Strengthening and sustaining rural practice

At Stroudwater, we have an all-encompassing devotion to rural healthcare nationwide. Our team is driven each day by the conviction that every rural community deserves a compassionate and quality healthcare delivery system. From Alaska to Maine, we partner with healthcare leaders to sustain and strengthen the vital role hospitals and clinics play in rural America. Our experience with hundreds of rural hospitals serves as our inspiration and expertise base in creating solutions for resilient institutions to provide the very best care in their communities for the long haul. Our counsel is down-to-earth and actionable. We pride ourselves in offering the education, motivation and practical tools clients need to implement our recommendations without breaking the bank. Our rural team’s passion for facilitating customized solutions for each client fuels us. We thrive when our clients thrive.

The following are examples of the types of engagements we have undertaken with rural clients.

 

Rapid Strategic Planning

To address the fluid nature of today’s hospital, clinic, and provider practices operations, Stroudwater designed a Rapid Strategic Planning  approach. Considering your unique clinical, operational, financial, and facility challenges, we’ve devised a method to deliver real‐world, actionable counsel in a way that doesn’t break the bank. Read more here.

 

Strategic, Financial, and Operational Assessment (SFOA)

The objective of the SFOA is to conduct rapid and focused analyses of targeted areas within your hospital that result in the identification of both concrete opportunities for operational and financial performance gains and a concise starting point for strategic planning.

 

Facility Decision-Support

Stroudwater assesses debt-service capacity, prepares internal forecasts, evaluates financing options, and prepares bond or loan packages to assist rural hospitals in determining the right amount of investment. We support management and board decision-making, often working in tandem with the hospital’s accounting firm.

 

Affiliation Strategies

Stroudwater developed the Affiliation Value Curve model to assist rural hospitals and their system partners in structuring effective relationships. Gone are the days of unequal affiliations. At Stroudwater, we believe all parties at the table can both contribute to, and benefit from, an affiliation.

 

Physician-Hospital Alignment

Stroudwater’s expertise in physician practice management, Rural Health Clinic operations, practice valuations, physician-compensation structures, and physician-hospital organizational development recognizes that successful hospital strategies rely on a medical-staff plan that generates alignment with hospital goals.

 

Revenue Cycle

Stroudwater Associates performs the following reviews and leads the following training workshops. The deliverable is a report clearly identifying opportunities for improvement and directions for how to implement them. The areas Stroudwater focuses on are:

  • Comprehensive Chargemaster and Revenue Cycle Review
  • Business Office and Patient Financial Services
  • Development of Training Protocols for Revenue Capture
  • Implementation of an Effective Revenue Control Process
  • Pricing Analysis
  • RAC Preparedness and Revenue Cycle Process Improvement
  • Revenue Process Capture Audits

Stroudwater consultants currently play or have played an active role in the national movement to improve rural healthcare, including participating in the Institute of Medicine’s committee on rural health, the National Rural Health Association’s Rural Health Congress and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Rural Hospital Issues Group, as well as authoring national studies on rural-hospital investment. We are often featured speakers at state or national rural hospital conferences addressing highly relevant topics including rural hospital sustainability in the new healthcare environment, optimal rural hospital affiliation strategies, and new physician alignment approaches.

Contact the Practice Leader