Sg2 Blog

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...

AI applied to spine imaging shows potential to improve diagnostic accuracy and efficiency (eg, radiologist workflow), bridge capacity gaps, and elevate patient care. Two novel research concepts in this arena highlighted at the 2024 Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) conference include: DLM standardizing image interpretation. Lumbar spine MRI remains the preferred imaging modality fo...

Numerous issues continue to impact health systems’ payment and accounts receivables. Among the top challenges, according to the recent Vizient® Payer Strategies Network Survey, are clinical and technical denials, DRG downgrades and claim delays.  In response, health system finance teams are deploying myriad tactics to address payer compliance issues. They’re having mixed succe...

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...

Partnerships, now more than ever, are critical to health system growth and performance. These alliances exist in a middle ground between loose relationships and outright acquisitions. To achieve their full potential, they cannot be merely opportunistic but firmly grounded in strategy. That strategic focus is chief among the short list of priorities academic systems’ leaders now pursue in the...

In early 2024, the health care data ecosystem experienced a disruption. Long-standing assumptions about the reliability of claims data were challenged, and many organizations found themselves navigating with limited visibility. And for a moment, the industry paused. But we didn’t. At Sg2, a Vizient company, we took that moment of disruption as a signal to accelerate. Rather than just restore...

Health systems are performing more percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures than ever on older adults. And while patients over age 65 now undergo more than half of all PCIs, they account for a staggering 80% of all PCI deaths. This stark reality makes it imperative that CV service line leaders revisit approaches to risk stratifying PCI patients, defining procedural success and supportin...

A new vision for health systems is emerging, where ambulatory care, enabled by mobile and digital tools, becomes the financial and operational backbone of the health system. Yet hospital-centric business models and mindsets so far have blocked progress. To flip the paradigm, health systems must focus on four transformation levers: financial growth, leadership and governance, capital allocation, an...

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 ...

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 ...