The mission of Community Hospital Corporation (CHC) is to “preserve and enhance community-based hospitals in the least obtrusive way.” This Plano, Texas-based organization is led by president and CEO Mike Williams, who helped found the organization in 1996. During a one-on-one, in-depth interview, Williams discussed the purpose and mission of this remarkable organization.
The original motivation behind the chartering of CHC was a concern that many community-controlled, not-for-profit hospitals were being acquired by larger for-profit institutions when they really didn’t need to be. Now, two decades later, this concern is paramount. Williams said, “There has been more merger and acquisition activity in the last few years around the country than in the previous decade.”
Oftentimes, these mergers occur because of the ‘scare factor’—the worry or belief that if you don’t merge, you will not be able to compete and survive in the future. And some of these smaller hospital boards just do not have a full understanding of their options. CHC acts proactively to educate community-controlled hospital boards and give them an alternative to merging with larger, investor-owned institutions.
“If an organization is on the brink of failure and the investor-owned sector can come in and turn it around, what is it that they can do that the not-for-profit sector could not do? That’s really been the key to our turnaround mentality from the very beginning. We have to marry the mission of the not-for-profit sector to the business acumen of the investor-owned sector.”
CHC is defined as a tax-exempt 509(a)(1) organization that is supportive of non-profit, 501(c)(3) organizations. CHC owns, manages and consults with hospitals through three distinct organizations—CHC Hospitals, CHC Consulting, and CHC ContinueCARE, which share a common purpose of preserving and protecting community hospitals.
Williams explained, “We are getting the word out that we provide an option for community hospitals as they begin to ask themselves what it is they have to do differently in order to be sustainable.”
When CHC first enters into a working relationship with a community hospital, they often lead with an operational assessment that focuses on:
- Strategy
- Operational Productivity
- Information Technology
- Revenue Cycle
- Supply Chain
The resulting action plan provides the hospital board and management a roadmap toward improvement and future success. Williams explained, “Many of these hospitals have a board that is not engaged or educated about what they have to do to be successful. Thus, the board may not hold management accountable for understanding and leading the organization in today’s dynamic environment.”
According to Williams, CHC begins with education of the board, helping to provide hospital leadership with the tools and perspective they need in order to create a successful, sustainable organization, enabling them to carry out their mission of serving the community. CHC comes in with a velvet glove, offering solid but unobtrusive guidance to get community hospitals back on the road to success.
As one example, CHC guides community hospitals toward opportunities for supply chain modification and cost savings. Williams explained that many of these organizations are not dealing with a single group purchasing organization (GPO), and they also lack the tools to ensure that they are achieving appropriate tier pricing. CHC provides those tools and helps the hospital board and leadership develop stronger business acumen, which is something Williams asserts is critical for future organizational success:
“There have been many people who have come before me, and before others like me in this field, who have been servant oriented and humble in their interactions with people. I think that the thing that we have to marry with that, as I said about our mission, is business acumen. I think the future of healthcare is really going to be reflective of its leadership. And we need that leadership to consist of individuals who are humble and yet possess tremendous business acumen, or can surround themselves with tremendous business acumen. And that’s what is going to make the difference.”