BackgroundThe healthcare industry is characterized by intensive, never-ending change occurring on a multitude of fronts. Success in such tumultuous environments requires healthcare providers to be proficient in myriad areas, including the manner in which they organize and deliver services. Less efficient designs drain precious resources and hamper efforts to deliver the best care possible to patients, making it imperative that optimal pathways are identified and pursued. One particular avenue that offers great potential for serving patients efficiently and effectively is known as the hub-and-spoke organization design.DiscussionThe hub-and-spoke organization design is a model which arranges service delivery assets into a network consisting of an anchor establishment (hub) which offers a full array of services, complemented by secondary establishments (spokes) which offer more limited service arrays, routing patients needing more intensive services to the hub for treatment. Hub-and-spoke networks afford many benefits for healthcare providers, but in order to capitalize fully, proper assembly is required. To advance awareness, knowledge, and use of the hub-and-spoke organization design, this article profiles Willis-Knighton Health System’s service delivery network which has utilized the model for over three decades. Among other things, the hub-and-spoke organization design is defined, benefits are stipulated, and applications are discussed, permitting healthcare providers essential insights for the establishment and operation of these networks.ConclusionsThe change-rich nature of the healthcare industry places a premium on incorporating advancements that permit health and medical providers to operate as optimally as possible. The hub-and-spoke organization design represents an option that, when deployed correctly, can greatly assist healthcare establishments in their quests to serve patients well.

BackgroundCenters of excellence—specialized programs within healthcare institutions which supply exceptionally high concentrations of expertise and related resources centered on particular medical areas and delivered in a comprehensive, interdisciplinary fashion—afford many advantages for healthcare providers and the populations they serve. To achieve full value from centers of excellence, proper assembly is an absolute necessity, but guidance is somewhat limited. This effectively forces healthcare providers to pursue establishment largely via trial-and-error, diminishing opportunities for success.DiscussionSuccessful development of a center of excellence first requires the acquisition of a detailed understanding of the delivery model and its benefits. Then, concerted actions must be taken on a particular series of administrative and clinical fronts, treating them in prescribed manners to afford synergies which yield an exceptionally high level of care. To reduce hardships associated with acquiring this rather elusive knowledge, remedy shortcomings in the literature, and potentially bolster community health broadly, this article presents information and insights gleaned from Willis-Knighton Health System’s extensive experience assembling and operating centers of excellence. This work is intended to educate and enlighten, but most importantly, supply guidance which will permit healthcare establishments to replicate noted processes to realize their own centers of excellence.ConclusionsCenters of excellence have the ability to dramatically enhance the depth and breadth of healthcare services available in communities. Given the numerous mutual benefits afforded by this delivery model, it is hoped that the light shed by this article will help healthcare providers better understand centers of excellence and be more capable and confident in associated development initiatives, affording greater opportunities for themselves and their patient populations.

BackgroundHealthcare establishments serve as key community resources, bringing into locales a wealth of resources aimed at enhancing and improving health and wellness. Without effective communications, current and prospective patients will remain unaware of available offerings, foiling opportunities for mutually beneficial exchange. Today, healthcare organizations engage audiences by selecting from among the components of the marketing communications mix, but this wasn’t always the case. There was a time not long ago when communications options were limited due to industry traditions, creating associated challenges.DiscussionWillis-Knighton Health System faced a communications dilemma in the 1970s when, as a small healthcare provider desirous of growth, it could not achieve a satisfactory media presence via the usual and customary route of the day: submitting press releases to news media organizations, requesting conveyance of associated stories to their audiences. This forced the institution to explore other possibilities, ultimately leading it to experiment with and embrace advertising at a time period when its use was generally shunned in the industry. Willis-Knighton Health System’s pioneering deployment of advertising helped the institution achieve its intended promotions goals, supplying mutual benefits and affording insights which influence its communications approach to this day.ConclusionsDeploying advertising years in advance of its widespread acceptance and use in the healthcare industry, Willis-Knighton Health System forged new pathways and acquired experience which fostered provider-patient engagement initiatives, affording an enduring marketing communications approach. Challenging situations are quite common in the healthcare industry and the one faced by Willis-Knighton Health System was no exception, but it supplied an immense opportunity to innovate, leading to communications prowess, resulting growth, informed audiences, and lasting mutual benefits.

BackgroundCharacterized by declining populations, high poverty, reduced employment opportunities, and high numbers of uninsured residents, rural communities pose significant challenges for healthcare providers desirous of addressing these medically underserved areas. Such difficult environments, in fact, have forced the closure of many rural hospitals across America, with scores facing the same threat, compelling intensive efforts to identify pathways which will yield an improved future.DiscussionCollaborations with stronger urban or suburban healthcare institutions offer a prudent avenue for rural hospitals to continue serving their patients. Such relationships can be structured in many different ways, but Willis-Knighton Health System found that its use of the hub-and-spoke organization design set the stage for the institution to cast a vital lifeline to neighboring rural hospitals, affording the relatively seamless integration and assimilation of partner facilities into its network, ensuring continuity of services in remote regions. This article supplies an overview of the hub-and-spoke network and discusses Willis-Knighton Health System’s use of it to facilitate the establishment of productive partnerships with rural hospitals.ConclusionsThe delivery of healthcare services in rural environments is essential, but with small community hospitals increasingly being under threat, the outlook is not particularly attractive. Partnerships with better positioned healthcare entities offer significant hope, but care must be taken to structure these arrangements optimally. Willis-Knighton Health System found utility and value in its hub-and-spoke organization design, with the insights presented in this account potentially offering a pathway for others to follow as they go about addressing the healthcare needs of rural populations.

BackgroundMarketing arguably is the most critical administrative responsibility associated with the pursuit and realization of growth and prosperity, making prowess in the discipline essential for any healthcare institution, especially given the competitive intensity that characterizes the industry. But in order to truly gain an advantage, healthcare establishments must tap into innovative pathways that their competitors have yet to discover. Here, thinking like an outsider can pay tremendous dividends, as health and medical organizations tend to focus inwardly, limiting their exposure to externally-derived innovations and advancements which often can supply differentiation opportunities.DiscussionSome years ago, during a formative period in preparation for expanding its footprint, Willis-Knighton Health System opted to think like an outsider, peering beyond the walls of healthcare institutions in search of tools and techniques that would allow its growth ambitions to be realized. Associated pursuits and subsequent successes created a culture of challenging status quo perspectives, affording innovations and resulting competitive advantages. Marketing advancements, in particular, have been fueled by this outsider mentality, benefiting the institution and its patient populations. This article profiles several of these advancements, discusses the dangers of insular mindsets, and suggests avenues for encouraging broad perspectives.ConclusionsDue to extreme competitive intensity and ever-increasing patient needs, health and medical establishments must perform at optimal levels, with marketing efforts playing a critical role in the achievement of such. By shedding status quo perspectives and peering beyond the walls of healthcare institutions, health and medical providers have opportunities to discover new and different marketing approaches for potential use in their own organizations, affording mutual benefits, including all-important competitive advantages.