A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Our Strategic Analysis Process

Process is enhancing our journey toward systemness and value

By Cliff Megerian, MD, FACS, UH Chief Executive Officer

UH Clinical Update | May/June 2021

I want to update you about the process University Hospitals is going through in terms of our strategic analysis of our future and how we are going to become an organization that has a certain vision – a vision that is related to high quality, high value, high touch, high science, as well as UH being the hometown team. And that will differentiate us from everyone else.

Although the strategic analysis is not finished, it’s reasonable to begin floating the concepts that are being discussed. UH has already defined its very dominant capabilities in building trust with our patients, and in delivering advanced compassionate and personalized care with a focus on exceptional outcomes. We strive to maximize health care value – a product that will resonate with our patients and also our caregivers, our local employers, our community and our payers.

The key attribute of becoming the most trusted health care partner is that we focus on delivering an unparalleled experience at all touch points. We have a culture that is built on the values of treating all of our patients as if we were treating our own family members. As we move toward systemness, there will be an evolution of our cultural threshold to increase consistency in the patient experience we deliver for all.

We are also gradually moving from simply driving revenue through increased volume and market share to a strategy whereby increased value drives our results. We realize that now we are 23 hospitals and 50 medical office buildings – yet we are not just a confederation of stand-alone facilities but rather an integrated delivery market platform with high-reliability medicine built in.

We are evolving to a one-team approach, and our community relationships become long-term and loyal. This will allow us to move from being perceived as an individual provider to a platform of caregivers with whom lifetime loyalty with patients ensues.  We drive affordability, reduce costs and increase quality – all while remaining Northeast Ohio’s health hub for care delivery, research, innovation, education and science.

This will require us to closely review and reset our values together. We have embarked upon a system-wide analysis to make sure that our values guide the kinds of behaviors that patients want from our caregivers. Ultimately it is the sets of behaviors that we demonstrate together -- that we hold each other to -- that defines our culture.

We will know we are successful when we have highly engaged team members, exceptional consumer experience, improved – and the best – outcomes, strong financial performance, the leading market position and maximum community impact.

That transformative culture begins with people – all our caregivers – and to get there we commit to continually develop our existing talent pool, but also, when it’s necessary, recruit best-in-class talent to join us. All of us will be working toward one goal, as we did during COVID-19, demonstrating emotional fortitude, authenticity, self-awareness and humility.

At the same time, we will increase our commitment to promoting inclusion, diversity, robust dialogue, and a speak-up culture. We also need to continue to create even more venues to care for our caregivers.

In the coming weeks, we will be communicating the details of our strategic plan and how it will be supported by our cultural evolution. This will be messaged not only internally to all of our caregivers, but will also be reflected in some of our marketing tactics going forward.

Thank you for your support as we continue our journey toward systemness and value.