Winners. Strategies of ten of America's most successful hospitals.

Through our work in strategy consulting, we knew that there were hospitals significantly outperforming their competitors in markets nationwide. In 1988, we set out to develop a better understanding of why these hospitals have been so successful. We isolated metropolitan areas and identified "winners" in each of those markets by drawing upon data from the American Hospital Association, Medicare cost reports, and market research analysis. We examined market share performance, customer preference, and relative financial performance. We then created a short list of hospitals that shared the common characteristic of success but were likely to be different enough to provide some varying perspectives. Included in the list was the largest hospital in the HCA stable, a Catholic hospital, a Harvard teaching hospital, and a Florida hospital that had bounded back from near insolvency. Initial analysis was followed by hundreds of hours of personal interviews with hospital executives and doctors. This article is an overview of what we found. The results of the investigation will be published as a book.