Client Overview

Recognizing the importance of behavioral health access for population health, the South Carolina legislature allocated $100M to pilot a centralized behavioral health hub model in the Pee Dee region. This region was selected as a critical starting point due its rural nature and having the state’s lowest provider-to-patient ratio. This grant created a unique opportunity to not only expand access, but to fundamentally redesign behavioral health delivery into a coordinated, community-centered model.

The Challenge

Care in the Pee Dee was fragmented across multiple providers from FQHC’s to competing health systems, resulting in significant coordination gaps. To secure the $100M state grant, the region needed to move beyond these silos and present a collaborative model.

This demanded historically independent stakeholders align on a unified vision and determine how to centralize disparate services into a single hub. KCG was retained to navigate these competing institutional priorities and establish a governance structure for collective decision-making. This framework was essential to transitioning behavioral healthcare in the region toward a hub-and-spoke model while adhering to the strict regulatory and financial parameters of the state funding.

The Solution

KCG partnered with regional stakeholders to create a centralized behavioral health model, leading efforts from initial visioning through state approval. This work was executed across three phases:

Stakeholder Identification & Alignment

Identified key regional BH providers [McLeod Health, Hope Health, MUSC Health, etc.] to form a governance structure which provided the foundation for joint strategic visioning, allowing leadership to move toward aligned decision-making.

Visioning & State Proposal Development

Facilitated the governance group to define a shared regional vision for decanting services into a centralized hub. This vision was translated into a comprehensive proposal and workforce analysis, which ultimately secured $100M in grant funding.

Transition to Strategic Implementation

With funding secured, converted the governance group from a visioning body into a project oversight board focused on formalizing the roadmap for execution and ensuring continued multi-organizational accountability as the hub moved toward activation.


About the Author
Katie Wagner
Senior Consultant

Katie Wagner, Senior Consultant, joined KCG in Summer 2022. In her role, she leads and supports complex healthcare strategy and performance initiatives, with a focus on operational execution, governance, and cross-functional alignment. Katie brings experience overseeing large-scale projects that require disciplined planning, stakeholder coordination, and measurable outcomes.

Since joining KCG, Katie has played a central role in the build, operationalization, and activation of a $100 million Behavioral Health hospital. During the proposal and planning phases, she conducted market and growth analyses to validate regional demand and inform service development. She also established and supported a joint governance and decision-making structure among community and health system partners, focused on metrics and performance tracking to ensure the facility’s longevity, mission, and accessibility. More recently, Katie has supported the operational alignment of two health systems, partnering with executive and functional leaders to align operating models, standardize processes, and support enterprise-wide decision-making. Across engagements, Katie is known for translating strategic intent into executable plans, building effective operating structures, and leveraging metrics and performance tracking to drive informed decisions.

Prior to joining KCG, Katie served as Associate Administrator at HCA Healthcare’s Trident Medical Center, where she led multiple departments and partnered with multidisciplinary teams to advance care delivery goals. Her work focused on operational optimization, process improvement, employee engagement, and cost management, contributing to improved performance and quality outcomes.

Katie earned both her Master of Health Administration and Bachelor of Arts from the University of Florida.