Background
Wellstar Health System is a large non-profit, multi-hospital system with 10 hospitals in the greater Atlanta area. WellStar engaged Hammes Healthcare to evaluate four separate hospitals—Cobb Hospital, North Fulton Hospital, West Georgia Medical Center, and Douglas Hospital—three of which were in high-growth areas. The objective of the assignment was to better integrate these hospitals with one another and the overall system by leveraging each hospital’s distinct strengths and opportunities. Our approach prioritized Wellstar’s queue of planned projects against available capital and cash flow constraints.
Solution
Hammes worked to help WellStar to better understand the physical limitations of each hospital campus and focus on market growth within each of the four geographic areas. The Hammes team created a five-year plan customized to each facility and its individual goals and needs, while also providing an in-depth analysis and plan that evaluated all recommendations holistically. In doing so, Hammes helped Wellstar prioritize the projects and improvements that had the greatest benefit to the system—both from a needs standpoint but also from a profitability standpoint.
Our team also performed a bed unit/patient room review and ranking of the flagship hospital and five other hospitals to document baseline quality measures. This process helped the system better understand performance to date and develop Wellstar's signature standards going forward.
Value Added
Wellstar not only benefited from the comprehensive, executable master plans Hammes delivered for each hospital, but more importantly the prioritization of improvements that had the greatest benefit to each hospital and the greater health system. Wellstar brought Hammes back in 2020 to refresh the plan and for a new assignment in which Hammes ranked all hospital beds across the system to help Wellstar standardize the quality of its rooms—and ultimately the quality of its patient care. Wellstar continues to use the strategy implemented by Hammes in order to advance its strategic goals.
