Synthesis Partnership

The Fishing Partnership Health Plan

Strategy   Identity   Capacity

The Fishing Partnership Health Plan (FPHP) was formed in 1997 to provide fishing families in Massachusetts with access to high-quality, affordable health care. Having proved itself to be an unqualified success as a demonstration project for eight years, the FPHP needed to make a transition to long-term sustainability and, possibly, expansion of its mandate to achieve the scale necessary to accomplish such sustainability.

FPHP asked Synthesis Partnership for guidance in strategy, organizational development and business planning. Synthesis Partnership examined all aspects of the organization and made recommendations for plan policies (enrollment policy, premium adjustments, handling of reserves, and investment policy), governance (governance structure. board size, policy changes), operations (managed care, reinsurance, management structure, information resources, outreach, and communications) and new initiatives (expansion, additional services, consulting opportunities, and formation of a community-based health plan). We also provided the framework for a vision statement and several alternative five-year budget scenarios.

I’m Too Young For This! Cancer Foundation (i[2]y)

Strategy   Identity   Capacity

i[2]y is a pioneering survivor-led cancer advocacy, research and support organization founded to end isolation and improve quality of life for young adults affected by cancer. Starting as a social networking website in January 2007, i[2]y experienced almost overwhelming growth and success. Within a month of its launch i[2]y was identified in The New York Times as a significant resource for young adults under 40. In June 2007 founder Matthew Zachary was appointed to the newly formed Google Health Advisory Council. In July i[2]y was named one of TIME Magazine Best 50 Websites of 2007. Along with all of this remarkable visibility came the challenge of making a rapid transition from a start-up to a mature organization, capable of making use of its opportunities to fulfill its mission and serve its constituencies. In November 2007 i[2]y asked Synthesis Partnership for assistance in developing its resources and infrastructure.

We began by providing structure, policies and procedures to i[2]y’s fledgling board and to its Young Adult Community (YAC), and management consulting to the executive director. We clarified the fundamental notion of i[2]y as a partnership of the online and the offline worlds, of Web 2.0 and a national (and international) volunteer network. For i[2]y, cutting edge Web 2.0 features were the easy part. We guided the conceptualization of the YAC as the other half of the effort. We determined the nature of communication and training needed to fully realize both the power of a young and unformed volunteer army and the value of its partnership with the Web 2.0 platform. We launched strategic and business planning processes, helped to shape fundraising case and marketing material, and worked with a fundraising consultant on grant proposals. At the end of our consulting assignment, Sam Frank agreed to join the board of directors.

Women & Infants’ Hospital

Strategy   Identity   Capacity   Facilities

The hospital administration asked Synthesis Partnership to examine the full range of facilities issues, and to offer a strategy and prioritized agenda for addressing them in the context of the mission of the hospital, the vision of the leaders of the institution and its individual units, and the dictates of sound business principles. Synthesis Partnership explored Women & Infants’ facilities, strategic objectives, organizational structure, operating procedures, and capital project planning and budgeting processes to identify key issues and opportunities. We suggested development of clear, detailed facilities standards and guidelines both to reduce costs and to reinforce identity and values through higher quality and greater consistency in the design of facilities. We defined a group of institutional core facilities (and suggested ways to concentrate scattered opportunistic rental sites) to create operational efficiencies, increased and ongoing flexibility, and new program options.

Our strategic facilities report indicated opportunities for saving time, raising quality and reducing costs through multi-year planning, and a variety of specific steps in project implementation, supplier acquisition and guidance, and annual review procedures. Based on our interpretations of the visions and values of hospital leaders, we recommended developing the patient-centered notion of the garden (or healing garden) as the underlying metaphor for the hospital (as distinct from the currently implied technological metaphor of a machine for curing). This way of thinking about the hospital captured the imagination of a broad spectrum of constituents, from doctors to administrators to patients. It has come to serve as a catalyst and a common reference point for a wide range of identity- and values-based explorations throughout the institution. In order to realize the maximum benefits from our observations, the hospital subsequently retained Synthesis Partnership to assist in the early stages of conceptualization, programming, budgeting and architect selection for several inpatient and outpatient facilities projects.

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