Quality’s Place in Health System Sustainability

Despite quality long being considered table stakes for health systems, data consistently show varied performance across markets, care settings and even within systems. Those that align their quality initiatives to financial and strategic goals can differentiate themselves on performance. Sg2 research has found quality-leading organizations typically have better financial performance than their counterparts. As the industry anticipates emerging dynamics threatening system sustainability, it’s more urgent than ever for all organizations to raise the bar on quality.

Comparative Financial Performance by Q&A Scorecard Quintile

An analysis of organizations across the Vizient® Quality and Accountability (Q&A) Scorecard found marked differences in financial performance between high performers and their peers whose quality lags by comparison. The tie between top-quality performance and improved financial performance remained significant when looking both collectively at all hospitals and individually for each of the six Vizient hospital cohorts.

*Operating margin calculation was completed by using Medicare cost reports and a patient care and other operating (PCO) methodology. Sources: Data from Vizient Clinical Data Base, used with permission of Vizient, Inc. All rights reserved. Accessed October 2025; CMS. Healthcare Cost Report Information System. Accessed October 2025; Sg2 Analysis, 2025.

For information on how health systems are taking varying approaches to quality, download the synopsis of the Sg2 Executive Briefing: Quality’s Place in Health System Sustainability, which examines the role quality must play in health systems’ ability to achieve and sustain financial resilience and market relevance.

Sg2 members can access the full Quality’s Place in Health System Sustainability briefing, which provides a deep dive into how to move stepwise toward a human+ approach as well as multiple case studies of leading organizations on this journey.