C-Suite Considerations: Is an Expert Advisor the Sub-Specialist Who Can Revive Your Health System’s Financial Viability So You Can Achieve More?

Read Time: 2 minutes

By: Heather Easterling and Brad Myers

Hope for healing the nation’s hospitals and health systems following the pains of the pandemic seemed to be promising recently, as hospital revenues trended upward in 2023 and got off to a strong start in 2024 both from a volume and revenue perspective. Newer data, however, suggests that a full recovery may not be on the horizon just yet, with first quarter volume and revenue starting to slip. Outpatient revenue, for one, fell by as much as 5% year over year.

As a C-Suite executive, you may be tasked with avoiding a “relapse” of sorts by carefully navigating today’s unique challenges and creating a customized plan for your hospital that helps to ensure financial stability and the ability to continue delivering exceptional patient care. Much like a patient care plan, this should involve close collaboration between all stakeholders and external partners as well. But in an area as complex as the health system pharmacy – which can generate critical revenue for your health system at a time its needed most – you may need more than a traditional consultant.

Consider a patient with a rare disease or a particularly complex case. In addition to their core care team, which may include a general specialist, they often enlist the expertise of sub-specialist – someone with in-depth knowledge, guidance, and capabilities on a very specific subject that go beyond what a general specialist could provide. As McKinsey and Company recommends, exploring innovative and nontraditional partnerships with your distributor can help identify new revenue opportunities, insulate your health system from certain financial risks, elevate the patient experience, and more. At McKesson, our Professional & Advisory Services (P&AS) team is your health system’s dedicated sub-specialist. With our experts’ strong clinical and business industry backgrounds, unique problem-solving acumen, and holistic approach to mitigating your health system’s most important pain points, we are committed to helping you achieve more for the business of pharmacy.

A prescription for success

Traditional pharmacy consultants have long provided valuable insights and recommendations in a broader sense. However, the dynamic nature of healthcare – with the emergence of innovative technologies, unprecedented regulatory challenges, and other considerations – demands a more integrated and comprehensive approach. Unlike conventional consultants, our P&AS advisors’ firsthand knowledge, experience, and industry expertise – each having spent decades in various health system pharmacy roles, including Chief Pharmacy Officer and Director of Pharmacy – enable us to address the operational, financial, and strategic facets of your pharmacy services with tailored solutions that align with your organizational goals and drive measurable improvements.

One of the primary benefits of engaging with our expert advisors is the potential to enhance your financial performance. Pharmacy services, more now than ever before, have the potential to act as significant revenue driver for health systems, and improving these operations can yield substantial financial benefits. Our advisors work closely with your team to identify inefficiencies, streamline workflows, and implement best practices that maximize revenue capture and reduce costs. By leveraging data analytics and performance metrics, we can help to uncover opportunities to increase revenue streams and strengthen your financial integrity overall.

More than a one-time consulting engagement, a strategic partnership with our P&AS team is aimed at driving long-term success. Our advisors work collaboratively with your leadership to develop and execute a comprehensive plan through the transfer of knowledge, unique access to McKesson’s exclusive tools and technologies, and ongoing support and mentorship that helps your team build the internal capacity to sustain improvements and continue advancing your pharmacy operations. The result is a more robust and financially viable health system that can better withstand the pressures of the current healthcare environment and prepare for new woes that may lie ahead.

Wellness within reach

Like the countless patients who rely on a specialist to access more comprehensive, custom-tailored care that can better their outcomes, your health system can benefit by partnering with an expert advisor – and you don’t have to look far to find the help you need. As your trusted distribution partner, we’re already here. To learn more about leveraging the expertise of McKesson’s Professional & Advisory Services team to improve your pharmacy operations and help restore, preserve, or increase the financial health and viability of your institution so you can achieve more, contact us today.

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