In Healthcare Business Strategy, One Size Doesn't Fit All

As an organization dedicated to peer-to-peer learning and insight, my colleagues and I are tasked with bringing our readers in-depth, practical solutions from people across the country who are responsible for tackling the difficult transformational work required to make healthcare safer and more efficient.

That work requires us to be always persistent and skeptical, but also to be available to consider many different solutions to problems. And that includes the wait-and-see approach.

Healthcare executives are overwhelmed with regulatory changes, not to mention the drastic stresses that are now being placed on the traditional healthcare delivery model.
Some are early adopters.

Generally, they embrace the changes and look to invest in technologies that they think will make their work safer and more efficient, and which will eventually translate to the bottom line. But there is significant risk involved in being an early adopter.

Others are not as inclined to risk-taking and definitely have less available to invest in new ways of doing things.

We struggle with this editorially. Most of the executives we speak with for stories in the magazine, for our research reports, books, roundtables and Breakthroughs reports, are innovators. We know our readers want to see what's new, who's taking risks, and how much, how other executives expect those risks to pay off.

Healthcare requires innovation, so the early adopters and industry leaders in finance, patient experience, ACOs, patient experience—the list goes on and on—are usually the ones we speak with most. But that doesn't mean that others who aren't moving so fast aren't being prudent.