Increase competitive edge — Tucson Medical Center

Member: Tucson Medical Center, Tucson, Arizona

Mimi Coomler was appointed to lead Tucson Medical Center (TMC) as chief executive officer at a challenging time. It was September 2021, so she needed to build a strategy as TMC Health's flagship 600-bed hospital in Tucson, Arizona, emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic. She turned to her relationship team at Mayo Clinic to see if she could use Health Care Consulting to gain insight into Mayo Clinic's strategic planning process.

"When I was the chief operations officer, Mayo Clinic had become a go-to resource, so when we were looking to build our recovery and growth strategy, I turned again to this trusted resource," Coomler says. "We needed to develop a strategic plan that would support our health system's plan and guide us out of the pandemic and into growth."

Gaining insights

After outlining the consulting project, Coomler says she was connected with four Mayo Clinic subject matter experts with whom she met over a six-month period.

"We had multiple Zoom conversations," she says. "They broke down the Mayo Clinic way of building strategy. A big part is having a framework, so the plan grows with you. We talked about defining the process, understanding competition and using analytics. We spent quite a bit of time on the importance of having a decision-making process for resources."

According to Coomler, the Mayo Clinic experts also offered feedback as she built the TMC plan in tandem with consultations. "The consultants were incredibly helpful thought partners to help us see things we might have missed because we were in the weeds of it," she says.

An area of insight was around capital budgeting. "TMC has used top-down decision-making for our largest investments," Coomler says. "Mayo Clinic's use of oversight committees embraces shared decision-making. Essentially, your peers review your capital requests and accept or reject them based on how well each request aligns with strategy. This way the budget benefits from better inputs and insights."

Moving forward

TMC's new three-year strategic plan was launched in January 2023.

"All of the strategy-building work was happening at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic when, like other hospitals, we were recovering financially," Coomler says. "You can't launch a strategy when the strategy is to recover financially. It was great to have a partner in Mayo Clinic to guide our work on the strategic plan while the hospital remained focused on working to improve margins. The ability to deliver a fresh, new plan without distracting our operational team was amazing."

Coomler adds, "Hospital leadership and staff now have a great sense of confidence. We are in control. Everyone knows the plan and what their role is. The new strategic plan has really helped provide clarity to our team."