"Today's healthcare leaders should not underestimate the value of their hospital's brand and connecting employees with it," advises Jon Headlee, President and CEO, Ten Adams, a healthcare brand and marketing company. "In many organizations, there are huge gaps between their brand promise and the people, who are the culture of the organization," he adds.

Discussing the growing importance of reinforcing brand consistency between a healthcare organization's core promise to the market and the focus of the people who bring it to life through their actions, at the upcoming marcus evans National Healthcare CXO Summit Fall 2012, in Dallas, Texas, October 21-23, Headlee highlights the vital role that middle managers play and why integration between strategy, culture and marketing is crucial for a healthcare organization's success.

What is missing in the healthcare industry today?

Too often healthcare is delivered in silos without the benefit of a shared vision which unites the organization. Healthcare is an extremely complex business and without integration between strategy, culture and marketing initiatives the best-laid strategic plans fail for the lack of reinforcing consistency between senior leadership's direction, the day-to-day focus of the people who are the organization, and the core promise and messaging which defines the organization in the eyes of its customers and stakeholders.

How would this help the bottom line?

Power comes from visionary leadership committed to building a quality work environment that aligns employees' best efforts in support of solid business strategy. An engaged workforce focused on continually improving business activities is a powerful combination. The result is an energized and empowered staff and a true competitive advantage that cannot easily be replicated or copied. In this way, integration of and the reinforcing nature of strategy, culture and marketing truly do build strong brands and drive greater business results.

What additional demands will the prospect of healthcare reform place on healthcare organizations?

Our nation's healthcare system is at a critical crossroads. Unsustainable growth in healthcare costs poses a serious threat to our national fiscal integrity. The current fee-for-service payment system undermines healthcare providers' efforts to invest in new approaches to raising the "value" of healthcare.

Accountable Care Organizations are being recognized as a promising new payment model that could successfully start to reward substantive improvements in the efficiency of care delivery while bending the cost curve through the distribution of shared savings. Whether it comes through federal reform efforts or the responsible actions of forward-sighted healthcare organizations, the answer lies in new, patient-centered methods of care which foster, enable and reward clinical integration across a patient's lifetime. The old hierarchical ways simply do not support the new levels of care that payers expect healthcare organizations to deliver. As clinical integration becomes more of an economic necessary, healthcare organizations must work to develop new interconnecting, reinforcing relationships with and among staff members and stakeholders.

Healthcare organizations working with Ten Adams benefit significantly from integration between staff, physicians and their brand promise. Integration has a direct, reinforcing impact on care delivery, strengthens competitive positioning, and improves market leverage. A distinctive and powerful brand promise is critical in creating new relationships that will help prepare healthcare organizations to lead the industry's transition from a volume-driven orientation to a value-focused model of improving health status within the populations they serve.

About the National Healthcare CXO Summit Fall 2012

This unique forum will take place at The Westin Stonebriar, Dallas, Texas, October 21-23, 2012. Offering much more than any conference, exhibition or trade show, this exclusive meeting will bring together esteemed industry thought leaders and solution providers to a highly focused and interactive networking event. The Summit includes presentations on physician alignment strategies, perfecting the ACO model, improving patient satisfaction and experience, cost-containment case studies, the future of the US healthcare system and much more.

For more information please send an email to info@marcusevanscy.com or visit the event website here.

Please note that the Summit is a closed business event and the number of participants strictly limited.