Partnerships & Value at the Center of Shields’ Strategy for Success.
Tom Shields, President Shields Health Care Group
Ask anyone in healthcare who Shields Health Care Group is and you may hear “The MRI guys.” Ask President Tom Shields and you’d get a different answer. The business leader, who oversees the statewide network, tells a story of a strategically built system that started as one center and is still growing. He’d describe corporate culture – quality, value, family – and how it’s emulated in every Shields location. He’d speak about trust – something the top healthcare organizations in the nation put in Shields daily. And he’d talk growth strategy, because for this president, it’s only the beginning of what he recognizes as the greatest opportunity in the past 25 years. Collaboration is the name of the game – and Shields Health Care Group is winning.
The Massachusetts healthcare landscape has seen dramatic change over the past decade, and acquisitions and mergers are common. While many are going down this path, Shields has triumphantly navigated this market by actively embracing what others are just talking about: partnerships and value.
Since becoming president in 2010, Tom has added eight new joint-venture partnerships to the network, including Tufts Medical Center and MetroWest Medical Center for PET/CT, Lowell General Hospital for MRI, Winchester Hospital for MRI, Cape Cod Healthcare for MRI and radiation therapy, and New England Baptist Hospital for an outpatient surgical center. While partnerships are not new for Shields, the difference in these recent joint ventures is that Shields is no longer being sought after for collaborations that are exclusively for MRI.
“Our success in MRI has naturally led to opportunities for diversification,” says President Tom Shields. “It’s become vital to our long-term strategy, and we continue to pursue opportunities through current and new partnerships.”
The Shields Company actually began with a nursing home in 1972. Then in 1980, Tom Shields Sr. and his wife launched an outpatient kidney dialysis center. Just six years later, they transitioned into diagnostic imaging. Now Shields’ diverse service line of MRI, PET/CT and radiation therapy has grown to include support services through Shields ProCare, an imaging maintenance company, and Shields Real Estate, a separate company that manages Shields facilities and development ventures.
“Today, hospitals need a partner that can do more than just put up the investment; they need one that can manage the business while promoting and supporting growth,” Shields says. “What make Shields an attractive partner are our financial and organizational means to develop a service model that offers both operational efficiency and value.”
Lowell General Hospital’s president, Jody White, can attest to the Shields value, saying, “We were looking for a partner that was right for the hospital for the long term and could help support and strengthen our future. Shields has a certain reputation – it’s their people, quality and service. It’s doing what they say they’re going to. They make things happen.”
And make things happen they do, as Shields embarked on a new development project this past fall with New England Baptist Hospital (NEBH). Staying true to their strategy of diversification and collaboration, Shields and NEBH opened an ambulatory musculoskeletal surgery center in Dedham.
The outpatient care center features eight operating rooms, MRI and X-ray services, outpatient rehabilitation, physicians’ offices, and pain management. Most important, these services are provided at a better value than at any large academic medical center.
“It’s of great importance that we deliver exceptional services at a level of efficiency that enables us to provide our patients with the best value,” says Shields. “We’re bringing the best together in one location, and the consumer is winning.”
Shields has played multiple roles in this venture – first conceptually, then in building development through Shields Real Estate, and finally as the co-managing director and an imaging tenant.
“We wanted to create a consortium approach to building and operating a new comprehensive outpatient musculoskeletal care center with valued partners that shared our vision for an exceptional experience with very high quality in a lower-cost setting,” says Trish Hannon, CEO of NEBH. “Having worked with the Shields organization in other Massachusetts communities, I knew that it would be a great opportunity to engage them as a true partner. It has been a very successful outcome with a terrific team of NEBH physicians and Shields coming together with the Baptist.”
When many other healthcare leaders are pulling back in these times, Shields is pushing forward with a business model that will serve the industry for years to come. It’s not acquisition, it’s collaboration – and the future of healthcare. Rather than competing, Shields is embracing the concept of collaborative care at an exceptional value and doing what is right by the patient.
“Shields’ value proposition of quality and price is ripe for today’s market, and we’re having conversations with leaders who recognize that,” says Shields. “To stay ahead, you can’t continue on the way that you have. It is of great importance to respond to change. That’s what we are doing at Shields.”
Lisa Campisi 774-328-2397