Sg2 Blog

In our previous post, we discussed health inequities in our current health care landscape, providing some examples of how the negative impacts of social determinants of health can contribute to undesirable health outcomes and lead to significant health disparities. Now, we would like to focus on how health systems can be more aware of these disparities and turn that awareness into action. Health e...

Direct-to-employer healthcare offerings benefit from proof-of-concept, and often your employees can provide an excellent test group. As health systems pursue employer engagement through direct-to-employer healthcare solutions, two of the first questions health systems marketing their services to local employers should expect are: Have you done this with your own employees? and How did it go? Organ...

Health systems and providers have participated in alternative payment models ranging from pay for performance to full risk across all payer classes. Not surprisingly, many participants have exited these models as the industry experiments while navigating the transition to value. Too many organizations have drawn conclusions about the efficacy of value-based care (VBC) based on incomplete informati...

Sg2, a Vizient company, is pleased to announce the addition of Melissa Threlkeld, MHA, FACHE, and Heidi Pandya, MSHA, as principals within its consulting practice. “We are thrilled to be adding Ms Threlkeld and Ms Pandya to the Sg2 team,” says Sg2 senior vice president John Becker. “They bring a wealth of experience successfully driving growth for provider organizations in a var...

Editor's note: Randena Hulstrand, Lead Brand Journalist, Vizient, contributed to this post. By addressing hospital utilization and quality, implementing innovative models of care and forging partnerships, health systems can help reduce economic disparities and improve patient access to behavioral healthcare services. While behavioral health conditions—including major depression, anxiety and ...

We have been here before; some have succeeded, or at least gotten by, while many have failed. At what? Building an integrated model where the health system is both the provider and the payer. Lessons were learned, yet today’s economic uncertainty, rising costs and hospital financial performance coupled with major insurer reluctance to continue fee-for-service (FFS) rate increases have hospit...

As we kick off 2022, health systems may feel they are playing out the movie Groundhog Day, where Bill Murray, trapped in a time loop, endlessly relives a day with Andie MacDowell. The movie serves as an omen three decades in the making, shining a light on the importance of perseverance and human connections—attributes that continue to epitomize health care. It is in the spirit of forgin...

How serious are health care systems about their consumer strategy? For decades, consumerism in health care has been a “nice to have” but not a “must have.” Health care as an industry didn’t value customer loyalty because they didn’t see those utilizing their services as customers, they saw them as patients—and patients require care. Thus, the health system...

Hospital at home programs have been gradually increasing in number in recent years, but when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the shift to home health and virtual care greatly accelerated. Half of families are more likely to choose in-home care for their loved ones now than they were prior to the pandemic, and almost half of physicians use virtual health technologies to treat patients. Now that home is ...

Editor’s note: Shannon Stewart, Senior Consulting Director, Reliability and Management Systems, authored this post, which was originally published on Sg2’s parent company Vizient Inc’s blog. Hospitals and health systems are investing a lot of resources to thoughtfully and strategically plan how they will meet their communities’ needs in the future. They’re developing ...