By Carrie Wolf, Senior Analyst and Jai Seth, Analyst
When treating complex acute conditions, many hospitals struggle to meet care quality standards and control costs. To address these challenges, many small- to mid-sized health systems have joined larger tertiary care centers leading clinical regional networks. Following a hub-and-spoke model, these networks streamline patient transfers to advanced care facilities, thereby optimizing patient outcomes.
To build a hub-and-spoke model, leading organizations follow three critical success factors:
- 1. Establish clinical infrastructure necessary to serve the target patient population, including space, technology, staff, and ongoing education programs
- 2. Recruit regional partners by identifying organizations that are well aligned with the hub facility, demonstrate to them the value of participating in a network, and implement an onboarding process to secure the relationship
- 3. Foster a culture of collaboration through data transparency, decision-support services, and peer-to-peer interaction, all of which help sustain partnerships long-term