As health care becomes an increasingly competitive business, it is critical for hospitals to create a niche and market it well. And while some hospitals struggle to distinguish themselves and capitalize on their unique identities, West Boca Medical Center in Boca Raton, Florida has been successful in this effort.
“People have a choice when it comes to health care, and they are going to go to the hospital that can provide service excellence,” says Mitch Feldman, CEO of West Boca Medical Center, a part of the Tenet Healthcare Corporation. “At West Boca, we stay competitive by channeling our resources to develop and integrate our service line strengths.”
Smart Business spoke to Feldman about West Boca Medical Center’s strategy for maintaining service line excellence and creating its unique niche in the local health care market.
How has West Boca Medical Center been able to keep its competitive advantage in the local health care delivery market?
First, we have made significant investments in our facilities and services that we provide to the community. Resources are dedicated to keep the hospital modern, clean and current. We are a community hospital, and we take great pride in creating a hospital environment that is pleasing to our patients and neighbors.
Second, we routinely consult with our doctors to ensure that we have current technology and equipment so they can do their best job in diagnosing and treating patients. For example, we have made a significant investment in surgical instrumentation. By adopting the technology and training our staff in new general, robotic, minimally invasive surgical techniques, we can offer patients an improved service that may allow them to have better treatment outcomes, a speedier recovery and a quicker return to functionality.
Third, we have developed and positioned specific hospital service lines within the broader portfolio of services offered by the hospital. We’ve been able to strategically develop interdisciplinary outpatient and inpatient programs to achieve competitive market share growth and system-wide collaboration. The combination of these investments keeps the community interested in our hospital and happy with the high level of quality health care service lines we provide.
Describe your process for determining expansion of service lines.
We reference an array of data sources to determine what conditions are affecting our local patient population. With an understanding of community health needs, we can then look internally to identify what our physicians and staff need to provide a new service or expand a current program, whether it’s a new technology, equipment, or more training.
Staff involvement is critical to identifying gaps in our current service lines and finding creative ways to fulfill those gaps. If our physicians have the expertise to provide the service and/or we can acquire new skills, technology, or equipment, then we have the foundation for putting together programs and access points for the community to get the care it needs.
