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The power of partnerships

Developing a strategic partnership around non-clinical functions allowed a health system to tap into significant performance.

Thrive or crumble: Partnerships are a new area of growth

Health system partners with a health care innovation company for an industry changing model

The power of partnerships

During a Becker’s Hospital Review 12th Annual Meeting roundtable, Nick Howell, president of Optum Market Performance Partnerships, and Chris Pass, CFO of Walnut Creek, California-based John Muir Health, a not-for-profit community-based health system in the San Francisco Bay Area, discussed the successes and lessons of the first-of-its-kind partnership launched between John Muir Health and Optum.

Key insights:

  • Partnerships around infrastructure functions are a new area of growth.
  • For scalable cost and performance impact in the revenue cycle and other non-clinical functions like IT, analytics and care coordination, partnering taps into scale that health systems cannot achieve by going it alone.
  • Broad leadership engagement is one of the keys to partnership success.
  • Long-term partnerships should bring innovation, not just performance improvement.
  • Cultural alignment is the most foundational success factor of a major partnership.

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