Strategic Alliance in Healthcare

Strategic alliance is usually an official relationship between two or more organizations to pursue a set of joint goals or to meet a critical business need while continuing to remain independent organizations. Strategic alliances can be very useful in healthcare as a business when common goals are set based on the resources of the organizations. The final goal is to increase your ability for success. As the company expands its core business of healthcare service, often they also participate in different new areas of services that they are not proficient; aligning with a company who can help with that part is often the key. In the Greater Memphis area, Methodist healthcare in Memphis has aligned with several organizations to provide services to its customers. One of their key alignments is with Health-South rehabilitation, a national leader in inpatient rehabilitation.  As the patients are discharged from the Methodist hospitals often they are in need of inpatient rehabilitation. A similar alliance has been with the signature health, another national provider in Skilled Nursing and long term care.  In both the scenarios, the expertise required to successfully manage the business is complicated and needs plenty of resources. Aligning with the organizations who are experts in this area helps both the organizations. Alliances are common throughout the healthcare industry be it in Rehabilitation, Lab, pharmacy or food and nutrition, the goal remains the same, providing care while maintaining the competitiveness.

 Disclaimer: Opinions expressed are solely personal and do not express the views or opinions of any other person or entity.

Sources: Gaining and Sustaining Competitive Advantage by J. Barney

                http://www.methodisthealth.org/
                http://www.caycon.com/blog/2014/05/how-is-that-strategic-alliance-working-out/