By Eric Waller, Contributing Writer

When multiple healthcare facilities fall under one management umbrella — whether via new mergers, acquisitions or construction – organizations must have an actionable plan to manage them strategically. In the past four years of volatility in the healthcare industry, the facilities and systems that have succeeded and flourished have been those with clear goals and strong plans in place to achieve them. 

The central theme of success in managing multiple facilities is cohesion. Ensuring everyone is on the same page is critical to maintaining a baseline in which all facilities understand and contribute to a system’s goals, even when individual tactics vary. 

Three aspects of facility management must align to ensure success: 

United culture. Organizations with clear vision and values provide a central focal point for employees. A unified culture can be built around those values so everyone in the organization knows what they are striving for individually and collectively. Fostering a unified culture makes new and veteran staff feel welcome within the organization, which is particularly important when managing multiple facilities. 

Hiring, integrating and retaining staff is a pressing concern for healthcare facilities, requiring a comprehensive approach to management that prioritizes employee engagement. Crucial strategies for successfully integrating employees across facilities include comprehensive onboarding and training programs for new staff to align them with the organization's protocols and its culture. For established employees, facilities must foster a culture that encourages continual feedback and improvement at all levels. 

Engaged stakeholders. Leaders pave the way for successful growth when they align and engage with an organization’s goals early and often. All stakeholders — including employees, executive leadership, board members, patients and the community as a whole — benefit from the same engagement. Just as employees can coalesce around the central tenants of an organization as the basis for their internal culture, so can all stakeholders. 

Transparency is important so everyone, no matter how limited their stake might be, knows what the facility and healthcare system are striving for and can hold those who are not contributing to that goal accountable. 

Integrated systems. Mergers and acquisitions grow healthcare systems’ footprints and enhance their capacity to deliver exceptional patient care. With healthcare technology changing rapidly, it is likely that the more facilities there are working together, the more legacy technologies are trying to communicate with systems they were never meant to. Integrating information systems is critical for seamless operations.  

System integration is no small task. It requires healthcare systems to have not only a central system that can be deployed to multiple facilities but a plan to move those facilities from their legacy systems to that of the new system. A comprehensive, well-executed approach to integration ensures employees learn to use the technology efficiently to maintain high standards of care and operational excellence across all facilities throughout and beyond the transition. 

At a time when hundreds of rural healthcare facilities are at risk of closure, merger and acquisition trends are keeping facilities open and providing vital services for their communities. No matter how a healthcare system is growing, these strategic approaches are designed to ensure any integration or overall management of multiple facilities enhances an organization’s operational capabilities and strengthens its commitment to providing exceptional patient care. 

Everything that ultimately happens within a healthcare system, from the information desk at a rural hospital to the desk of the CEO managing hundreds of hospitals, is in pursuit of delivering exceptional care to patients and making communities healthier. 

Eric Waller is vice president of field support services with Medxcel, a facilities services provider exclusively serving the healthcare industry.