3 Things We Learned at HealthLeaders UpNext Exchange

The event brought shared viewpoints among emerging leaders to the forefront.

Some of healthcare’s future leaders convened at the HealthLeaders UpNext Exchange in Austin, Texas to share their perspective on how the industry can best adapt in the face of its many challenges.

The overarching sentiment at the two-day event, which featured 18 leaders from various organizations and in different positions, was that the approach to solving healthcare’s biggest issues must change to keep up with healthcare itself being ever-changing.

Here are three common ideas we heard at the Exchange:

Get back to basics

As much as the current climate requires some new solutions, the leaders agreed that a “back to basics” approach can go a long way to shoring up areas that don’t need to be reinvented.

In a post-COVID world, organizations need to get their muscle memory back—things that were automatic before are now forgotten or suffering from complacency.

Manging labor is one of those areas. After being infused with money by the government during the pandemic, hospitals have relied too heavily on labor cost structures that are now creating problems due to margins being thin. Contract labor, for example, no longer has the same viability as it did when patient volume was through the roof.

The pandemic taught valuable lessons, but as circumstances return closer to a pre-COVID world, organizations must get back to what worked well in the past—not just strategies, but also mindsets.

Embrace technology

It’s almost impossible right now to operate in healthcare—or any industry for that matter—and not be looking for ways to integrate technology to improve workflows and outcomes.

However, many of the leaders at the Exchange expressed that organizations are perhaps still too hesitant on fully committing. Hospitals may be investing in technology but if it’s in a tepid way and without choosing a defined direction, they’ll likely not realize the true returns on their investment. That could cause organizations to be stuck in an investment loop as new technology continues to come along.

Instead, don’t be afraid to play out the string and see just what your investment gets you. Even if it doesn’t work out, trusting the process will allow you to make more informed decisions with future investments.

The leaders recognized that something like AI can significantly ease the load on an organization’s workforce by reducing time and burden associated with administrative tasks. That type of technology can’t be optimized to supplement the workforce though if hospitals don’t educate their staff and have the right people in place to manage it. All that takes a buy-in from organizations—something they have almost no choice but to do going forward.

Be willing to try and fail

Whether it’s investing in technology or implementing any other strategy, the leaders were adamant that organizations must be ready and willing to try new things—and not be scared off by failure.

The standard three to five-year plan isn’t tenable anymore, not with C-suites in constant flux and experiencing rapid turnover. The quicker organizations can roll out solutions, the quicker they can get hard data back and learn what is working and what isn’t. Iterate, don’t stagnate.

That type of culture needs to be built, however, and it starts with the biggest voices in the leadership room. The leaders at the Exchange may get that opportunity for themselves soon, but for now they’re eager to contribute however they can to taking healthcare in a new direction.

The 2024 HealthLeaders UpNext Exchange is sponsored by Collette Health.