COR Healthcare Market Strategist - Community Hospitals Leverage Strengths

by Karen Corrigan and Robert Ryan, MD

The basis for U.S. hospital competition is changing radically.  Hospitals face increased expectations for superior quality from every quarter—a formidable challenge for all competitors, but especially daunting for community hospitals, rural facilities, and small health systems, which may believe they lack the resources to undertake and sustain major clinical improvement initiatives.

Yet small community hospitals do have their own considerable strengths, which they can leverage to compete more effectively with academic medical centers and larger healthcare networks for services that are appropriately delivered in the community hospital setting. For these, it’s a myth that 'bigger is always better.