Our Annual Industry Survey: The Challenge to Collaborate

Consider:

• A significant majority, 59% of healthcare leaders, cited "too much self-interest among the different stakeholders" as the reason the healthcare industry cannot solve its own problems. The next-highest response (14%) was "lack of incentive to innovate or deliver value."
• So who's going to save the healthcare industry? No single actor or group can succeed, according to our survey—the single greatest response to this question (31%) was "other," and the written comments reveal that most believe it will take a collaborative effort among all elements of the industry to fix things. Next in line to save the industry, respondents say, are hospitals (22%), government (12%), and physicians (11%).
• It may come as little surprise that the single biggest culprit for the healthcare industry's mess is the government, cited by 40% of respondents. Health plans get the blame from 22% of respondents, but an equal share, 22%, chose "other," and the written comments reveal a belief that all stakeholders must share the blame.

Healthcare leaders aren't sanguine about the current direction of the industry. Only 25% describe the healthcare industry as being on the right track, with 46% saying it's on the wrong track and 29% undecided.

People are more positive about their own organizations, however; 66% say it's on the right track, with just 12% saying wrong track and another 21% undecided. Even so, that right track figure is down from 72% in last year's survey.