Partners HealthCare announces five-year strategic plan and launch of system rebranding

On Wednesday, November 27, Partners HealthCare President and CEO Anne Klibanski, MD, unveiled a five-year strategic plan and announced plans for rebranding the health care system, which serves more than 1.5 million patients and receives nearly $2 billion in research funding annually.

“Our patients are at the center of all we do. The overall aim of our strategy and new name is to create the premier integrated health care system of the future, built on the strong reputations of our academic medical centers,” said Dr. Klibanski. “We will increasingly work as a single health care system that delivers excellence across the full spectrum of health care and is enabled by the strength of research, innovation, new technologies, our valued employees and work we do in communities – work that will impact health worldwide.”

Themes of the Five-Year Strategic Plan

Senior leaders from across the entire system, including academic medical centers, specialty and community hospitals, physicians and insurance company, are focused on developing five strategic themes:

• Reinforce for patients that we are the “go to” place for care and develop cross-academic medical centers of excellence
• Consolidate and expand our national and international impact on health
• Build on our strong track record for innovations in diagnostics, therapeutics, devices and data analytics for leading patient care and impact on the health of the communities we serve
• Focus on a value-based model that delivers affordable primary care, secondary care and behavioral health care in the community and makes patient-centered programs and services central to delivering better outcomes for our patients
• Further serve our communities by working to address a leading community health issue

“As we build both our system strategy and our new identity, we will focus on how we leverage the full range of capabilities of our world-class clinicians and staff at our academic medical centers, renowned specialty hospitals, our community hospitals and our community sites,” noted Dr. Klibanski. “Our goal is to have an even greater impact on our patients and the health of the communities we serve locally, nationally and globally.”

Transitioning to Mass General Brigham

Based on feedback from patients and employees and extensive market research, Partners will begin the work to transition to Mass General Brigham.

The initial rebranding efforts began a year ago with a goal to strengthen regional, national and international recognition for the ongoing work of the health care system. Last night, after careful consideration, the Partners board voted unanimously to approve changing the name of the system to one that more closely aligns with the system’s world renowned academic medical centers; Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, two of the strongest and most trusted health care brands.

“The Partners HealthCare name has served our organization well for 25 years and has helped us to become the strong system that we are today, but we are moving forward to rebrand to better articulate what we offer patients and more closely reflect the vision for our system,” said Dr. Klibanski. “Introducing our new name and implementing our strategy will require careful planning and collaboration. Our next step is to actively engage in a thoughtful process for how we best invest our dollars, always keeping patients and clinical care our top priority.”