Health Services
Owning the market. Making healthcare better.
The industry has never been more chaotic. Companies are jockeying to improve healthcare, muscling their way through a noisy field. They’re under pressure to seize opportunities, grow, reach full potential.
We get this because we’re in the race with them.
For 15 years, we’ve provided strategic communications counsel to more than 400 healthcare companies racing smartly through high-stakes moments. For that, we’ve got quite a track record for helping visionary companies launch, scale, pivot and advance growth goals.
In healthcare, there are unique barriers to change and a short window to capitalize on opportunities. Our Health Services Practice moves with expert speed to help leaders:
Advance growth goals and strategic initiatives
Create a valuable market position to attract talent, financing and sales
Protect the company’s value and reputation in times of crisis
Capture opportunities to truly change healthcare
We don’t just help leaders get the win. We develop a strategy to measure and communicate results with investors and other key stakeholders.
Subscribe to Inside Baseball »
Your source of hot tips, off-color commentary and quasi-useful information out of two healthcare hubs – Chicago and Nashville.
National Health System Case Studies
A physician-led company focused on outpatient opioid addiction treatment had been growing, steadily and successfully, for six years, when the demand for its unique treatment approach and business model skyrocketed, seemingly overnight. The company, backed by a powerful team of investors, was recapitalized and needed to meet ambitious growth and expansion goals. Faced with a challenging regulatory environment and emerging competition, leadership wanted a solid brand strategy and communications plan to drive its trajectory and outcompete others in the market.
THE SOLUTION
First, we conducted an audit of the current brand and market position and worked with leadership to understand where they aimed to take the company. Working alongside the CEO and through conversations with key stakeholders and research on the industry and competitors, we built a roadmap to evolve the culture, brand, marketing and sales efforts and internal communications infrastructure.
Critical to this roadmap was a clear, sophisticated evolution of the company’s brand. Leadership adopted a strong – even edgy – mission, vision and values to serve as a foundation for the larger brand, capturing the spirit of its caregivers and the fight against the disease.
Together we laser-focused resources on the company’s growth drivers – payer contracts, physician recruiting and community partnerships.
THE RESULTS
At the outset of our work, the company had six facilities in two states. Within 18 months, it opened its 40th center, operated in eight states, completed 110 payer contracts and hit a key milestone of 25,000 patients treated.
The client is on track to be the go-to national player and has achieved its goals while staying true to its core mission.
TACTICS
A 10-year-old hospitalist company that had pioneered the industry sector felt pressure from investors to hit growth targets. The market was becoming saturated with hospitalist staffing companies, making it harder to cut through the noise and connect with health system buyers and physician recruits. With a new CEO at the helm, it was imperative to chart a course that allowed the company to stand out and expand quickly.
THE SOLUTION
First, we listened. Over 60 days, we conducted a thorough audit that answered key questions about the company’s current market position, business goals for the future, how it stacked up against competitors and what it would take to be the preferred choice for certain health systems and physicians.
We found that while the company charged a premium for its services relative to competitors, its quality and efficiency justified the pricing. Plus, the company’s integral pioneering spirit was attractive to employees and physicians alike – both wanted to be a part of a culture devoted to relentless innovation and leadership in a hot sector. Through our work, leaders were armed with a sharp message and a clear strategy to showcase the company’s strengths. Together, we evolved the culture, brand, materials, sales and recruiting efforts and thought leadership strategy.
THE RESULTS
The company established itself nationally and in peer circles as the quality leader in the field, leading to 80% topline revenue growth over the three years we worked together to amplify its positioning.
Ultimately, the client achieved its growth goals and merged with a peer competitor to form the nation’s largest private hospitalist company.
TACTICS
Leaders at a national hospital company learned that a “60 Minutes” investigative reporter was calling physicians and questioning its admission procedures. Leadership was torn about the best way to move forward. On the one hand, they knew that engaging the reporter risked calling attention to a non-issue if the story never aired. On the other, refusing to comment could give off the appearance that the company had something to hide.
THE SOLUTION
First, we assessed the threat. We quickly learned from a variety of sources that the story would likely run and that we needed to get ahead of it.
We immediately convened stakeholders from the company’s communications, operations and legal teams to coordinate our crisis response plan. Together, we deployed the right team members to out-report the “60 Minutes” crew, making sure that we had all of the information they did. We hired an outside analytics firm to review the company’s admissions data – and the research showed the hospital’s admissions reporting procedures were unproblematic.
Armed with those findings, we engaged reporters and producers to determine the scope of the story. We learned what was likely to run and when.
We then pursued a “pre-sponse” strategy, providing that information, along with data from the outside firm’s analysis, to our own employees and Wall Street analysts, scooping the “60 Minutes” piece and ensuring that key audiences were prepared.
THE RESULTS
The “60 Minutes” story aired, but did not impact the share price or create an engagement problem with employees. The week following the broadcast, most reports from Wall Street analysts referred to the data from our independent analysis. With a coordinated team stacked with our advisers and hospital company leaders, we turned what could have been a major media mishap into a barely noticeable blip.
TACTICS
