By HFT Staff

Hospital IQ released the key findings of their 2022 State of Healthcare Operations market report. The report identifies the priorities, challenges and concerns leaders within top health systems are experiencing across the United States. Based on key findings from the 111 hospital and health system executive respondents surveyed, most healthcare executives’ priorities center around boosting capacity and growth, streamlining patient throughput and addressing staffing concerns: 

With nurse staffing shortages, the ability to align staff to patient demand is an ever-present concern. Seventy percent of healthcare leaders find the ability to identify and adjust for staffing overages and shortages to be challenging. 

Optimizing capacity is one of the most substantial concerns among healthcare executives. Yet 61 percent of health systems struggle to forecast department-level capacity. Executives are especially concerned with capacity issues stemming from suboptimal patient flow, workforce alignment, and operating room utilization. 

There is a recognized dilemma among executives looking to leverage existing technology investments to manage capacity. Eighty-one percent of hospitals and health systems must contend with data silos and disparate systems. Many organizations still primarily rely on their electronic medical records platforms by leveraging their solutions’ functionalities; however, reporting and real-time data are persistent pain points. 

The spotlight on the interconnected nature of hospital operations is larger than ever. To manage these complex facets of operations, hospital leaders are looking towards advanced technological solutions that take a multi-pronged approach to the challenges of physical capacity, patient throughput, and frontline staffing. Digital innovation makes data-driven operations more feasible, enabling health systems to proactively align actions, priorities and resources across the enterprise and achieve unified capacity optimization.