Hospitals Could Learn a Thing or Two from Higher Education

By Jenn Riggle

Newsweek published an interesting article that looked at whether the recession is killing the liberal arts degree. According to a new study by Michigan State University professor Roger Baldwin, the number of liberal-arts colleges dwindled from 212 in 1990 to 136 in 2009.

While smaller, less endowed colleges seem to be most affected by the recession, well-known colleges like Amherst, Middlebury, The College of the Holy Cross and the University of Richmond remain strong. Why? Because they have well-established reputations and strong brand ambassadors who help with recruitment efforts and endowments.

It got me thinking that community hospitals could learn a lot from these schools. Here are some key learnings:

Focus on What You Do Best: Small liberal arts colleges can’t be everything to all people, but they can do a few things really well. The same is true for community hospitals. Maybe you have a great maternity department or orthopedics program. Be known for a single service line and let it serve as a halo for your other services.  

Know Your Customers: Having worked at a small women’s college, I know colleges have an intimate knowledge about the types of students they attract, including their strengths and weaknesses. Community hospitals need to have the same kind of knowledge about the communities they serve. Maybe your community has a large number of people who die from cardiac disease or maybe your town is located near a ski resort and has a large number of people arriving in your Emergency Dept. with broken limbs each winter. Knowing this information can help you design programs that can dramatically improve the health of your community.  

Serve as Community Resource: Small liberal arts colleges serve as cultural centers for the communities they serve, bringing in national speakers, plays and musical groups. By the same token, community hospitals can serve as a healthcare resource for their community. Your medical experts can use blogs or community talks to address specific health issues and teach people how to live healthier lives. They can also use social media like Twitter and their Facebook page to share health information and become the place people go to for health information.   

Provide Personalized Experience: One of the reasons people like to attend smaller colleges is they want the advantages of smaller classes and individualized attention. The same is true for smaller hospitals. People want to have their doctor’s office return their calls, receive personalized care and to put it simply, people want to “go where everyone knows your name.”   

Leverage Your Alumni: Key to the success of any college is the strength of their alumni association. They not only provide valuable funding, they also provide valuable references and help recruit future students. The same is true for hospitals. Your patients (and your employees) serve an important role as donors and brand ambassadors.   

Adapt to Circumstances: Over the years, many liberal arts college have had to adapt to a changing environment. A number of women’s colleges, like Vassar College and Mary Washington College (now the University of Mary Washington) have gone co-ed. Others have reinvented themselves into “professional colleges,” adding business, communications and allied health programs. Community hospitals are also need to adapt, whether it’s adding new programs to meet community needs or evolving from a “community hospital” to “regional medical center.” Didn’t Shakespeare say that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet?”

Community hospitals play an important role, serving as the economic engines for the communities they serve. By taking a page from the higher ed playbook, community hospitals can continue to be relevant and survive in today’s increasingly competitive healthcare environment.

Photo of Vassar College courtesy of milkpeony.