• Studies estimate that corporate partnership failure rates are between 50-70%. And healthcare is not immune — many health system partnerships fail to achieve expected outcomes or ROI.
• The first step in improving partnerships is to develop a rigorous, intentional set of goals that you and your partners set out to achieve.        

Our research shows that there have been structural forces since 2019 that have changed what employers and employees expect from one another.

To succeed, health systems must, at minimum, meet these three expectations that now determine in how clinical and non-clinical staff choose their jobs:

1. Increased flexibility in their roles
2. Support for employee well-being in and out of the workplace
3. Diversity, equity, and inclusion embedded throughout the organization 

While the pressure to move to a faster, more consumer-focused care delivery model existed before COVID-19, the pandemic shifted us into overdrive. Care models are moving outside of the hospital setting. Our research found five "must-haves" for any successful care model adoption.

For example, alongside workflow redesign, convincing clinicians of safety and quality is key to embedding new referral defaults. 

The annual strategic plan no longer suffices in a world where the pace of change continues to accelerate daily. Healthcare organizations are now adapting a “continuous strategic planning” approach. It involves continuously recalibrating our strategy in response to emerging constraints and opportunities.   

There are more international policy experiments that healthcare leaders can learn from than we can count. Coming out of COVID-19, our analysis shows three areas where we see policy convergence from numerous countries:

1. Shifting the site of care.
2. Elevating environmental priorities.
3. Kicking permanent telehealth policy down the road.