Guest blogger Brian Walker of SRK Discusses the "Strategic Halo" of Integrated Service Line Strategies

Brian Walker

“Strategic Halo” What is it? Why Should You Care? Part 1 of 3

By Brian Walker, Senior VP, SRK

You may have seen the “Strategic Halo” featured in a recent HealthLeaders post as an innovative strategy of breaking down existing product line silos and truly understanding the interdependence of your products and services, physician impact and patients ongoing pattern of care. “Halo” implications have a broad strategic value from marketing and planning to finance and physician staffing as well as customer satisfaction and loyalty. Now it seems to also be emerging as one possible strategy on the road to an ACO.

Historically, too many healthcare organizations have looked at their product lines as stand alone entities: “Our CV business is worth $X million and we see X# of patients each year with a primary clinical focus on Y” What the “Strategic Halo” (created by SRK) suggests is to look more broadly to better understand the upstream (where your existing patients are coming from within your organization) and downstream (where your patients go) journeys and the total feeder impact across product lines.

Looking beyond the simple transaction or vertical experience is something other industries have done successfully, however healthcare has been slower to adapt. “Halo” thinking can now arm your organization with similar data insight to make informed business decisions. By following your patients over time you best understand their behavior, financial value, experience and overall continuum of care.

From a CMO perspective, this approach has been extremely valuable in helping improve segmentation and targeting, focusing cross-sell and loyalty tactics, better measuring marketing activity and ultimately driving more revenue.

Interested in learning more?

On Tuesday, Dec. 7, SRK will host an educational webcast on: "Product Line Integration" focusing on the  marketing and ACO implications of the "Strategic Halo."  I'll be joined by Karen Corrigan on the session.  Registration is free; but space is limited.  You can click here to register.

In the coming weeks, I'll post more on the topic.

• Part 2 of the “Strategic Halo” will showcase actual hospital data and how this strategy is helping executives make more informed business decisions for their healthcare organization.
• Part 3 of the “Strategic Halo” will discuss both the short-term and long-term implications of this strategy

Brian Walker is a senior vice president with SRK, a national healthcare marketing and strategy company based in Chicago, Illinois.  Brain can be reach at 312.335.2788 or bwalker@srksolutions.com.  Follow him on Twitter @catalyst4growth.