In a recent article, Roger Weems, Vice President and Lead Partner, North America at Philips Healthcare Transformation Services reviews the evolution of long-term strategic partnerships for the healthcare industry.
Long-term strategic partnerships are not a new concept but their relevance to the healthcare industry is increasing with the ongoing need for comprehensive transformation across the health continuum. Healthcare leaders are looking for an increased level of innovation, commitment, and accountability. Vendors are responding by broadening their focus beyond products, better understanding the industry challenges, and serving the customers' business and clinical needs in developing long-term strategic partnerships.
The nature of partnerships is evolving as healthcare organizations grapple with how to transform into a value-driven care model. Traditional models aim to provide long-term predictable cost but there is an increased focus on continuous performance improvement and shared accountability towards outcomes.
I am pleased that healthcare leaders and their teams are embracing new concepts such as 'design thinking' and 'co-innovation' as these are instrumental in developing more tailored and holistic solutions.
These deeper partnerships provide more insights into their current and rapidly changing needs so that they can achieve large-scale and sustainable transformation. This also allows industry partners to develop more effective and sustainable solutions to support their needs.
Each partnership is unique as it must meet the needs of the hospital network or healthcare system, their patients, and their community as well as align with the mission of the 'supplier.' There must be a shared interest and dedication to the vision to ensure a strong alignment over a longer period of time as well as a willingness to change if circumstances dictate a change is needed.
To read the article in full, click here.