Unpack the healthcare implications of today’s tough economic climate:

• There are continued investment income losses. Large nonprofit health systems have seen investment income decline by approximately 185% from 2021 to 2022.
• Capital and labor costs challenge traditional growth mechanisms. Organizations will need to become more selective about what growth opportunities they pursue.
• Ventures desperately seek established partners to prove business viability. Tightening investment capital reduces investment in new ventures even though investing in innovation is more strategically important than ever before. 

The labor crisis remains the leading challenge facing provider organizations today. The healthcare workforce will not return to the way things were before the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Despite improvements in turnover and vacancy rates, these metrics remain higher than pre-pandemic levels. Other metrics are also up from where they were last year, like RN time to fill and cost of RN turnover.
• Provider organizations will increasingly need to optimize technology investments to extend clinician reach and improve working conditions.

Explore how incumbent and nontraditional players are diversifying their functions:

• Healthcare businesses are increasingly blurring the lines of what functions they perform and largely ignoring the contradiction between competition and partnership.
• Mega-players with ample capital are throwing around enormous resources to procure a range of assets — especially ones with clinicians and care delivery capabilities.

To make strong strategic decisions and understand future roles and responsibilities, leaders need to understand the three most significant shifts impacting the future direction of the healthcare industry:

• Delivery infrastructure will evolve from ad-hoc hospital-centric service delivery to ongoing ecosystem-controlled patient management.
• Care team roles, training, and compensation will evolve as technology becomes an integral member of the care team.
• As the strategic importance of therapeutic drugs rises, emerging drugs with high price tags and complicated delivery logistics will require new payment and delivery models.