We had the pleasure of interviewing our healthcare technology leaders, creating a thought-provoking discussion on technology trends they are seeing for 2024.
The healthcare sector is at a crucial intersection with the demand for enhanced care quality and access. We all recognize that technology is a critical part of the solution but hearing first-hand from our industry leaders about the opportunities and barriers really brings the situation to life.
Participants:
- Andy Palmer, Vice President of Managed Services
- Max Hanner, Senior Vice President of Business Development & Recruiting
- Matt Curtin, Managing Director, Enterprise Solutions for Management Consulting and Analytics & AI
- Zach Tisch, Senior Vice President of Healthcare Services
More Partnerships
Opportunity to improve efficiency, lower cost and improve quality of care with joint ventures and partnership activity. The panelists agreed that partnerships play a pivotal role in technology not only in operations but also in how care is delivered. Zack Tisch emphasized the possible increase in joint venture and partnership activity. These collaborations, he explained, will be most prominent between, “Life Sciences organizations, healthcare provider organizations and other healthcare groups.” He also mentioned that Artificial Intelligence (AI) companies, data companies, EMR vendors and organizations involved in medical research could forge new partnerships—and reap the mutual benefits.
Enhanced interoperability and data sharing between life sciences organizations, healthcare provider organizations and insurance/payer organizations with a focus on growth and new markets will continue.
In addition, Tisch foresees an enhanced willingness to explore the power of clinical informatics work as related to EMR workflows. Content will likely be generated and driven by life sciences partners, as opposed to internal staff at academic medical centers, who typically own this.
Increasing Budgeting Challenges
Andy Palmer pointed towards a continued decrease in IT budgets throughout the new year. “I think we’ll continue to see health systems face challenges trying to achieve strategic priorities alongside shrinking budgets,” he stated. “This will lead to greater scrutiny on elements of IT departments and/or functions that can be better served through an outsourced partner to drive cost savings or free up staff to focus on strategic directives.”
Max Hanner affirmed this idea of outsourcing for essential operations. “Non-strategic operations, like IT, facility management and revenue cycle operations are still necessary,” he stated, “and they can be done by an outsourcing partner so that internal teams for a given healthcare system can prioritize higher level, strategic initiatives.”
On a similar note, Matt Curtin believes financial controls will remain top of mind throughout most of next year. “Many systems understand they can’t ‘cut their way out of the red,’ so to speak,” he explained. “Strategic budgeting and investing will need to remain a top priority.”
Key Investments
While some departments may see their budgets shrink, a couple of our industry experts stated that key investments could strengthen healthcare groups’ bottom line in the long run. “Investing in digital health is going to continue to be a priority,” explained Hanner. “Specifically, I believe we’ll see a focus on patient portal optimization and functionality.”
Curtin provided additional thoughts on other investments that would likely remain top of mind. Strategic solutions, such as cloud migration and hosting, will remain a necessity. “These solutions,” he explained, “will help to map financial and clinical outcome objectives, which are going to be increasingly leveraged.” Additionally, he stated that a focus on change management would benefit organizations over time. “Change management, both for the people and the organization’s culture, will likely remain a key area of investment,” he stated. “If nothing else, this concept will continue to take precedence and continue to evolve.”
Is your healthcare group planning to undergo, or maintain, any of the forecasted solutions and actions? If so, you may want to consider bringing in an outside partner to provide support and advisory services. Reach out to us to learn how we can aid in achieving your organization’s goals today.
