2024 Predictions for Health Systems

What does 2024 have in store for health systems? It's that time of year when everyone thinks they're Nostradamus, and now I'm walking up for my turn at bat. Before I get on the struggle bus and mix even more metaphors, let's get to the meat and potatoes of it (I just couldn't help myself ??).

Mergers & Acquisitions: There's been a lot of M&A activity the last 10 years, but most it was to expand geographically with acquisitions happening within the same market, but the 2024 trend will be more about expanding functionality and innovation. Advocate and Atrium are 750 miles from each other. Kaiser and Geisinger are 2500 miles from each other. They didn't merge for greater local presence. There will be two blockbuster mergers this year, and they will be about a foothold, not a footprint.

No More Travel Nurses: COVID hit health systems so hard because they had to pay 200-300% more for travel nurses than for full-time staff nurses. There's been a lot of organizations finding ways to lure and retain nurses and 2024 is the year it pays off. 97% of nurses will be staff by the end of the year.

Staff Comes First: One of the things we learned from the labor shortage the last few years is that the staff must come first. If you don't take care of them, patient care suffers. While the billboards in 2024 may still say "patients come first", the strategic plans will say "staff comes first".

Consumerization of Healthcare: Technically, this is nothing new. We've been hearing about the consumerization of healthcare for 10 years. Consumer companies like Amazon, Google, Walmart, and CVS are breaking into healthcare, dealing with mostly low acuity patients. Health systems will prioritize formal patient acquisition and patient retention plans to own the entire relationship with the patient.

Insights, not Data: Health systems have been told all about the value of big data from consumer companies. The dirty little secret is that it's not about collecting data, but about deciphering what that data means and even more importantly, how to create impact from that data. Don't bury yourself under a pile of data, figure out what that data means to your patients and your staff. 2024 is the year of simplification, with health system abandoning data collection efforts that aren't providing actionable intelligence.

Taylor Swift will dump Travis Kelce: He will drop a pass in the playoffs, causing Swifties around the world to demand there's no one good enough for their leader. She'll end up writing a song about him and her next boyfriend will be 5'3". She will perform that song at the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show. I just wanted to see who was still reading. :)