Shifts in how and where organizations care for their patients
are reshaping consumers’ care experience preferences and incentivizing healthcare leaders to push forward with their
care transformation strategies.
Understanding the complexity of care transformation, Huron sought to better
define the term and capture the holistic view it encompasses. We surveyed 312 healthcare leaders across the U.S.
More than 90% of respondents aligned with the following definition:
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Market Research: A New
Era of Care Transformation
Data, technology, and analytics will underpin every aspect of care transformation, from increasing care access and re-imagining care delivery to addressing SDOH and securing financial stability.
Looking Ahead:
Digital-First Approach Key to Addressing Challenges
Define desired outcomes: A clear vision of the desired future state should
be the impetus for the implementation of tools and solutions. Success
will be determined by the organization’s vision and plan to connect people, processes, data, and technology.
As care transformation challenges evolve over time, so should an organization’s strategy. Leveraging technology to transform the patient experience and journey will remain core to improving care across the continuum and enabling sustainable change.
STAY INFORMED
To make smart digital investments and maximize their value, these three steps will be critical for leaders:
Healthcare organizations are moving forward
in re-imagining care delivery and addressing widespread challenges along the way
Care transformation is the re-imagination of care delivery through
the entire healthcare journey with the goal of delivering consumer-minded care that accounts for social determinants of health (SDOH) while improving patient outcomes and consumer experiences.
Alignment on what care transformation entails allows us to delve deeper into the priorities and challenges influencing organizations. Here’s what leaders are saying:
What we can do around care transformation is going to allow us to continue to fund the other capital needs of the organization. It’s the base of how we are able to be successful. It’s at the top of our CEO’s list.”
— Chief Operating Officer, Academic Medical Center
Variation between organizations’ immediate, short-, and long-term challenges indicate the complexity of re-imagining the underlying structure and delivery of care. What remains constant is the relentless need to improve care access, affordability, and the consumer experience.
Care Transformation Challenges
Will Evolve Over Time
• Care variation management
Present
1 Year
3-5 Years
Nearly all organizations have a short- and long-term care transformation strategy in place, with more than half actively executing their short-term strategies.
Strategy Execution
Is Underway
of healthcare leaders
say care transformation is among their top organizational priorities; about one quarter say it is their top priority.
Care delivery is a major component of care transformation and ranks among healthcare organizations’ key focus areas. Leaders indicate they are pursuing initiatives that cut across multiple challenges to deliver better care and a healthcare experience that meets consumer expectations. Here’s where they’re focusing:
Closer Look:
Organizations Pursue Better Care Delivery
62%
Strategy in place and executing
Strategy in place but not executing
Subcomponent of another strategy
No strategy
35%
58%
6%
1%
46%
39%
9%
5%
51%
Employee-facing digital, technology, and analytics to increase efficiency
51%
49%
Digital tools to improve operations (e.g., artificial intelligence/machine learning, chatbots)
49%
49%
Health equity/SDOH efforts
49%
46%
Expanding digital sites of care
(e.g., hospital at home, remote
patient monitoring)
46%
35%
Enhancing the consumer digital experience
35%
40%
Investing in
additional staffing
40%
77% believe higher acuity care in the home will rise in importance as care settings evolve
50% plan to invest in data and analytics to address health equity and SDOH
• Care access
• Behavioral health
• Capacity management
(beds and providers)
• Shifting the cost curve to
support overall well-being
• Improving the consumer
experience
• Patient digital, technology,
and analytics
• Care access
• Changing sites of care
• Employee digital, technology,
and analytics
• At-risk patient populations
(value-based care)
• Improving the consumer
experience
• Care access
• Community partnerships
to support public health
• Health equity initiatives/
addressing SDOH
• Changing sites of care
• Employee digital, technology,
and analytics
• Shifting the cost curve to
support overall well-being
Transformation is not a destination. It’s an ongoing journey. You have to be prepared to continue to evolve and transform.”
— Chief Digital Strategy Officer, Regional Health System
Understand consumer and staff needs and preferences: Digital investments should support the health needs and goals of the consumers in your market and align with how they want to experience healthcare — ultimately driving toward frictionless technology-to-human handoffs.
Develop a strategy for integrating within your digital ecosystem: Transforming care centers on an organization’s ability to connect systems and data to deliver a seamless experience and improve outcomes. The adoption of digital tools will wane without continued investment in evolving business and operating systems to drive new ways of working with technology.
One-to-three-year strategy
Three-to-five-year strategy
Greatest and Most Important Challenges
What we can do around care transformation
is going to allow us to continue to fund the other capital needs of the organization. It’s the base of how we are able to be successful. It’s at the top of our CEO’s list.”
— Chief Operating Officer, Academic Medical Center