To say I’m proud of Abbeville Area Medical Center is a tremendous understatement. Truly, I am in awe.

In short, the board, the leaders and the very committed staff of this critical access hospital navigated the COVID-19 pandemic while, at the same time:

• Expanding existing services,
• Adding new ones,
• Improving the quality of care and the organization’s finances, and
• Positioning for their next 100 years of caring service.

Octave Leadership Advisory Services: How to Improve Hospital Performance

Abbeville Area Medical Center (AAMC) is an Octave Leadership Advisory Services client. That means the AAMC’s leaders and board of directors have unrivaled access to the expertise, discipline, best practices and resources needed to help independent hospitals flourish that Ovation Healthcare has honed as hospital operators and managers for more than 40 years.

Octave Leadership Advisory Services is caring strategic hospital management consulting and advisory services guided by our proprietary cornerstone methodology of 52 operating principles. Our long-term relationships initiate with an assessment of operations, finance and strategy, the development of the vision, priorities, and a plan as well as guidance to achieve the metrics and execute that plan.

Octave hospitals like AAMC have access to:

• Operating principles to guide and metrics and tools to track success,
• Experienced coaches who used to be CEOs, CFOs and hospital board members to participate in day-to-day operations and challenges and identify and groom future talent,
• The pedigree and professionals on the Octave Leadership Advisory Services staff as well as shared services to execute the plan,
• A community of peers and opportunities for support and collaboration to take advantage of lessons learned by other Octave hospitals, including CEO, Board Advisory and Chief Nursing Officer Councils,
• Leadership U, a multi-month educational and coaching program to strengthen the leadership capabilities of emerging rural healthcare leaders and potential hospital CEO candidates, and
• Ovation Healthcare’s Leadership Institute, leading-edge, in-person and virtual education and training of hospital leaders that features 80 courses and learning opportunities each year.

Octave Leadership Advisory Services: Improve Hospital Performance and Achieve Results

Octave Leadership Advisory Services works with hospitals throughout the country to achieve results, including:

• Octave Leadership Advisory Services recently partnered with Sierra Vista Hospital, New Mexico and Springfield Hospital, Vermont to remedy financial and operational solvency issues threatening the existence of quality local healthcare. Octave helped both hospitals with board support, executive leadership, financial and operational improvement, care transformation services and market positioning, and they now have much improved financials and operations with improved cash positions, enhanced services and identified strategic opportunities.
• Octave partnered with Jennie Stuart Health to implement Medicare reimbursement recommendations, and together, the partnership delivered a total of $4.4 million in additional revenue.
• In one year, Amplify Revenue Cycle Management, Octave’s revenue cycle management subsidiary, increased collections at Abbeville Area Medical Center by nearly $1.5 million.
• A small Midwestern hospital optimized staffing and reduced labor expenses by $2.5 million. No patient-facing clinical staff were impacted. As a result of the labor expense reduction and other workstreams to rapidly reduce the hospital’s profitability shortfall, Octave was able to secure a waiver from the bondholders.