborate on this. And in my conversations with the nursing team over that period of time, it's really been affirming to me that we're on the right track." n

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