Engaging Wye River - Targeted Services

The experience of WRGH principals uniquely qualifies us to facilitate and champion change. For over 6 years we have applied our skills to benefit both public and private institutions. Within our mission, we provide expertise on a project basis to organizations seeking to adapt to changes in the marketplace and public policy communities. We understand the dilemmas facing different healthcare stakeholders and the perspectives of physicians, hospital CEOs, business leaders, insurance executives, public health officials, and public policy experts, as a result of our extensive work in several business and healthcare related disciplines.

We are sought out by some of our nation's leading healthcare trade and professional associations and businesses, as well as governmental entities and foundations. These organizations benefit from our experience and insights from collaborative projects, input into policy development by Congress and federal regulators, and findings from cross-functional meetings and workgroups.

Healthcare trade and professional associations include the National Association of Chain Drug Stores; the American Cancer Society; the National Pharmaceutical Council; the American Hospital Association; the Massachusetts Hospital Association; the HMO Alliance; and Memorial Hermann Health System.

Business interests include the US Chamber of Commerce; the Spokane Regional Chamber of Commerce; Litton-PRC; the Tri-State Healthcare Coalition; PricewaterhouseCoopers; AON; Jabas Benefits Consulting Group; Caremark and everythingHEALTH.

Governmental entities, include the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA); the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ); IRS; and the Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

Foundations include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; the National Chamber Foundation; the National Association of Chain Drug Stores Foundation; and the Ball Memorial Hospital Foundation.

We provide the following types of services for these organizations.

• Strategic Intelligence: WRGH principals are skilled at helping organizations to better understand opportunities in a new space and to develop effective business and public policy strategies. We vett ideas and concepts one on one with informed thought leaders and we conduct "group brainstorming processes" to bring focused expertise and diverse viewpoints to bear on solving a problem. These tools are useful in analyzing complex, multidimensional problems.
  Such strategic intelligence provides important information supporting the ability to successfully analyze an environment, whether it is a segment of the public or private marketplace, or the current legislative, regulatory or administrative climate. The "360-degree" assessments inform the organization about assets and liabilities, potential strengths and weaknesses prior to taking a particular course of action in pursuit of a strategic goal or objective. This insight can be applied with customers, competitors, suppliers and regulators. It can enable entities to better understand perceptions about the organization and its products, or to explore alternative approaches to public affairs or business objectives.
• Expert Facilitation: We are highly skilled at group facilitation and inter-disciplinary problem solving. As experts, we provide informed content input, adding thoughtful structure to complex discussions. In our work, we use a unique process to identify and advance commonality across disparate interests. First, we believe it is necessary to carefully define the specifics of the issue and achieve consensus on the problem. We then discuss opportunities and challenges, and debate the merits of different perspectives. Once a level of agreement is achieved, the next step is to deliberate on priorities and decide on action including both strategic and tactical steps. The final element is to delineate responsibilities.
• Program Development: Our skills, knowledge, and experience enhance the development and delivery of programs for strategy meetings, policy and practice seminars, collaborative workshops, conferences, and executive retreats.
• Research & Reports: We develop and publish a variety of reports on contemporary health and healthcare issues. These documents are prepared from literature reviews, meeting proceedings and interviews with healthcare and community leaders. For a complete list of WRGH/ FAHCL publications, see our website, http://www.wrgh.org/pubs.asp.