Strategic Planning

October 16, 2024

Sg2 and Virtua Health Digestive Disease Service Line Strategy

Virtua Health is a five-hospital system with more than 350 locations in southern New Jersey, including 40+ ambulatory surgery centers, seven emergency departments, and seven urgent care centers, as well as telehealth options; its specialties include orthopedics and advanced surgery. The system aimed to optimize its digestive disease services after acquiring several gastroenterology groups and Lourdes Health System, which included a liver transplant service. Key challenges included increased demand for colonoscopies due to new screening guidelines, the impact of at-home tests on service volumes, lack of clear governance, disparate physician alignment models, suboptimal internal operations, competition from private equity and academic centers, and insufficient strategies for recruiting and retaining gastrointestinal (GI) providers.

An Sg2 member since 2010, Virtua Health valued the insights and analytics provided by Sg2. In a strategic consulting engagement, Sg2 demonstrated its understanding of the South Jersey market and crafted a customized provider needs assessment using its robust market data and proprietary analyses. Sg2's unique expertise in GI, which competitors lacked, made it a trusted partner for Virtua Health to build consensus and make informed future decisions.


The Sg2 Approach

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Sg2 designed a four-step strategic planning process for a digestive disease service line, starting with a steering committee kickoff to introduce team members and review key information. Next, Sg2 experts took Virtua Health leaders through a current state assessment to align market and organizational data, followed by visioning and strategic initiative development to define success and prioritize strategies. The last step involved finalizing the organization’s strategic initiatives and prioritization, including a timeline and key performance indicators. For Virtua Health to become a regional leader in digestive disease services, Sg2 recommended the system optimize core GI services to capture acute and tertiary care volumes and develop comprehensive subspecialty offerings in the tricounty area encompassing its hospitals.


The Results

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As a result of the Sg2-Virtua Health partnership, Virtua Health has experienced several achievements, including the establishment of two new subspecialty clinics—one for Crohn's disease and one for gut motility; the opening of Virtua Crohn’s & Colitis Center; and the enhancement of an advanced practitioner workforce model—which led to a 34% decrease in the third-next new appointment metric. The organization has also focused on patient experience in all provider settings, leveraging AI for patient communication and conducting a colorectal cancer screening outreach campaign.

Access the full case study here, and for more information on Sg2 capabilities, contact us at info@sg2.com.


Sources: US Preventive Services Task Force. Colorectal cancer: screening. May 18, 2021; Sg2 Consulting Engagement, 2022; Sg2 Interview With Virtua, 2024.

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Principal
As a leader on Sg2’s Consulting team, Matt is focused on physician-hospital alignment, value-based care strategies and strategic planning, both service line–wide and enterprise-wide. He has experience in the design, development and implementation of accountable care organizations, clinically integrated networks (CINs) and comanagement agreements.