Service Line Transformation

About This Blog

Welcome to the Marketing and Planning Leadership Council’s blog, Service Line Transformation. This blog serves as the primary communication channel for our Service Line Transformation Initiative, a special multi-year research effort dedicated to helping organizations prepare key service lines for risk-based payment. We will address challenges ranging from growth strategy innovations for key services lines to chronic care strategy, service line leadership, innovative approaches to service line marketing, and more.

For more information on the Service Line Transformation Initiative, or to send us questions, comments, or leads on innovative service line and care delivery models, please email Eric Sanford.

Recent Posts

Announcing the Service Line Forecast Compendium

on October 28, 2011  |  Permalink

Topics: Service Lines, Cardiovascular, Vascular, Medical Cardiology, Cardiac Surgery, Neurosciences, Orthopedics

We just debuted a new resource for Marketing and Planning Leadership Council members: the Service Line Forecast Compendium offers downloadable and online snapshots to help members assess growth prospects for key service lines. We’ve designed the compendium—which consists of a two-page document for each of the featured service lines—to be a quick reference for our members. The Compendium is just one of several resources that we using to further the work of our Service Line Transformation Initiative.

The Compendium snapshots provide information on growth of both the overall service line and individual procedures. In addition to quantitative forecast figures, the capsules also offer qualitative assessments of drivers and barriers of growth that influence Advisory Board forecasts.

In this first round, we’ve developed the documents for cardiac services, vascular services, orthopedics, and neurosciences service lines. We plan to add snapshots for oncology, imaging, and women’s services in the near future. Are there other service lines for which you’d like to see a capsule? Email Eric Cragun (cragune@advisory.com) with any suggestions.

Evaluating an osteoporosis screening program

Shay Pratt on October 14, 2011  |  Permalink

Topics: Service Lines, Orthopedics, Service Line Growth, Volume Growth, Strategy

Another question we recently received with regard to geriatric services is: What about building an osteoporosis screening and/or fall prevention clinic?

As hospitals turn to preventive and screening services to improve utilization management and increase upstream market share, screening for osteoporosis and efforts to prevent falls offer an option for reducing fracture rates among frail, elderly patients. Estimates suggest that half of women are at risk of osteoporosis-related fractures during their lifetime.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued guidelines earlier this year that gave a “B” recommendation to osteoporosis screening for women ages 65 or older and younger women with fracture risk factors. Though the report concludes that “No controlled studies have evaluated the effect of screening for osteoporosis on fracture rates or fracture-related morbidity or mortality,” it still finds enough evidence to conclude that drug therapies reduce the risk of fractures and that “the benefit of screening-detected osteoporosis is at least moderate” for women. The USPSTF did not find enough evidence to recommend osteoporosis screening in men, who are at lower rates of osteoporosis-related fractures. Similarly, in a draft statement, USPSTF gave a “B” recommendation to some falls prevention efforts.

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Evaluating an osteoporosis screening program

Applying co-management models to neuroscience service lines

Shay Pratt on October 11, 2011  |  Permalink

Topics: Service Lines, Neurosciences, Strategy, Planning, Strategic Alignment, Workforce, Clinical Co-Management, Hospital-Physician Alignment, Physician Issues

Hospitals have increased use of co-management as a means for enfranchising physicians in quality and efficiency improvement efforts within service lines. In particular, hospitals have been turning to co-management to improve performance of cardiovascular and orthopedic service lines.

However, use of co-management models for neurology service lines is much less common: in a survey of 258 hospital and health system leaders, 5% reported co-management of the neuroscience service line and 6% reported co-management of the neurosurgery service line, only half the number that report co-management models for cardiology and orthopedics.

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Applying co-management models to neuroscience service lines