Insights

As health systems face intensifying financial pressure, shifting care patterns, workforce shortages and the encroachment of nontraditional competitors, the role of service lines is undergoing a profound shift. No longer merely engines of volume growth or operational standardization, service lines are increasingly expected to shape enterprise strategy, drive systemness and serve as connective tissue across clinical, operational and market-facing priorities.

With ED volumes surging and inpatient bottlenecks worsening, hospitals must adopt bold, data-driven strategies to streamline care, expand access, and safeguard both patient health and financial sustainability.

Economic uncertainty, pharmacy and indirect spend are driving cost surges that squeeze margins and complicate strategic investment decisions — but that doesn’t mean healthcare executives should panic. Here are actionable insights that can be implemented now to support budgeting and system-wide financial planning.

The many forces driving some hospitals to financial distress make it impossible to maintain the status quo. Leaders can move beyond a binary close-or-don’t-close decision to reconsider what it means to deliver healthcare in communities that struggle to support a hospital.

As AI adoption accelerates, leaders must strengthen oversight, accuracy and maturity to ensure safe, scalable and sustainable results.

It’s been two decades since Vizient launched its Quality & Accountability Study, which empowers hospitals to improve patient outcomes and achieve lasting performance.

Following new national guidelines, monthly colorectal cancer screening in patients under 50 jumped nearly tenfold. Vizient experts say the next frontier is tackling disparities, capacity limits and patient engagement.

The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), passed this summer, contains a provision of great consequence for hospitals: Medicaid work requirements.

When transparency and collaboration among healthcare system teams work cohesively, providers can solve problems of high reliability and culture within a matter of months. Or so The Queen’s Health System realized after strategically enhancing communication system-wide using LENS as part of their solution.

According to recent Vizient client input, the geographic footprint matters, as does robust digital health capabilities, with a critical need for increased data integration and deeper insights into specialty care.

Many health systems assume their core service lines are their financial pillars. These programs are highly visible, central to their identity as high-quality providers and often among the most active areas in the system. But activity is not the same as performance.

With ED volumes surging and inpatient bottlenecks worsening, hospitals must adopt bold, data-driven strategies to streamline care, expand access, and safeguard both patient health and financial sustainability.

Non-clinical expenses can be the stuff of nightmares — but they don’t have to be … if you’re prepared. Here are five strategies to avoid your own horror story.

It’s been two decades since Vizient launched its Quality & Accountability Study, which empowers hospitals to improve patient outcomes and achieve lasting performance.

Novant Health chief safety and quality officer Dr. David Priest leads with curiosity, creativity and compassion — proving that influence, not authority, is the true power behind lasting change.

As health systems face intensifying financial pressure, shifting care patterns, workforce shortages and the encroachment of nontraditional competitors, the role of service lines is undergoing a profound shift. No longer merely engines of volume growth or operational standardization, service lines are increasingly expected to shape enterprise strategy, drive systemness and serve as connective tissue across clinical, operational and market-facing priorities.

As AI adoption accelerates, leaders must strengthen oversight, accuracy and maturity to ensure safe, scalable and sustainable results.

Perioperative performance influences every dimension of hospital success. Explore how perioperative leaders connect clinical precision with operational discipline, turning surgical complexity into enterprise resilience and financial stability through data-driven insight, alignment and collaboration across the health system.

According to recent Vizient client input, the geographic footprint matters, as does robust digital health capabilities, with a critical need for increased data integration and deeper insights into specialty care.

Many health systems assume their core service lines are their financial pillars. These programs are highly visible, central to their identity as high-quality providers and often among the most active areas in the system. But activity is not the same as performance.

Sweeping healthcare changes under OBBB demand action — providers must transform operations, realign care and embrace technology to stay resilient and sustain access in a shifting landscape.

When a healthcare organization’s workplace culture is toxic—when people don’t feel psychologically safe enough to speak up, to share ideas or to challenge the status quo—patient safety is at risk.

The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB), passed this summer, contains a provision of great consequence for hospitals: Medicaid work requirements.

A deeper dive into the numbers behind the numbers in Kaufman Hall’s National Hospital Flash Report generates a nuanced story, with results that are relevant to setting long-term social health policy agenda and to the strategic management of complex provider organizations.