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

Would you share your Fitbit data with your employer?

on May 17, 2013  |  Permalink  | Comments (2)

Topics: Service Lines, Marketing, Strategy, Planning, Leadership, Workforce

Cabell Jonas, Marketing and Planning Leadership Council

In a recently released article, Wired.com reports that the ‘quantified self’ movement has now entered the workplace.

Mobile tech and innovation company Citizen Inc. has launched a voluntary program for employees to collect and share their health, wellness, and productivity data with the company. Citizen hopes to use the data to study employees’ productivity drivers, overall quality of life, and health.

Continue reading:
Would you share your Fitbit data with your employer?

Are you rewarding silos?

on May 8, 2013  |  Permalink

Topics: Marketing, Service Lines, Planning, Strategy, Collaboration, Workforce, Leadership

Emilia Thurber, Marketing and Planning Leadership Council


While many organizations encourage staff to collaborate across divisions, their performance management systems may be sending a completely different message. By rewarding leaders and staff for department-, service line-, and facility-specific outcomes, executives inadvertently reinforce the silos that they are trying so hard to overcome.

So how can providers fix this incentive issue? Here we profile three different organizations who are supporting collaboration by rewarding shared achievements. These strategies can be used to improve collaboration within independent hospitals, physician groups, and health systems.

Continue reading:
Are you rewarding silos?

ACOs in Aisle 9?

on April 12, 2013  |  Permalink

Topics: Marketing, Planning, Strategy, ACO, Market Trends

Emilia Thurber, Marketing and Planning Leadership Council

Shared savings partnerships aren’t just for traditional providers anymore. In January, Walgreens became the first national pharmacy chain approved by CMS to participate in ACOs, joining not one but three ACO partnerships in New Jersey, Florida, and Texas.

In his article “Is Walgreens the Future? What a Big Pharmacy Chain’s Moves Tell Us About Obamacare,” the Advisory Board’s Dan Diamond describes Walgreens’ strategy behind these new ACOs as well as their past involvement in population health management initiatives.

Continue reading:
ACOs in Aisle 9?

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