It feels like only yesterday that workforce challenges were the biggest problem facing the healthcare industry. While COVID-19-related staffing shortages may have declined, an inefficient workforce can still threaten health system operations and finances. Often, systems turn to staffing ratios or benchmarks to determine whether they need more cuts or more hires. However, systems need more than staffing ratios to make sure they have the right headcount and the right expertise in place to safely and effectively care for patients. The question is: if workforce benchmarks aren’t enough, then what is?

To answer that question, host Rachel (Rae) Woods invites Advisory Board nursing expert Ali Knight to unpack the state of the workforce five years after the peak of COVID-19. Later, Rae brings on Optum Advisory workforce management experts Sherilynn Quist and Anne Schmidt to break down their work in the field, addressing what they call the “blocking and tackling” of workforce efficiency within a hospital.

Links:

• Optum Advisory: Healthcare consulting services
• [Webinar, May 18] Broaden your definition of the nursing care team
• Insights from Advisory Board's 2024 workforce benchmarks
• [Roundtable, Aug. 18-19] How to thrive in an evolving nursing landscape
• Ep. 205: Live from ViVE 2024: Four leaders on how technology is redefining clinical work
• Ep. 207: Nurses Week 2024: Build care teams, not assembly lines

2025 Advisory Board Summit - Carlsbad, CA

Advisory Board Fellowship

Advisory Board is a subsidiary of Optum. All Advisory Board research, expert perspectives, and recommendations remain independent.

A transcript of this episode as well as more information and resources can be found on RadioAdvisory.advisory.com.

In the first two months of the Trump administration, the political and regulatory environment have shifted considerably. Since the inauguration, we’ve fielded dozens of questions about the slew of executive orders, cuts to research funding, HHS layoffs, tariffs, and an unstable economic outlook. All of that is coupled with the potential for major payment cuts to government-funded healthcare and rising scrutiny over public health and the healthcare industry writ large. The sheer pace of change leaves many healthcare leaders wondering where they need to focus their attention and energy.

This week, we’re here to clarify some of the chaos and help leaders focus their efforts on what is most pressing and most actionable. To do that, host Rachel (Rae) Woods invites Advisory Board experts Natalie Trebes and Max Hakanson to break down the operating conditions as the second Trump term takes shape.

We’re here to help: If there are specific policy areas or issues that you want to hear more about, or you are interested in talking to our research team (or getting access to our working documents), let us know by leaving us a voice message or emailing us.

Links:

• Ep. 230: Elections results are in: What healthcare leaders need to know
• How could Trump’s new tariffs impact healthcare?
• Thousands laid off at HHS: What you need to know
• RFK Jr. wants to change how Medicare pays doctors
• Health policy roundup: The latest on measles, abortion, and gender-affirming care
• Health policy roundup: Trump signs executive order on price transparency
• Learn more about the origins of Ozempic

Learn more about the Advisory Board Summit in Carlsbad, CA.

A transcript of this episode as well as more information and resources can be found on RadioAdvisory.advisory.com.

There is a lot happening in federal policy that may affect healthcare payment transformation and care delivery. But we’ve said it before: healthcare leaders can’t afford to focus on fighting near-term fires at the expense of driving long-term success and sustainability. Amidst the uncertainty, it’s more important than ever to push forward conversations about how we can structurally evolve our systems to align incentives to patient health.

So, in this episode, we’re talking about value-based care. Host Abby Burns invites Advisory Board expert Clare Wirth and Optum Advisory expert Erik Johnson to unpack the state of VBC in early 2025, and where they see it going next. They debate whether bundles can truly be considered “value-based care,” how specialty care will fit into the future VBC landscape, and which payer lines of business they have their eyes on.

Links:

• VBC in 2025: What's now and what's next
• Inside Advocate Health’s VBC approach that saved $136M
• How UNC Health made VBC sustainable in an academic health system
• The obstacles between health systems and VBC success
• Ep. 201: Value series: What does health system VBC adoption actually look like?
• Ep. 231: Big deal, little deal, or no deal? A 2024 health policy retrospective

Value-based care landing page

Enjoying this episode? Discover how Optum Advisory experts can help you design a VBC strategy to drive sustainable growth and profitability for your organization. Connect with one of our experts today.

Advisory Board is a subsidiary of Optum. All Advisory Board research, expert perspectives, and recommendations remain independent.

A transcript of this episode as well as more information and resources can be found on RadioAdvisory.advisory.com.

Partnerships between health systems and life sciences play a critical role in giving patients access to the best data, therapies, and technologies available in the market. However, these partnerships can be less fulfilling if both sides don’t align on purpose and expectations.

This week, host Rachel (Rae) Woods invites Advisory Board expert Fanta Cherif to break down the current state of health system and life sciences partnerships, share the spectrum of collaboration options, and the strategic middle ground that is often overlooked, but can serve as a lifeline in today’s challenging economic landscape.

Let us know what you think about today’s discussion, or share your ideas for future episode topics by leaving us a voice message or emailing us.

Links:

• Ep. 151: Making vendor-provider partnerships work
• Ep. 183: John Muir Health and Optum reflect on what makes their partnership work
• How to bridge the communication gap in vendor-provider partnerships
• Metrics that matter: How different stakeholders define value in healthcare

Join Advisory Board experts for these upcoming philanthropy webinars:

• March 20, 2025 (1-2 p.m. ET/10-11 a.m. PT): What the future of health system growth means for philanthropy leaders Register here: What the future of health system growth means for philanthropy leaders
• April 1, 2025 (1-2 p.m. ET/10-11 a.m. PT): How market data can transform your philanthropy strategy Register here: Using market data to inform your philanthropy strategy

A transcript of this episode as well as more information and resources can be found on RadioAdvisory.advisory.com.

On September 27, 2024, Ballad Health was forced to evacuate Unicoi Hospital in rural Tennessee due to a freak flash flood caused by Hurricane Helene. After two failed rescue attempts, an aerial operation managed to successfully airlift all 70 people who were trapped on the rooftop of the small community hospital.

In an era where extreme climate events are increasingly common, more healthcare leaders are being forced to reckon with the reality of leading through natural disasters. This week, Lisa Carter, President of Ballad Health’s Southern Region, joins Radio Advisory to recount the events of that day, reflect on how they tested her leadership, and underscore why we can’t rely on our “old normal” when it comes to disaster preparedness.

Links:

• Homepage | Ballad Health
• Healthcare and climate change: Why sustainability is a strategic imperative
• Ep. 219: The business case for going green
• Ep. 164: Boston Medical Center's path to sustainability (and how they're funding it)
• Ep. 161: Unwavering purpose, the creation of Ballad Health
• 3 ways to engage and motivate your team in uncertain times

Learn how the Advisory Board Fellowship can equip leaders to lead in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world.

In this episode we featured audio clips from CBS News, ABC News, and NPR. You can find the full segments here:

• New wildfires erupt in Southern California
• Historic winter storm across the Deep South - YouTube
• Hospitals face months of IV fluid shortages after Helene damages N.C. factory : NPR

A transcript of this episode as well as more information and resources can be found on RadioAdvisory.advisory.com.

We’ve said it before on Radio Advisory: hospital volumes are back. But leaders know this isn’t necessarily a sigh of relief. With a lot of hospitals at—or even over—capacity, hospital leaders need to find ways to improve patient throughput and reduce length of stay. And trust me, they’ve been trying. The question is, why is it so hard to address capacity and length of stay, and what can leaders do about it in 2025?

This week, host Rachel (Rae) Woods is joined by Advisory Board expert Isis Monteiro. Isis shares what she learned from her “world tour” of talking with 45 healthcare leaders from nine countries to understand how they’re tackling capacity challenges. Throughout the conversation, they break down three root causes of high hospital length of stay and highlight examples of how organizations are overcoming them.

Links:

• Ep. 225: Patients are back – so why aren't hospital margins?
• Ep. 221: How will health system growth look different in 2025 and beyond?
• Provider operations

Interested in learning more about our length-of-stay reduction research? Join us live at an Advisory Board Summit and attend a dedicated session on how your organization can address foundational capacity, throughput, and length-of-stay challenges.

Check out Advisory Board’s Hospital Benchmark Generator tool to see how your hospital’s length-of-stay stacks up and pinpoint improvement opportunities for improvement to remain competitive.

Insights from the 2026 CMS Advance Notice

A transcript of this episode as well as more information and resources can be found on RadioAdvisory.advisory.com.

The cost and quality of care can vary dramatically—even within the same health system. This has real ramifications for patients and clinicians, not to mention system outcomes. But reducing unwarranted variation in clinical care is much easier said than done. In 2019, UNC Health launched a care redesign office to take on the job. They identified 24 sources of variation to target. And their efforts were so successful that five years later, it was time to set their sights on a new list of targets—this time with a partner.

In this episode, host Abby Burns invites Cyndi Hall, former Executive Director of Care Redesign at UNC Health, and Dr. Larry Marks, Executive Medical Director for Care Redesign, Professor of Radiation Oncology, and Assistant Dean of Organizational Health and Quality at UNC Health and School of Medicine, to break down the last five years of their care design work. They share how they selected which clinical areas to target, stories of what it means when this work is successful, and through it all, underscore the role of true change agents of this work: the clinicians themselves.

Note: Cyndi Hall is now Senior Advisor for Healthcare Plus Solutions Group where she is translating her expertise in care variation reduction to help provider organizations improve the clinician onboarding process.

Reducing clinical variation is something Advisory Board is actively researching in 2025. If CVR has been on your organization’s docket and you have best practices to share, reach out to us at [email protected] with the subject line “Sharing our CVR work” to get in touch with our research team.

Links:

• 4 common pitfalls in care standardization — and how to overcome them
• Care variation reduction metric picklist
• UNC Health | Changing Lives for the Better
• Healthcare Leadership Training & Consulting | Healthcare Plus Solutions
• Obtaining Imaging Cost and Quality Information in Femoroacetabular Impingement: The Patient Experience - PMC

Insights from the 2026 CMS Advance Notice

How Steindler Orthopedic improved joint replacements with digital surgical technologies

A transcript of this episode as well as more information and resources can be found on RadioAdvisory.advisory.com.

As hospitals face mounting financial pressure in 2025, health systems are reckoning with the fragility of their legacy business models. Ambulatory networks have long been considered an opportunity for growth, but legacy thinking still focuses on how ambulatory sites could drive inpatient volumes. That strategy is no longer working (and perhaps, never did). Savvy health leaders are now asking, how should we be evolving our ambulatory strategy in 2025, and setting ourselves up for 2035?

To answer those questions, host Rachel (Rae) Woods invites Advisory Board experts Jordan Peterson and Nick Hula to break down why the ambulatory strategy used for the last decade is no longer enough, why ambulatory growth needs to be top of mind for health system strategists 2025, and how leaders can shift their efforts from ambulatory sites to ambulatory capabilities.

Links:

• Ep. 236: What CEOs need to know in 2025 (Part 2)
• The role of ASCs in health system growth strategy
• It’s time for systems to change how they prioritize and design their ambulatory strategy
• 4 considerations for creating successful ASC strategies

Optum Advisory: Healthcare consulting services

A transcript of this episode as well as more information and resources can be found on RadioAdvisory.advisory.com.

Back in December, we discussed why leaders should re-envision their approach to digital change management. But to truly implement digital change, health systems must understand their organization’s success (or failure) to date. However, assessing digital progress is not a simple task. While models exist that measure digital maturity in other industries, there is a serious lack of tools to measure progress in the healthcare field—which is why we made our own.

This week, host Rachel (Rae) Woods invites John League, Advisory Board digital health expert, and K. R. Prabha, Optum’s Vice President of Strategy, Growth and Innovation to define what digital maturity for health systems looks like and unpack why so many organizations are stalled at merely “being” digital. Together, they introduce a new tool they’ve designed to help health systems assess their own digital maturity. For an on-the-ground perspective, Rae invites Dr. David Ingham, Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Allina Health, to discuss how Allina Health leveraged this tool to assess their progress and prioritize next steps on their digital journey.

Links:

• Understand the digital maturity of your health system
• Ep. 233: Your digital strategy needs more than “change management”
• Optum Advisory: Healthcare consulting services
• Allina Health Care & Medical Services In MN & Western WI
• Get in touch with us

[Webinar, 2/19] Imaging market trends in 2025

Advisory Board is a subsidiary of Optum. All Advisory Board research, expert perspectives, and recommendations remain independent.

A transcript of this episode as well as more information and resources can be found on RadioAdvisory.advisory.com.

Advisory Board experts Natalie Trebes and Max Hakanson rejoin host Abby Burns for part two of our conversation digging into the trends and challenges healthcare leaders need to pay attention to in 2025.

Last week, our experts covered evolving power dynamics around network design, drug cost/spend, and cyber threats. This week, the group shifts their attention to unpack what’s happening with our core care delivery infrastructure. What is the state of health systems—and what’s in store for them? They also tackle the elephant in the room: how should leaders be thinking about the policy landscape as we enter a new administration?

Our State of the Industry research team is kicking off their annual research and wants to hear from you to help shape the research! We want to know what your “up at night” issues are, what questions you have, and what your organization is focusing on in order to navigate the waters ahead. Get in touch with the team by emailing [email protected].

This episode was recorded on Jan. 8th, 2025.

Links:

• 17 things CEOs need to know in 2025
• Ep. 235: What CEOs need to know in 2025 (Part 1)
• Ep. 231: Big deal, little deal, or no deal? A 2024 health policy retrospective
• The state of the industry: What healthcare leaders need to know for 2025

[Webinar, 3/11] Insights from the 2026 CMS Advance Notice

Aortic stenosis is vastly undertreated: Know how to identify and address it

A transcript of this episode as well as more information and resources can be found on RadioAdvisory.advisory.com.