A post by Andrew Barna

After reading Tony’s first post on strategy, I was struck that he was asking some really fundamental questions about hospital strategy. What is a good hospital strategy? How can a hospital differentiate itself? Who has good strategies? Do healthcare executives know how to create and execute upon strategies? I think these are some great questions to explore further. For me, the first step in this process is thinking about strategies in and of themselves.

In the past few years of focusing on hospital strategy, I have come to believe that strategies are a means to an end. Strategies take you from your current state to where you want to be. The tricky part for hospitals, I have found, is knowing what you want to accomplish and then committing to do what ever it takes to get there.

Setting the goals or the vision is really the key to strategy. What exactly is success to your organization? Is it meeting certain financial, quality, or patient satisfaction targets? These are laudable goals, but I haven’t found them to be compelling enough or differentiating. In my opinion, a more compelling vision is about the identity of the organization. I recently learned that Stanford University Hospital and Clinic’s vision is to be the “Best Medical Center in the Nation.” Now that is a compelling vision and, almost as important, it is, perhaps, attainable for Stanford.

With a vision set, I think most hospital executives believe they know what they need to do to succeed. The key is keeping them focused on the goal and then it is all about execution.

For me, strategy is all about asking and answering the right questions. Who do we want to be? What can we do that will set us apart in the market? What steps do we take to get there from here? Answering these questions creates strategies.