GROUNDSWELL INSIGHT

Lance Lunsford currently serves as senior partner at Groundswell Health, LLC, a company he co-founded in Austin, Texas, focusing on strategic custom communication programs for health care organizations. Previously, he served as senior vice president of marketing and communications for the Texas Hospital Association, overseeing all strategic messaging related to legislative and regulatory affairs, including issues relating to health care delivery and finance. He also managed its for-profit subsidiary as its president and CEO. Prior to joining THA, Lunsford worked as director of marketing for UMC Health System, a large hospital system located in Lubbock, Texas. As the teaching hospital for Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lunsford’s work featured marketing around the system’s Level One Trauma Center, cancer center, certified burn unit, and a primary care practice management group. At UMC, Lunsford oversaw an internal advertising agency to produce strategic messaging and business development measures across the health system’s myriad of programs and services. Lunsford planned and executed advertising and public relations campaigns directed at various UMC service lines utilizing traditional and new media platforms. His work at UMC focused on strategic performance marketing practices designed to actively engage consumers while also measuring and tracking audience response and volume growth in various service lines. Lunsford was recognized at UMC for overseeing strategies that affected patient volume increases at the UMC Heart Center. Designing and implementing MyUMC Heart Plan, which centered on its underutilized Cardiac Health Evaluation Clinic to address non-emergent patients, the program accounted for significant downstream revenue in the facility’s nuclear medicine, cath lab, and cardiac rehab services. Lunsford also implemented and oversaw production on various strategic messaging and business development endeavors including UMC’s ‘ Movember campaign, reinforcing the importance of screening in advance of symptoms. Lunsford started his career in journalism as a reporter before becoming city editor of a major West Texas daily newspaper. Lunsford was among the first to produce and implement digital content features at multiple newspapers between 2003 and 2007. In June 2024, Texas Tech University Press release his new book Inside the Well: The Midland, Texas Rescue of Baby Jessica McClure. The book chronicles the international media spotlight in the West Texas oil town and the tragedies that followed. The book brings to life the aftermath rescuers faced as they navigated movie deals, international media, and scrutiny to become one of first high-profile cases of PTSD among first responders. It additionally explores the burgeoning 24-hour news cycle and the role the rescue played in proving CNN's business case at a time when the three major networks dominated media. Lunsford is active in the American College of Healthcare Executives, serving in a variety of roles for the organization.