At The Watershed Group, we work with organizations of every kind to assess areas in need of improvement and offer organizational redesign to enhance efficiency and productivity.

We energize organizations to seize those critical turning points so they may determine their future success. TWG tailors its services to the unique needs of every client giving each organization or individual exactly what they need to turn change into growth and success.

Organizational turning point moments may include:

• Periods of growth or decline
• New program or product development
• Operational design and organizational restructuring
• The need to operate with reduced resources
• New leadership and change in culture
• New marketplace competition
• Federal healthcare policy realignment

While many of our consulting engagements are focused on the hospice industry—where we have had tremendous success over the last decade—we also work with leadership/management teams in all types of organizations to help identify operational challenges and find solutions that lead to positive change. Often, solutions involve a combination of systems modification and culture changes.

Specific services include:

• Operational program assessments and evaluations
• Organizational design
• Strategic planning programs for Boards of Directors and leadership teams
• Strategic positioning
• Culture Change Evaluation and Plan
• Inpatient/Hospice House Feasibility Study and Design
• Admissions/Referral Department Evaluation
• Feasibility Studies for New Programs
• Development of Plans of Correction to Respond to State and Federal Surveys
• Business Plan Development
• Leadership/Board Retreats

Case Study

Hospice and Palliative Care of Western Colorado in Grand Junction, CO

Issue: The once-diminutive hospice organization was experiencing tremendous expansion. It had grown from serving 10 patients a day to more than 400, with 280 employees. While this was a positive development, any change can bring disruption and uncertainty. Administrators were uncertain how to change employees’ roles and transform operations to work more effectively in the new organization.

Solution: Patrice spent time coaching key executives, helping them deal with changes in their positions. She also made recommendations about role and position changes across the organization. And, after thoroughly analyzing processes and admission trends, she recommended systems and process improvements.

Result: The organization instituted the changes Patrice suggested and, as a result, saw continued growth with improved morale, admissions and lengths-of-stay and decreased turnover.

Clinical Program Evaluation

Staff at The Watershed Group will help you improve your clinical services by reviewing all aspects of your clinical operation. We also help you prepare for surveys or conduct follow-up on Plans of Correction after the survey.

Hospice House Development

Assess the need and financial viability of building a hospice house in your community. The Watershed Group will help you plan, build and create a home environment to care for terminally ill patients in your area. TWG staff will show you how to provide quality professional medical services that are reimbursed by insurance.

Leadership Training

Let The Watershed Group provide training to your current managers or new hires so they can help your organization grow and prosper. TWG will help prepare your staff to meet the challenges of succeeding in today’s competitive environment. Training is tailored to your needs and can be arranged on an ad hoc basis or on a continuing contract.

Management Retreats

A management retreat organized by The Watershed Group will empower your managers to lead your organization to success by using their innate creativity and imagination. At a retreat, your management team sees you in a different environment and you provide them with a setting more conducive to new ideas and synergy. One half to one-day retreats can be scheduled in settings that allow for the natural personalities of your team to shine outside of the formal environs of the corporate office.

Marketing Plans to Increase Growth

Improve the quality of your hospice care through development of better referral programs. The Watershed Group will help you reach patients in their most critical time of need, before they are at the “brink of death”, with earlier referrals and better communications programs in your community. TWG will also help your hospice improve the quality of patient care by increasing length of stay in hospice.

New Business Development

The Watershed Group will help you enter new markets to assure the long term survival and efficient use of existing resources. From physical plant to staff, TWG will help you assess your current status, the community needs and how you can generate business and/or services for your organization and community.

Financial Assessment

Revive a troubled healthcare entity with “cost containment and revenue maximization” from The Watershed Group. TWG will help you reexamine process, numbers and provide a detailed and sensitive assessment of all areas in your organization. TWG will also help guide your organization through the financial labyrinth of healthcare reimbursement.

New Program Development

Let The Watershed Group assist you with needs and resource assessment, new ideas and experimental programs that can move your hospice program to the next level. TWG is also available to evaluate your program ideas and to assist with their implementation.

Palliative Care Programs

Begin a Palliative Care Program with help from The Watershed Group. Offer pain and symptom management, emotional support and guidance for patients with chronic illnesses, years rather than months prior to death. You can provide compassionate care to patients still receiving active treatment and also increase the referrals to your hospice program.

Creative Programs — Arts Care and Kids Care

Create innovative hospice care programs for your patients and their families, using resources in your own community. The Watershed Group will help identify and mobilize these resources creatively and cost-effectively.

Rural Hospice Development

With experience developing one of the largest rural hospices in the country, The Watershed Group will help you with the creation of a new rural hospice or the assessment of an existing program. We’ll address the many differences between rural and urban hospices.

Organizational Design

The Watershed Group will help you recognize the need for organizational redesign to better meet the needs of your community. TWG’s compassionate yet candid review of your organization will help identify areas in need of change, to increase revenues without reducing services. Let us help you make the needed design changes to better serve your client base and improve your profit and loss statement.

Productivity Assessment

The Watershed Group will provide a sensitive, compassionate assessment of how you can improve efficiency while maintaining a high quality of care.

Mentoring New or Developing Managers

The Watershed Group will provide guidance to your management team on an ongoing basis, as they continue their development. On-site, telephone, or e-mail guidance allows new managers to gain confidence more quickly as they face daily challenges and learn their new responsibilities.

Program Assessment

The Watershed Group will review your organization to assess its strengths and weaknesses in a sensitive caring manner. TWG professionals will provide proposals for improvement in all facets of your organizational structure.

Project Development

The Watershed Group will provide the services necessary for a new organization startup or assist with the implementation of virtually any new component of your existing organization.

Strategic Planning

Develop a vision for your organization to follow during the evolutionary changes common to all entities in today’s fluid healthcare environment. Involving the board of directors, leadership team and entire staff will focus everyone on the mission of the organization and provide a road map to follow to ensure continued success.

Survival/Revival Plans

The Watershed Group offers an external assessment of organizational direction and survivability options. Our plans allow you to validate many of your own strategies prior to implementation. TWG will also assess options that might not be the best choices for you or your program’s well being.