Shaping Our Future 2023 - Our Next Three-Year Strategic Plan

By Mary Boosalis, president and chief executive officer, Premier Health

Over the past three years, we have come together to successfully address many challenges. I am deeply proud of how everyone at Premier Health has responded to COVID-19 – we couldn’t have better served our community in this time of extreme need. We have demonstrated that, when we work together, we can move mountains to achieve our mission.

Despite our extraordinary efforts, like the health care industry as a whole, we as an organization are not immune to challenges on multiple fronts, some of which have been exacerbated by the pandemic. The postponement of elective surgeries, for example, has contributed to a significant shortfall in revenue, which must be shored up to ensure ongoing reinvestment across our health system. Meanwhile, we continue to contend with increased competition from other providers. A combination of short-term financial challenges and long-term changes reshaping the health care industry now demand that we respond. This means taking tough steps to transform our organization so that we can continue to be in an optimal position to fulfill our mission.

We are resolute in our commitment to provide quality care, and to improve the health of the communities that we serve. But to do that to the best of our ability, we must now fundamentally shift how we function as a team.

The urgency of the headwinds we face informs our new three-year strategic plan – Shaping Our Future 2023. This plan is underpinned by six strategies that I am confident will guide our organization to success and financial sustainability. The first four strategies are:

Strategy 1 (Build Market Distinctiveness): reclaim market share by doubling down on areas with disproportionate opportunity to capture growth in the 8-county region

Strategy 2 (Advance Physician Partnership and Alignment) – Deeply align with the right complement of physicians to deliver on quality-focused outcomes and ensure continuity of care

Strategy 3 (Reimagine Consumer Engagement and Experience): Deliver a seamless customer experience via analog and digital channels to grow impact and leapfrog competitors

Strategy 4 (Drive Industry-Leading Productivity): Reach top-quartile improvements to sustain the organization with renewed discipline and rigor

Strategies 5 and 6 support the first four:

Strategy 5 (Evaluate and Leverage Partnerships): To accelerate strategic objectives

Strategy 6 (Drive Purpose and Enhance Organizational Health): Enable employees and physicians to drive sustainable change.

Achieving these strategic goals will give us the flexibility and capacity to invest in the areas that are necessary for us to best fulfill our mission. It will help ensure that Premier Health remains a place where you’ll want to provide or support care – and where you’re proud to have a career.

You have been asked for a lot over the last few years – and you have always responded by giving your all. Together, we weathered the Memorial Day tornadoes and the mass shooting in Dayton’s Oregon District, came together for the closure of Good Samaritan, and persevered through the current global pandemic.

I now need to ask you to meet the challenges of today – some of them industry-wide, and some of them specific to Premier – in a similar fashion … with perseverance and resilience. To be open and willing to change the way we work, to look for ways to break down silos and move forward more cohesively as a system rather than a group of independent hospitals, and to help us find more innovative, productive, and indispensable ways to meet our patients’ needs. You have already proven yourselves to be the best team of health care professionals anywhere.

As a locally led health system, we have a vested interest in putting the broader needs of our community first. We’ve demonstrated that commitment across Dayton and Montgomery County, as well as through significant, sustained investment in the Middletown area and in Miami County. We’re excited about our strategic plan, which is designed to better serve our patients, their families, and you – our caregivers and support professionals and staff. We hope you share in that excitement as you learn more about our next steps.

The leadership team shares my confidence that, thanks to our collaborative spirit, there is nothing we can’t achieve. Thank you for your dedication to Premier Health and its mission as, together, we embark on this next chapter of our journey.

Back to the September 2020 issue of Premier Pulse