Sg2 Blog

Digital transformation remains a key strategic goal for the health care industry, and the ongoing pressure to optimize workflows, maximize human resources and adjust to powerful technologies like generative AI has led to a resurging interest in the smart hospital concept. Broadly defined, a smart hospital is one that is fully digitized and interconnected across the care continuum, leveraging inter...

Eric Spann, MD, is a family medicine physician at Baxter Health, based in Mountain View, Arkansas. Q: Dr. Spann, how do you envision AI impacting your day-to-day work, your patient interactions and what defines good medicine? A: If we thought that addressing “Dr. Google” was a big part of our daily work, this is going to be Dr. Google on steroids. Patients are now going to have a large...

Children’s hospital leaders have a full plate in 2025—managing the challenges and opportunities presented by innovative therapeutics, emerging technologies and artificial intelligence, policy uncertainties, regionalization and subspecialty shortages—the list goes on and on. To help you focus and cut through the noise, Sg2 experts have identified four top priority strategic action...

Health care organizations have turned the corner on pandemic recovery and are now strongly focused on strategy and investment. Day-to-day operations have stabilized for most. But the industry’s competitive landscape has irrevocably shifted, and the performance gap between the best and worst has widened. Health systems must chart this new territory with less capital, which makes strategy&mdas...

I've started labeling cybersecurity as the "Achilles' heel" of digital health. Across meetings, workshops, and events, Sg2 experts have touted the opportunities that telehealth, AI, and other digital technologies can bring to health care, but cybersecurity risk always pumps the breaks on those discussions. It's the looming dark cloud. The elephant in the room. A digital skeptic's favorite topic to...

St. Luke’s Hospital, a nonprofit health system in the greater St. Louis area, consists of two hospitals with 636 beds, two ambulatory surgery centers, eight urgent care facilities, nearly 200 employed physicians, and a medical staff of over 1,000 physicians across 60 specialties. Post-pandemic, the hospital faced challenges due to the lack of a formalized strategic plan and wanted to refine ...

Hospital system chief financial officers (CFOs) face an increasingly complex financial landscape, one shaped by regulatory shifts, technological advancements and evolving patient expectations. Here are 3 top takeaways to effectively navigate in 2025. ► Pharmacy Optimization: With systems reporting 25% of revenue tied to pharmacy operations, this area represents a significant revenue opportunity fo...

Environmental factors are adversely impacting provider financials and weakening providers’ positions in fee-for-service (FFS) contracting. Providers have been working to regain financial stability after pandemic-driven volume swings that were quickly followed by workforce shortages—now the health care industry can add inflation to the list of considerable challenges. These pressures have quickly ...

Editor's note: Randena Hulstrand, Lead Brand Journalist, Vizient, contributed to this post. By addressing hospital utilization and quality, implementing innovative models of care and forging partnerships, health systems can help reduce economic disparities and improve patient access to behavioral healthcare services. While behavioral health conditions—including major depression, anxiety and ...

Despite headwinds, private equity (PE) continues to make strong inroads into health care. PE investment will remain a significant force for the foreseeable future, which represents both an opportunity and a challenge for health systems. Although some see PE as an unwelcome intrusion that complicates physician alignment and service line growth, forward-thinking health systems are leveraging PE par...