Clay Ritchey is the Chief Executive Officer of Evariant. Clay has more than 20 years of experience driving growth and innovation in market leading healthcare technology organizations. As CEO, Clay is passionate about working with healthcare providers, technology partners, and his employees to transform the way that consumers, patients, and providers engage across the care continuum to build deeper relationships resulting in sustainable growth for Evariant’s customers.
Prior to joining Evariant, Clay served as GM and Chief Marketing Officer of Imprivata, the healthcare information technology security leader, where he helped build one of the most trusted brands in the market. Clay was also formerly the CEO of Equinox Healthcare, a post-acute healthcare services company. At Equinox Healthcare, Clay created a scalable, high performing care delivery platform while driving growth and improved patient outcomes. He held senior marketing and strategy executive roles at leading healthcare information technology firms such as Hill-Rom IT Solutions and Kronos Incorporated. Clay received his MBA from Harvard Business School and his BSEE, with Highest Distinction, from The Pennsylvania State University.
How does your background in digital marketing and healthcare technology influence your longterm outlook on Evariant?
Evariant is focused on helping healthcare marketers earn a seat at the executive table. We provide a strategic function that is driving smarter revenue and profitability growth that is directly attributable to world class digital marketing strategies and execution. Being a marketing executive most of my career, I have faced many of these same challenges and perceptions of marketing as a cost center and not a strategic profit center. I was able to overcome these perceptions by embracing and leveraging the power of digital marketing and marketing analytics tools to not only inform strategy but tangibly deliver a positive, indisputable ROI.
I am very excited for the potential that Evariant has to serve this great need in the healthcare vertical which is underrepresented by horizontal solutions that don’t meet healthcare’s specific needs. At a time when the entire healthcare business model is in flux – as margins shrink, reimbursement tightens, and fee for service is giving way to fee for value – Evariant is poised to help the modern healthcare organization navigate these issues and turn them into opportunities in local markets. Evariant’s digital marketing strategies and big data analytics tools help some of the largest and most respected names in healthcare improve their market share, grow strategic service line revenue, improve payer mix and extend patient lifetime value.
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How is Evariant poised to enable health systems in accelerating growth potential and connecting with consumers in the 2017 market landscape?
Many of Evariant’s clients have seen a substantial business impact from implementing our platform. Everything we do is focused on helping health systems optimize growth through smarter patient acquisition and retention. We have countless examples of real revenue growth our clients have been able to drive. In one example, a client discharge and reminder care program, which is powered by the Evariant Engagement Center solution, generated $17M in additional revenue. In another, an academic medical center added over $2B in Net Patient Revenue from marketing campaigns. That’s real growth acceleration by helping systems think differently about how to engage consumers, retain patients and grow patient lifetime value.
What are the top priorities for the modern healthcare consumer?
Many factors are contributing to increased consumerism in healthcare as patients are expecting to consume healthcare with the same transparency for quality, price and customer service as they experience in their other everyday purchases. Significant growth in high deductible health plans where patients are paying more out of pocket for their care, more accessibility, and convenient alternate channels for care such as urgent care clinics and tele-health encounters, and prolific access to online provider and treatment information are just a few factors empowering the consumer to be more engaged in their healthcare choices. 1 in 20 Google searches are for health-related information. Consumers have more power today, and they know it. When systems make it hard to get the answers they are looking for or conveniently access the care they need, consumers look for a new provider that makes it easier. It’s the number one reason people change doctors. We see more and more systems focusing on the experience and providing consumers with the right information at the right time – outside the walls of the hospital or doctor’s office.
What are the biggest challenges that health systems face?
There is a lot of uncertainty in the market today. Competition is shifting rapidly. There’s an enormous amount of consolidation taking place, at the same time more retail clinics are popping up and drawing customers in for convenience. Health leaders have to find a way to maintain their position in the market, strategically grow their high value service lines and retain their patients leading to increased patient lifetime value. We believe that the best way to do that is through smarter patient acquisition and retention strategies that leverage vast amounts of consumer and patient data to create experiences that feel 1:1.
What occupies your time outside the office?
I love to spend time with my wife, three young children and our golden retriever. We enjoy boating, fishing, bird watching and visiting downtown Boston and the surrounding beaches. I’m also on the school board of our children’s Catholic school where I have a chance to give back.