Leading a healthcare organization in the current market requires more strategy, agility, and grit than ever before. Healthcare leaders are solving complex and important problems, and the stakes have never been higher.
Huron surveyed more than 300 healthcare leaders across the U.S. to get their
take on the state of the industry. Leaders from five functional areas — strategy
and innovation, finance and operations, clinical care, technology, and people — responded to share the biggest factors influencing the success of their organizations.
Research from Huron reveals leaders’ priorities and provides a glimpse into
the latest opportunities and threats confronting healthcare organizations.
Sign up for our latest insights and
find out how we can help you plan
for the future of your organization.
Subscribe
Market Research:
Healthcare’s Continued Evolution Amid Uncertainty
01
Virtual care delivery
(acute care in the home, telehealth, and remote patient monitoring)
Leaders were asked to select the top five trends they expect to impact their organizations in the next 12 months. Of the top health trends, nearly all relate to how and where organizations deliver care.
Top 10 Trends in Healthcare: Care Is No. 1
02
Care delivery
(physical care
facilities and health communities)
03
Care access
transformation
04
Serving Medicare and
Medicaid populations
05
Ambulatory
care expansion
Leaders rate care access transformation as the top organizational initiative, while care delivery (including virtual care) surfaces
as a leading trend and growth strategy.
Ambulatory care expansion emerges as not only a key initiative but a strategic growth priority, especially among regional organizations.
Respondents expect
deep investment in
data management and systems integration
in addition to customer relationship management (CRM).
A full 42% of executives expect to progress outside of pandemic response within the
next 4-8 months.
Financial and strategic returns are key focus areas for leaders along with alignment to organizational goals and quality measured by patient outcome ROI noted as top evaluation methods.
10
Technology infrastructure
Redefining portfolio
*Statistically even
09
Managing health
system capacity
08
New economic
models, including
strategic partnerships
07
Revenue
growth
06
Health equity in
my community
Longitudinal research from Huron provides a view of how the priorities
of leaders have shifted in response to market conditions.
Quick Look: Leaders’ Priorities Change
Highly strategic growth is more important than ever as organizations grapple with the long-lasting financial pressures of COVID-19 coupled with looming U.S. economic uncertainty.
Looking Ahead: Strategic Growth Initiatives Are Imperative
Strategic cost reductions that cut across all areas of the health system (e.g., supply chain, clinical documentation improvement, workforce, portfolio management, interoperability optimization)
Partnership advisory (e.g., strategic partnership, managed services, outsourcing, advisory services)
Staff recruitment and retention with a holistic focus on culture and leadership
Technology-enabled care, including a deeper understanding of consumer preferences
Data management and analytical decision making
As the trends indicate, care transformation strategies are front and center. Providers will need a holistic approach to prepare their organizations and overcome ongoing financial uncertainty. There are opportunities to mitigate risk and spur transformation for those ready to act.
Learn More
47% of leaders predict supply cost reductions will be the No. 1 cost-saving initiative in 2023
47%
Cost Reduction
Nearly 70% of leaders consider SDOH a high priority and will invest in the next 3 years
70%
Social Determinants of Health (SDOH)
40% of organizations are investing in initiatives to
improve care access
40%
Care Access
Contact Us
Leading organizations will embrace the following strategies in the coming months:
“Even though we’ve had ups and downs in telehealth, it’s still a major force, a
major factor. Now it’s moving more towards the hospital-at-home or remote
patient monitoring devices (RPM). We are taking advantage of improvements
in the technology surrounding artificial intelligence and machine learning, so
that has helped us a lot.”
“Healthcare systems and the system overall were very distracted by COVID
and its impact, and now by workforce issues. And I think all of that causes
distraction and puts some of the care transformation efforts at risk.”
— Chief Information Officer (CIO), Regional Health System
— President of Population Health, Regional Health System
Leaders rate care access transformation as the top organizational initiative, while care delivery (including virtual care) surfaces
as a leading trend and growth strategy.
Leaders rate care access transformation as the top organizational initiative, while care delivery (including virtual care) surfaces as a leading trend and growth strategy.
Ambulatory care expansion emerges as not only a key initiative but a strategic growth priority, especially among regional organizations.
Ambulatory care expansion emerges as not only a key initiative but a strategic growth priority, especially among regional organizations.
Ambulatory care expansion emerges as not only a key initiative but a strategic growth priority, especially among regional organizations.
![](https://media-s3-us-east-1.ceros.com/huron/images/2022/08/04/97f00ea2cfb7380c1d7728c0a8738076/arrow-icon.svg)