Every decision, workflow and delay in care delivery now carries greater significance — not only for patient outcomes, but for systemwide performance. In today’s healthcare landscape, operations are no longer behind-the-scenes functions. They are the engine driving modern health system success, powered collaboratively by IT, clinical, HR and administrative teams.
Yet too often, disconnected processes and siloed systems undercut visibility, agility and impact. As hospitals face rising complexity, more leaders are embracing cross-functional collaboration, tech-enabled strategies and unified platforms to eliminate friction and accelerate progress. This curated collection of 10 must[1]read articles showcases how organizations are transforming their operations, from staffing and IT to patient access and resource management.
Whether your focus is reducing clinician burden, improving throughput or enhancing care coordination, these insights offer practical strategies and a clear message: operational transformation isn’t just an IT initiative or a clinical one. It’s everyone’s business.
Hospital CFOs navigating today’s tight margins are being called to do more than manage spreadsheets — they’re being asked to rethink operations from the ground up.
From challenging the status quo to shifting care upstream and aligning financial discipline with patient-centered values, health system CFOs say long-term sustainability demands focus, creativity and an unwavering commitment to operational excellence.
St. Louis-based Ascension continues to work on its financial turnaround and recently introduced a strategic framework to help financial leaders focus on what matters most. The model, built around three acronyms — CTC, BTB and EMS — is designed to translate complex financial goals into practical operational action.
“CTC stands for control the controllables,” Ascension Executive Vice President and CFO Saurabh Tripathi said during an April 29 panel at the Becker’s Annual Meeting. “As CFOs and operators, there are so many things we can control, so focus on them. Don’t get distracted by all the noise.”
The second pillar, BTB — break the bracket — urges underperforming hospitals to challenge historical norms through data-driven improvements.
“Figure out, operationally, how you can break the bracket,” Mr. Tripathi said. Finally, EMS — every ministry should be sustainable — reinforces that each entity must be self-sustaining from a capital standpoint. “You can’t just borrow that from another entity and continue to sustain.”
Mr. Tripathi also stressed the importance of aligning financial sustainability with patient care strategies. In markets where patients with chronic conditions frequently rely on emergency departments for treatment, Ascension is working to shift care upstream.
“Is there an opportunity to take them to an urgent care setting or to primary care?” he asked. “It’s the right thing for the patients, because they don’t have to be edited in acute care. It’s the right thing for the providers, because the cost is lower. And frankly, the insurers like it, because the claims will be significantly lower.”
Luke Rockenbach, CFO of Sutter Health’s Silicon Valley market, echoed the importance of shifting care upstream, but added a deeply personal note: patient needs must come first — even in conversations about cost.
“When people come to me and ask questions, there’s an assumption that I’m bottom-line first. I’m not. I’m patients first, every single time,” Mr. Rockenbach said. “Our role as CFOs is to do the right thing for the patient, and then the hard work is figuring out how to make the economics work.”
Mr. Rockenbach challenges his team to stay laser-focused on three core principles. First: operational intensity.
“Be obsessed with operations,” he said. “Be obsessed with our customer, our patients, and figure out what great looks like.”
Second: never settle. “Keep asking. Never be satisfied with what we think good looks like,” he said. And third: anticipate the future. “What are the next five things that are going to happen if we put these interventions in place?”
If operational rigor and forward-thinking are key, so too is the ability to question assumptions, according to Jeff Daneff, CFO of CommonSpirit’s California Central Coast market.
Mr. Daneff has found success — and real cost savings — by asking questions others might overlook.
“Look at the status quo and go under the assumption that nobody has asked the question,” he said.
That mindset has led to tangible changes. He gave examples: eliminating unnecessary armored cash pickups at facilities and aligning high-tech imaging operations with actual patient volumes. He also stressed the importance of discipline in a field where priorities can shift multiple times in a single day.
“We work in an industry where the key priorities 48 hours from now are displaced by the ones 24 hours ago, and those were displaced by the emails we got at 8 a.m,” he said.
To manage that chaos, Mr. Daneff said CFOs must operate at the “top of their license” — just like the clinicians they support. That means knowing when to lead as a turnaround CFO in a cash crunch, when to serve as a strategic partner and when to dive into process and operational improvements.
Healthcare has always been a team sport. However, the complexity of today’s healthcare environment requires an exceptional level of collaboration to ensure the delivery of high-quality, financially sustainable care. Health systems need teams of capable, motivated professionals across both clinical and non-clinical roles.
If health system leaders overlook critical areas of performance like supply chain, procurement, and customer service, they risk undermining clinical outcomes, financial performance, and the well-being of their workforce. The urgent need to better support healthcare operations was the main theme of the symplr Healthcare Operations Summit, held in partnership with Becker’s. The event brought together C-suite leaders and healthcare operations professionals, along with HR, clinical, and IT leaders, to explore how health systems can leverage technology to optimize healthcare operations.
Insights from the event are summarized below.
During the summit, BJ Schaknowski, CEO of symplr, defined healthcare operations as the many non-clinical workflows needed to run a health system, hospital, or facility. This includes credentialing, scheduling, managing vendors and contracts, spend management, quality and safety, compliance, scheduling, and more. Without operations — and the cross-functional teams that drive them — healthcare delivery would halt.
“Operations really is the glue,” said Susan Grant, DNP, RN, chief clinical officer at symplr. “They’re the processes to ensure we have the right people with the right skills at the right time with the right tools to yield the outcomes we’re trying to achieve.”
In a survey of healthcare leaders conducted by symplr before the summit, respondents expressed tremendous uncertainty, citing increased supply chain costs related to tariffs and cuts in Medicaid and NIH funding, which could have a ripple effect.
Representing a small breakout group during the summit, Terri Hanlon-Bremer, MSN, RN, executive vice president and system COO at Cincinnati-based TriHealth, confirmed agreement among the group that the top operational challenges center on financial pressures. Anticipated funding cuts are forcing operational leaders to plan for various scenarios and proactively tighten their belts.
After financial pressures, Ms. Hanlon-Bremer said the group highlighted fragmented processes and technology, as well as workforce shortages, as particularly challenging right now. She also expressed concern about a lack of resources and expertise related to legal and regulatory concerns.
Amy Olson, group vice president, business applications for Charlotte, N.C.-based Advocate Health, recounted that over the past few decades, healthcare organizations have made major investments in enterprise resource planning systems and electronic health records, as well as revenue cycle management platforms. However, “We’ve never had the opportunity to get to the rest of [what we need],” she said. “The tech has been ‘good enough’ . . . but it is not getting us where we need to go.”
Mr. Schaknowski added, “When it comes to operations technologies, it has been this highly fragmented and disparate area.”
Not only is point solution sprawl a problem, but there are growing questions about whether some point solutions deliver value. “Our job is looking at expense management,” said Phil Hampton, chief supply chain officer at Albuquerque, N.M.-based Presbyterian Healthcare Services. “And we’ve continued to see that expense [for technology] grow and grow.” This is causing Mr. Hampton to ask, “What’s the value we’re seeing out of that investment?”
To improve decision-making and achieve greater efficiency, operational leaders have long been on a quest for meaningful data-driven insights. These leaders crave answers to several critical questions, such as: What is our real margin? How is our financial performance affected by the cost of devices? What is our total cost of care by doctor, by procedure? For operational leaders, the volume of data is not the issue — it is the quality of the insights (undermined by data silos) that has been lacking. This lack of integrated data has limited the ability of operations leaders to make the kinds of decisions that can improve clinical care and financial performance.
Financial, operational, and supply chain leaders all care about the same thing as their clinical colleagues — they want to deliver the best care possible. They also want to achieve quality outcomes in a fiscally responsible manner because achieving financial health allows healthcare organizations to continue to provide care to their communities. Positive margins are required to sustain operations, and understanding where money is being made and lost is an important part of the care equation.
Taylor Hamilton, chief consumer officer at Johnson City, Tenn.-based Ballad Health, described ways operational technologies can be used to help organizations improve the consumer experience while simplifying back-end operations. “I want us to create an experience where it is easy to access healthcare.
”Ballad Health has embraced a proactive and patient-centered approach by launching an automated real-time feedback system. After every appointment or hospital discharge, patients promptly receive a text message asking, “How was your care today?” This initiative ensures that patient voices are heard instantly, allowing the organization to celebrate successes and address concerns without delay.
Ms. Hamilton highlights the value of this system: “We’re able to see what people are experiencing—both the good and the areas needing improvement—right as it happens.” By responding to every piece of feedback, whether positive or constructive, Ballad demonstrates its commitment to continuous improvement and patient satisfaction.
Ballad is entering these thousands of comments into large language models, which detect themes. This is driving further action and operational improvement.
To support more seamless, effective health system operations, symplr created a platform that provides a centralized, scalable, cloud-based model and ecosystem of services to enable health system teams to more efficiently manage all aspects of operations.
The symplr Operations Platform brings together multiple solutions that operations leaders and team members need to run their organizations more efficiently. “We take care of all the stuff that you don’t want to think about,” Mr. Schaknowski said. “All those critical non-clinical workflows.”
The ways in which the symplr Operations Platform takes care of these non-clinical workflows include integrating data into a common platform, interoperability, a universal look and feel, automation, and application of AI.
“It is creating new value that people hadn’t thought of before,” Mr. Schaknowski added.
Mr. Hampton believes the symplr platform will help his team analyze investment decisions, measure performance, and achieve the organization’s intended “outcomes.” “When I say ‘outcomes,’ it’s not always a financial outcome,” he said. “Sometimes we’re solving for a regulatory issue; sometimes we’re solving for a clinical issue. [Whatever we’re solving for], it needs to be measured.”
A scalable technology platform that automates, simplifies, connects, and integrates data can optimize operations and put health systems on the path toward realizing total cost of care, financial sustainability, and clinical excellence — allowing all parts of a health system to focus on what matters most: patient care.
In today’s economic climate, controlling healthcare costs is more urgent than ever, and it can’t come at the expense of patient care. Technologies like predictive analytics and machine learning are helping to identify and manage costs more effectively. By consolidating onto smarter platforms, healthcare organizations can reduce expenses, streamline operations, and return valuable time back to caregivers. Nurses didn’t enter the profession to do data entry; they came to care for patients. And behind every efficient system and empowered caregiver is a team of operational and administrative leaders — the hidden engine quietly driving healthcare forward.
Operational challenges, including access to care and capacity constraints, remain top of mind for health system executives in 2025.
Becker’s connected with Dr. Hinchey and three other health system COOs to gain insights into the strategies they have implemented over the past year to address these challenges and improve key metrics, including length of stay and patient volumes.
University Hospitals has embraced a shift in mindset, redesigning care delivery to be more scalable, reliable and cost-effective, Dr. Hinchey said.
Standardization is at the foundation of this effort at the 21-hospital system.
“While often undervalued, standardization is the key to reducing costly variability across our system,” he said. “It empowers us to improve outcomes, increase efficiency and enhance patient experience. The more consistent we are, the more predictable and trustworthy our care becomes — and that builds loyalty and drives growth.”
One example of standardization is how the system redesigned its IV fluid usage pathways after a hurricane[1]induced supply chain disruption.
“By creating consistent, evidence-based protocols, we cut IV utilization in half — saving approximately $1 million without compromising care,” he said. “We also standardized perioperative services by treating all operating rooms as one systemwide resource. That strategic alignment allowed us to increase OR utilization by nearly 10%, pushing our system average above 85%.”
Healthcare will always require some degree of customization, Dr. Hinchey added.
“But by intentionally designing systems around where consistency can exist, we unlock significant gains — in cost, time, outcomes and experience,” he said. “It’s not just about doing things the same way — it’s about doing them the best way.”
Grand Blanc, Mich.-based McLaren Health Care has used standardized processes and data-driven strategies to improve patient access, Chad Grant, COO of the 12-hospital system, told Becker’s.
The health system began its efforts by building an enterprise data warehouse to leverage analytics and reporting. This helped identify opportunities for improvement and establish standardized procedures across its medical group, ambulatory clinics, diagnostic imaging centers and emergency departments.
Standardizing equipment utilization and offering online patient self-scheduling have been major initiatives, Mr. Grant said. Online scheduling, available at several sites of care, has reduced wait times and enhanced patient convenience.
“On the radiology side, we perform about 1.5 million imaging procedures a year — about 60% of those elective or outpatient,” he said. “We had a year-over-year volume increase of 11% due to increased access simply by standardizing our approaches and optimizing how we’re utilizing equipment resources, as well as people resources from a scheduling perspective.”
McLaren also implemented predictive analytics to better align staffing with anticipated patient volumes.
“These are extremely powerful tools for our clinical leaders and our administrative leaders in our hospitals,” Mr. Grant said. “It’s allowed us to get to an optimal alignment of our people resources and schedule staff at the right time to match the anticipated patient volumes. It helps us improve our labor efficiency at a time when people are our greatest asset.”
San Francisco-based UCSF Health has deployed a coordinated strategy to improve operational flow and address capacity constraints through expansions and enhanced visibility, COO Sheila Antrum told Becker’s.
“We streamlined inpatient discharge and post-acute planning to reduce length of stay and began shifting appropriate emergency and medicine admissions from our flagship hospital to a newly integrated community site,” Ms. Antrum said. “We also increased real-time visibility into systemwide capacity to support faster placement and transfers.”
To free up inpatient beds, the 1,290-bed system expanded outpatient centers that combine imaging, surgery and pharmacy services. This enabled a 20% increase in outpatient surgery cases since opening San Francisco’s largest ambulatory surgery center in August.
Discharges to its lounge have increased 10% in less than a year, helping open up emergency department bed capacity, Ms. Antrum added. “These efforts have reduced delays for incoming patients and maintained a favorable length of stay index even as patient acuity has risen,” she said.
About a year ago, Omaha-based Nebraska Medicine — which includes more than 800 beds across two hospitals — launched targeted teams to focus on specific areas needing improvement based on key performance indicators and objectives and key results.
“We look at people, process and technology, always in that order, to understand what’s working, and what needs to change,” Michael Ash, MD, president and COO of Nebraska Medicine, told Becker’s.
The work done by these teams has led to improvements in several critical focus areas, including length of stay. By enhancing efficiency throughout hospital stays and addressing barriers to discharge, the health system increased capacity without adding beds or hiring more staff, Dr. Ash said.
“That, in turn, has allowed us to increase our facility transfers from outside organizations by 13%, as well as decrease our overall length of stay while maintaining — and in some cases, increasing — our case mix index,” he said.
These initiatives have also proven effective in the perioperative space, improving accuracy and understanding of staffing needs for surgical cases.
“AI is also playing a role there,” Dr. Ash said. “Actually looking at the chart and what is said is going to be done isn’t always inclusive of what all is planned. Our AI tool also looks at other demographic information on the patient and prior performances of that surgical team, which helps us better predict how long it will take for that surgical case, which helps with staffing requirements.”
Dr. Ash emphasized that in implementing AI and other tools to improve operations, teams must stay agile and aligned. He also highlighted the importance of focusing on leading indicators, such as OKRs, to drive meaningful change.
“Silos are great if you want to go home on time,” Dr. Ash said. “They’re horrible if you want to be transformational and safe. Work against those silos, be part of understanding the problem, defining the solution, and then work together to achieve it.”
Some nurses are creating AI-powered healthcare solutions and nursing schools are implementing AI into their programs, but many front-line nurses are hesitant about the technology’s role in patient care.
On Jan. 16, thousands of members of National Nurses United will march nationwide to demand the safe implementation of AI. The union, which has about 225,000 members, noted a 2024 survey that showed 60% of registered nurses disagreed with the statement, “I trust my employer will implement A.I. with patient safety as the first priority.”
Another survey, which polled 837 registered nurses in August and September, revealed that only about a third of nurses trust AI in healthcare settings. Fifty-six percent of respondents reported little to no trust in AI-enabled tools for administrative tasks, while 59% expressed little or no trust in AI tech for clinical decision support.
Amid this distrust, some hospital nurses have also voiced concerns about the rapid adoption of AI.
In April, nurses at Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente staged a demonstration advocating for involvement in “every step” of the decision-making process surrounding AI and other data-driven technologies in healthcare. In October, nurses at 17 hospitals owned by Nashville, Tenn.- based HCA Healthcare ratified contracts ensuring they have a voice in implementing new technology, including those powered by AI.
At the same time, a March survey from the American Nurses Foundation and McKinsey found that a majority of more than 4,000 nurses desire the use of AI in their work and are hopeful that AI will improve care quality.
To achieve buy-in and trust, it is critical to include nurses and other stakeholders in discussions about AI use in healthcare, according to executives at Orlando (Fla.) Health, Boston-based Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the American Nurses Enterprise.
Several hospitals and systems have established AI committees with nurse informaticists, said Oriana Beaudet, DNP, RN, vice president of innovation at the American Nurses Enterprise.
Darius Love, DNP, RN, Orlando Health’s assistant vice president of workforce optimization and redesign, said organizations should create an interdisciplinary team of front-line nurses, informaticists, leaders, IT staff, and regulatory and compliance employees. This collaboration fosters “energy,” “synergy” and a “smooth cadence” of innovation, he said.
Orlando Health is currently piloting ambient documentation in its virtual nursing program and is engaging nurses throughout the process.
“So our stance has really been: What you do for me, you do to me,” Dr. Love told Becker’s. “So it’s imperative that we include them. And I believe that when it comes to workforce stability and things of that nature, our team members’ feedback is a gift.”
Julia Mason, DNP, RN, chief nursing officer and senior vice president of patient care services at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, echoed Dr. Love’s comments. Since starting her nursing career more than 34 years ago, Dr. Mason described herself as having begun as a “paper and pencil person.”
While Brigham and Women’s does not currently have AI pilots specific to nursing, the Mass General Brigham system has an AI governance committee to pursue evidence-based opportunities, Dr. Mason said. The committee works to ensure the patient is at the center of everything and that AI does not replace clinical decision-making.
Her top recommendations for other healthcare leaders include being cautious, conducting thorough research, involving an interdisciplinary AI team with nurses, and including patients and their families in AI rollout projects.
This strategy might be slower than some people want, Dr. Mason said, but it is crucial to be deliberate and gather clinicians’ feedback.
Dr. Love also emphasized the importance of transparency and collaboration.
“I think that for good reason healthcare workers are, I want to say, cautious. And I think that that is perfectly fine. I’d be concerned if we were not,” he said. “And thus, as leaders, I think it’s our job to really paint the picture, explain the why and, again, inspire our front-line teams, leaders and team members at every level to really journey in and really be a partner in how we reimagine care.”
Technology has the power to change that. When thoughtfully implemented, it can alleviate operational burdens and restore time to what clinicians value most: spending meaningful time connecting with patients. However, transformation that overlooks the clinician experience can fall flat, or worse, deepen existing pain points.
Forward-thinking hospitals and health systems understand that meaningful change must begin with clinicians at the center. When operational and technological strategies are aligned with frontline insights, transformation becomes a powerful catalyst that amplifies both care quality and workforce well-being.
This imperative was at the heart of the 2025 symplr Healthcare Operations Summit, hosted in partnership with Becker’s Healthcare. The event convened clinical, operational, and IT leaders from across the country to explore how technology can reshape healthcare delivery and ease the path forward for clinicians.
What follows are key takeaways from the discussion.
Clinicians face unrelenting pressures in care delivery. While this isn’t new, the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath have brought heightened attention to pervasive staffing shortages, burnout, and retention challenges.
“Clinicians are getting directions from everyone, and there is so much administrative burden they are dealing with every day,” said Michelle James, BSN, RN, senior vice president for patient care services and chief nursing officer at PeaceHealth (Vancouver, Wash.). “They don’t have a lot of joy in their job.”
Tracy Gosselin, PhD, RN, senior vice president and chief nurse executive at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, described a healthcare environment defined by growing complexity. She said more patients, increased volume, and higher acuity are now the norm. These mounting pressures are also contributing to a troubling rise in verbal and physical abuse toward clinicians — with healthcare workers now five times more likely to experience a workplace violence injury than the average U.S. worker.
Meanwhile, clinical leaders are navigating fiscal headwinds and highly competitive labor markets. “What’s going to give us increased retention, nurse satisfaction, and the desire to go to work every day?” said Katie Barr, MSN, RN, senior vice president and chief nursing informatics officer at Charlotte, N.C.-based Advocate Health. “We need to find ways to bring the joy back.”
To address these challenges, many healthcare organizations are deploying initiatives to reduce administrative burden. symplr CEO BJ Schaknowski cited the 2024 symplr Compass Survey Report, which shows that clinicians spend about 51 minutes per day (almost five hours per week) on non-value-added administrative tasks. Automating these tasks would give clinicians more room to focus, recharge, and navigate their day with fewer disruptions. It would also enhance their capacity and overall productivity.
Another core tenet guiding healthcare strategy: serving on the front lines is never a solo endeavor. High-quality care depends on deeply coordinated teamwork among physicians, nurses, advanced practice providers, technicians, and other clinical staff.
“We talk about quality and patient safety in the context of being a team sport,” said Omar Hasan, MD, chief quality officer at MaineHealth (Portland).
This cohesive, collaborative team extends well beyond clinicians. Clinical leaders must partner with functions such as IT, finance, and the supply chain. “I have the opportunity to lead the supply improvement work across our system,” said Vi-Anne Antrum, DNP, RN, senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Cone Health (Greensboro, N.C.). “We’re looking to pair and integrate our supply chain colleagues with clinical operations. That’s a very important relationship.”
Susan Grant, DNP, RN, chief clinical officer at symplr, emphasized that team success requires alignment and information sharing, along with supportive tools and resources. “It’s about making sure they have what they need when they need it,” she said. “It’s about the right staff with the right stuff.”
Mr. Schaknowski suggested that, to date, operational technologies in healthcare have fallen short. “Everyone realizes that technology can be a great enabler, but it hasn’t been,” he said. While clinicians are mission-driven and adaptable, he noted they’re “sick of technology being forced upon them as the next great thing.”
In many cases, healthcare technology has complicated clinicians’ workflows, taking them away from patients and contributing to burnout and low engagement.
“What we’ve done over time is we just keep adding on, but we’ve taken nothing away,” Ms. James of PeaceHealth said, referring to the proliferation of disconnected technologies.
The 2024 symplr Compass Survey Report confirms this, indicating that health systems typically use hundreds of different applications.
Mr. Schaknowski reiterated there’s a better way.
“We’ve got to make technology a force multiplier for our people, not a punishment,” he said. “When you look at the technology available, whether it’s in workflow consolidation, application rationalization, some of the generative or large language AI tools. We have a real opportunity to make clinicians more productive and more engaged.”
Leaders at the summit acknowledged that clinicians generally understand the need for operational transformation, hopeful that it will decrease burden, improve care delivery, and result in better outcomes.
But how clinicians are engaged in operational transformation and IT solutions matters. “It needs to be clinically led and IT enabled,” Ms. James said, underscoring that, at the very least, clinicians need a major voice in the transformation process.
Dr. Gosselin of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center emphasized that successful transformation doesn’t begin with technology; it starts by engaging key stakeholders in problem-solving. “It starts with going to the clinician base and the non-clinician base and asking, ‘What are the processes we need to fix?’ Then, [it requires] engaging people in a dialog.”
Being motivated to transform clinical operations is not enough. Because of widespread fragmentation and variation in healthcare environments, standardization is a prerequisite to transformation.
“We want every patient across our state, across our footprint, who comes to a MaineHealth facility to have the same quality of care and the exact same experience. But this cannot happen without a measure of standardization,” Dr. Hasan said, highlighting that workforce shortages have often necessitated clinicians work at several different facilities. “We have to standardize. There is no other choice.”
When an enterprise becomes more standardized, it is possible to become more integrated. In terms of operations, Dr. Hasan said well-planned structures and well-designed standardized processes produce the best outcomes.
Dr. Antrum of Cone Health said that operational standardization, combined with tight integration of team members from different disciplines, has yielded significant benefits for the health system. It has reduced silos, improved information sharing, and enhanced care delivery. “It allows us to maximize the efficiency of our staff and our team to ensure a more standardized quality of care for our patients,” Dr. Antrum said.
Being motivated to transform clinical operations is not enough. Because of widespread fragmentation and variation in healthcare environments, standardization is a prerequisite to transformation.
“We want every patient across our state, across our footprint, who comes to a MaineHealth facility to have the same quality of care and the exact same experience. But this cannot happen without a measure of standardization,” Dr. Hasan said, highlighting that workforce shortages have often necessitated clinicians work at several different facilities. “We have to standardize. There is no other choice.”
When an enterprise becomes more standardized, it is possible to become more integrated. In terms of operations, Dr. Hasan said well-planned structures and well-designed standardized processes produce the best outcomes.
Dr. Antrum of Cone Health said that operational standardization, combined with tight integration of team members from different disciplines, has yielded significant benefits for the health system. It has reduced silos, improved information sharing, and enhanced care delivery. “It allows us to maximize the efficiency of our staff and our team to ensure a more standardized quality of care for our patients,” Dr. Antrum said.
Clinical leaders are clear: operational transformation doesn’t mean just implementing technology.
“To accomplish transformation, there are many things we need to do; among them, are change management and stakeholder engagement,” said Tony Seupaul, MD, executive vice president and chief physician executive at Roanoke, Va.-based Carilion Clinic.
Ms. Barr of Advocate Health concurred that change management, including listening to clinicians and helping them understand the reasons for change, is a core trait of operationally driven initiatives. She said the importance of change management is widely understood, but at times, leaders become so focused on driving change that they forget the basic principles of change management and fail to bring front-line team members along.
At Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, operational changes and technology investments have corresponded with culture change. Dr. Gosselin mentioned incorporating “humble inquiry” into the organization’s culture, where staff are encouraged to ask questions to understand the “why” behind changes.
A critical but often overlooked operational responsibility of clinical leaders is overseeing credentialing.
Dr. Seupal shared insights from his own journey toward recognizing credentialing as a foundational element of care delivery, as providers must be credentialed and privileged to deliver care at the bedside and to get reimbursed by payers.
Historically, credentialing and privileging have been slow, manual, and time-consuming processes. “There are opportunities to streamline credentialing,” Dr. Seupal said. “It can be an enabler for better care, better access, and better quality and safety in your health system.”
Nydia Boswell, vice president of product management at symplr, explained how the symplr Operations Platform will tie together multiple solutions to improve the full lifecycle of the provider, from onboarding through offboarding. This begins with symplr Recruiting, which streamlines intake and information gathering about a clinical candidate. When a candidate is hired, their information can be automatically sent to the credentialing team in symplr Provider, without needing to reenter this information, and with no lag time. This ensures the credentialing process is started as quickly as possible.
Once credentialed and privileged, provider information can be sent to the organization’s patient-facing directory to begin marketing providers to patients and to meet compliance and regulatory needs. The newly active provider is then automatically included in the organization’s scheduling system to get them seeing patients as quickly as possible.
Recruiting, credentialing, onboarding, and scheduling are automated and simplified through the symplr Operations Platform, which eliminates waste and reduces administrative burden, Ms. Boswell said. This frees clinicians to focus on patient care and engage in more strategic, high-value work. By improving efficiency, lowering costs, and minimizing risk, the platform supports operational transformation — making care delivery more meaningful and less encumbered for clinicians.
“Operations is the glue and the processes that ensure we have the right people with the right skills at the right time with the right tools to yield the patient outcomes we’re trying to achieve,” Dr. Grant said.
Our mission is to bring order to the chaos. And trust me, it’s not just about making IT leaders’ lives easier (though that’s a nice bonus) but, more importantly, about helping caregivers focus on what matters most: patient care.
Healthcare organizations are operating with thousands of point-product applications. I’m talking 2,000 to 3,000 in some cases. That’s an unmanageable tangle with big consequences. Financially, it means you have zero leverage since you’re dealing with so many vendors. Security-wise?
It’s a nightmare trying to keep track of that many endpoints and ensure compliance. And from a human perspective, just imagine the sheer amount of time and effort spent managing systems that don’t speak the same language. It’s a head-scratching, wallet-draining, time-sucking mess.
And no one feels that pain more than nurse leaders who have to log into 12 or 15 different systems just to run a single shift. That’s two-plus hours of administrative work—not to mention frustration—that pulls them away from patient care. With a 30% nursing shortage across the country, this is a problem we can’t afford to ignore.
At symplr, we believe there’s a better way to drive a lot of waste and inefficiencies out of the system and make healthcare future ready. By consolidating systems onto fewer, smarter platforms that solve multiple problems, digital health leaders can cut costs, simplify operations, tighten security, and, most importantly, give time back to caregivers to do what they’re meant to do. No nurse entered the profession dreaming of a future spent staring at screens and playing data-entry detective. They want to provide care, and our job is to help make that possible.
Over the past few years, we saw a massive opportunity and deliberately started putting together powerful tools and insights to create a new category called healthcare operations. Why focus here? Because as much as you’d rather not think about it, there’s an enormous burden of administrative tasks that have to happen to run any healthcare system. Credentialing, scheduling, compliance, supply chain management, quality tracking… you name it. Clinicians might describe this stuff as “the chores no one wants to do, but they’ve got to get done.” We knew we could either tackle these pain points one by one, or we could zoom out, see the bigger picture, and address the entire category.
We doubled down on the latter, acquiring leading technologies in critical areas of non-clinical healthcare operations. Provider data management, nurse and physician scheduling, spend management, vendor access compliance, and more—we brought the best together under one roof. But acquisitions were only Step 1. Step 2 in making the puzzle pieces fit. That’s where the magic (and the hard work) really happens.
This year marks a milestone for us with the rollout of the symplr Operations Platform. Built on the back of years of effort and countless hours of development, focusing on interoperability, shared workflows, and seamless integration, we’ve achieved the holy grail of consolidation. We’ve partnered with AWS for cloud infrastructure, built API gateways, created a common data lake, and worked tirelessly to connect our solutions in a way that truly multiplies value for our customers.
And we’re not stopping here. We’ve brought best practices from other horizontal industries plus our 30+ years of experience together for real impact. By leveraging the rich data we can now consolidate, we’ll continue driving productivity, efficiency, and cost savings for healthcare systems.
No conversation about innovation is complete without AI. It’s the buzzword of a generation, but at symplr, we see it as more than hype. Our approach to AI is based on working with it for almost 15 years. But the thing about AI in healthcare is if you don’t understand the data it uses, its inputs, its outputs, or the infrastructure it’s built on, you’re flirting with major risks.
We’ve taken a “go slow to go fast” approach with generative AI. Instead of jumping on the bandwagon and launching bots willy-nilly, we’ve partnered strategically with AWS to bake generative AI and large language models into core applications where they’ll have the most meaningful, low-risk impact. The result? Workflow enhancements that used to take hours now deliver insights in seconds or minutes. It’s about improving productivity without exposing healthcare systems to the vulnerabilities that come with undisciplined AI deployment.
At the end of the day, we’re tech optimists, but we’re also measured optimists. We believe technology should empower users, not overwhelm them. And if it can give people back precious time and energy, even better.
We’re focused on simplifying what’s become too complicated, unifying what’s been fragmented, and innovating responsibly in ways that create real value for healthcare systems.
We’re here to lighten the load, remove the dysfunction, connect the dots, and optimize healthcare operations so that caregivers can spend more time doing what they love. After all, no one gets into healthcare because they love spreadsheets or sitting in front of a screen all day.
Now, back to those 12 puzzles in one box. With the right tools and strategy, we’re proving it’s possible to not just find the butterfly but show you how to make it fly.
KLAS’ “Executive Voices” report reflects feedback from more than 1,000 C-suite leaders, including CEOs, CFOs, CIOs and CMIOs. The report highlights growing frustration with unclear pricing, poor cross-department coordination, and technology that fails to support systemwide goals.
Despite these challenges, IT leaders remain grounded, pragmatic problem solvers. They work to advance their organization’s immediate goals under intense financial pressure, even as they lay the foundation for long[1]term transformation. That future demands a scalable IT infrastructure and streamlined, integrated solutions — tools that enable more efficient operations and unlock new possibilities for care delivery.
The urgent need to streamline healthcare IT and reframe its role in operations was a central theme at the 2025 symplr Healthcare Operations Summit, held in partnership with Becker’s Healthcare. The event brought together IT and operational leaders from across the country to explore how health system leaders can leverage technology to transform healthcare delivery.
Key insights from the summit are summarized below.
symplr CEO BJ Schaknowski summarized four ubiquitous challenges faced by most U.S. healthcare organizations:
In a real-time poll during symplr’s summit, healthcare IT leaders ranked financial pressures as their most significant challenge.
These organizational pressures shape nearly every priority on an IT leader’s agenda. They’re not only the champions of technology, driving innovation to address labor, clinical, financial, and operational challenges — they’re also the executors. Beyond advocating for digital solutions, they lead cross-functional teams through the complex processes of selecting, deploying, and optimizing them.
Zafar Chaudry, MD, senior vice president, chief digital officer and CIO at Seattle Children’s, emphasized that before implementing technology, IT leaders must first determine the problem they’re trying to solve. “If you’re going to drive change in your organization . . . it’s going to be because you understand what problems people in the organization have,” he said.
Technology has become integral to solving healthcare’s most pervasive problems and operational bottlenecks, but the sheer number of tech solutions used across health systems is hurting productivity.
Todd Jones, director of market intelligence at symplr, highlighted key findings from the Compass Survey: health systems often rely on hundreds of IT solutions (some even reporting more than 1,000), and 80% of IT leaders see an opportunity to consolidate them. As health systems grow more digitally complex, addressing this sprawl has become increasingly critical. The proliferation of point solutions means more vendor contracts, multiple logins, inconsistent user interfaces, varied patching processes, and fragmented security protocols. The result is a highly complex environment that reduces efficiency, heightens cybersecurity risk, and increases cost.
“Fragmented processes and technology, that’s where inefficiency resides,” said Terri Hanlon-Bremer, MSN, RN, executive vice president and system COO at Cincinnati-based TriHealth. “If we can resolve that, it would make finances better.”
While health systems have made significant strides in adopting clinical technologies, progress on the operational front has often lagged. Many organizations still rely on outdated tools that strain workflows and limit visibility across departments. Amy Olson, group vice president of business applications at Advocate Health (Charlotte, N.C.), noted that despite decades of tech adoption, health systems continue to face challenges in implementing effective operational solutions.
Ms. Olson reflected on the early days of clinical operations-focused innovation — first came enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) to support growth, followed by widespread adoption of electronic health records (EHRs). As EHRs matured, many health systems upgraded or replaced them. Then came the adoption of various revenue cycle management tools. However, during this time, tools that focused on operations weren’t as highly prioritized, and many core operational technologies remained unchanged.
“We never got to the rest of the operational technologies,” Ms. Olson said. “They were ‘good enough,’ but they are not getting us where we need to go. Now is the time to bring these disparate systems together to make it easier.”
Brad Shaink, executive director of innovation and business applications at Houston Methodist, said his team is focused on building the “hospital of the future,” which is enabled by smart tools. “When we think about technology, it’s to enable caregivers and individuals to do more,” he said.
For Ms. Olson, technology is more than a means to improve financial performance; it’s a powerful enabler of workforce well-being. She views streamlined systems as a way to reduce staff burnout and improve retention. “If you’re not burning your people out, if you’re not turning them over as fast, there’s real money there,” Ms. Olson said.
Just as IT leaders aim to solve healthcare’s most pressing operational challenges, symplr is equally committed to delivering tools that ease complexity, enhance efficiency, and support sustainable systemwide improvement.
“We help deliver value by solving problems that you can’t or don’t want to solve yourself — typically with greater impact than you might otherwise achieve,” said Mr. Schaknowski.
The symplr Operations Platform marks a shift from fragmented point solutions to a unified, integrated approach to healthcare operations. Tony DiGiorgio, symplr’s chief architect, described the platform as a cloud-based solution developed in partnership with AWS and designed to support security, governance, compliance, and scalability.
The emphasis on scalability resonates with Chris Sacinski, vice president of IT applications at Advocate Health. When reviewing IT solutions, Mr. Sacinski said cybersecurity is the most important factor, but this has become table stakes. To learn more about symplr, visit www.symplr.com.
After cybersecurity, he prioritizes scalability along two dimensions: the ability of a vendor’s product to scale with the organization’s size, scope, and data needs, and the scalability of the operational business model itself.
Beyond scalability, the infrastructure and ecosystem of symplr’s Operations Platform support a consistent user experience and include an API-first design for interoperability and extensibility. It also powers a centralized data platform that turns information into actionable insights. Building on this foundation, symplr is integrating AI within a standardized framework.
The platform’s goal is to drive efficiencies across operations. “We tie our solutions together to help remove waste from the process and drive efficiencies,” said Nydia Boswell, vice president of product management at symplr.
This shared vision underscores a broader shift in healthcare IT: moving from fragmented tools to integrated solutions that truly streamline operations. As symplr focuses on eliminating waste and improving efficiency, leaders recognize that the moment for meaningful transformation has arrived.
“It’s the next frontier,” Ms. Olson said. “It’s what we’ve always wanted to get to. We’ve been saying it for 10 years, but there was always something else. Now we’re there.”
Faced with persistent labor shortages, financial constraints and rising consumer expectations, health leaders are turning to artificial intelligence and digital innovation not only to fill gaps, but to fundamentally reshape how care is delivered. From automating documentation to upskilling staff in AI literacy and redesigning access models for a more on-demand world, today’s healthcare workforce is leaner, more agile, and increasingly strategic.
As care continues its migration beyond hospital walls, the imperative is clear: success hinges on a workforce that is not only technologically fluent, but also empowered to lead transformation across clinical, operational and consumer touchpoints. Here are five predictions on the healthcare workforce by top executives and speakers at the Becker’s CEO+CFO Roundtable.
Hospitals are incorporating AI into daily clinical and administrative operations to become more efficient and achieve better outcomes. The workforce is also adapting to more care being delivered outside the hospital walls.
“We see more interest in services ‘on demand’ both in our Express clinic model and via virtual visits, resulting in our workforce models adapting to meet that need,” said Derek Goebel, CFO of Grand Forks, N.D.-based Altru Health System. “Additionally, we continue to leverage technologies such as AI for provider documentation and computer assisted coding, allowing us to close gaps in staffing that go unfilled due to shortages in support areas. In addition, we carefully evaluate each job opening to ensure we are maintaining a lean, effective workforce.”
Proactively building and maintaining a “lean, effective workforce” will be essential for hospitals as margins tighten and tech advances
AI significantly transformed healthcare operations and workflows over the last few years, and continues to advance at a rapid pace. The adage “AI won’t replace physicians, but physicians with AI will replace those without” can be applied to any role within the organization. That’s why health systems, especially academic systems with built-in data science and researcher experts, have developed AI literacy programs for the entire team to upskill their understanding of the technology and ability to wield it
Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic is providing the workforce with new opportunities to learn new skills, enhance existing ones and innovate with technology in support of the system’s 160-year-old mission of delivering the best care to patients.
“This includes tailored educational programs in data analytics, machine learning, and AI ethics,” said Maneesh Goyal, COO of Mayo Clinic Platform. “We are adding data scientists, AI specialists and technologies who work hand-in-hand with clinicians. By bridging the gap between clinical expertise and technological proficiency, and ensuring continuous upskilling, we’re augmenting support for our staff and the care we deliver to our patients.” The expectation is each team member functions at a higher level and becomes more of a strategic leader, harnessing AI. Biju Samkutty, COO of Mayo Clinic, told Becker’s that his team is using intelligent automation and AI for more personalized, efficient and transformative care.
“We are prioritizing the development of skills in data literacy, digital collaboration and AI-driven decision support across clinical and operational roles,” he said. “Functions that have traditionally relied on manual or routine work are evolving to include more strategic, analytical and tech-enabled responsibilities. This shift is creating a more agile, empowered workforce ready to lead in the future of healthcare.”
Healthcare has been slower than other industries to embrace consumer-driven business models, but hospitals are now rapidly evolving to compete for patients with easy and more convenient access to care. That means health systems are opening new satellite locations across communities and staying open on evenings and weekends to accommodate patients’ schedules. They’re offering more virtual care options, embracing virtual nursing and allowing for self-scheduling; they’re customizing communication and adding services to support whole-person care.
“As consumer expectations reshape healthcare, we’re piloting new access models, weekend services, expanded locations and virtual care, enabled by scalable technologies and a workforce equipped to adapt,” said Craig Albanese, MD, CEO of Duke University Health System in Durham, N.C. “Our workforce evolution ensures we meet patients where they are, while giving our teams the flexibility, tools and support they need to perform at their best.”
Baptist Health in Louisville, Ky., is taking a similar approach. The system’s infrastructure has become more patient-centric with projects such as a new hybrid emergency and urgent care center located on a community college campus, and the workforce is evolving as well.
“To support our commitment to accessible, cost-effective care, we are equipping our workforce with the tools and training needed to meet patients where they are,” said Rick Carrico, CFO of Baptist Health. “In addition, we continue to expand freestanding emergency and urgent care facilities, enhance home-based services and grow our primary care network, which plays a critical role in connecting patients to the care they need, while investing in technology that enables real-time patient monitoring and timely intervention, improving outcomes while reducing unnecessary hospital visits.”
AI, automation, ambient listening and more have reduced or eliminated low-value administrative tasks for clinical and operational teams. They’re able to focus on the high-value accountabilities and human-to-human interactions vital to healthcare delivery, which require a high level of thinking and input, said Lisa Goodlett, senior vice president, CFO and treasurer of Duke University Health System in Durham, N.C.
“As we replace time spent on repetitive tasks and data transferring activities, we expect to create a more fulfilled workforce that has time to think, create and feel connected to meaningful work,” she told Becker’s. “We are pursuing a path of inclusion and transparency to gather the best thinking of our teams and partnerships as we redesign workflow and the workforce.”
Duke, like many health systems, is heavily investing in the well-being and personalized approach to employee benefits. Dr. Albanese sees clinician and employee support as critical for elite patient care.
“The care we provide to our patients is inseparable from the care, respect and inclusion we extend to our team members, and how well we reflect, understand and serve our communities,” he told Becker’s. “Our workforce evolution is rooted in a culture of belonging and interprofessional collaboration, supported by flexible scheduling, AI-driven efficiencies, well-being programs and meaningful recognition.”
C-suite leaders have talked for years about breaking down siloes and integrating multidisciplinary teams for better outcomes. Now the technology exists to actually make that happen, and organizational structure has to keep up.
“Gone are the days of fragmented departments and transactional roles,” said David Lubarsky, MD, president and CEO of Westchester Medical Care Health Network in Valhalla, N.Y. “We’re building an ecosystem where nurses, doctors, technologists and administrators don’t just collaborate, they co-create the future of health. We are dismantling silos, redesigning leadership pipelines and nurturing a culture where bold thinking is not just welcomed; it’s becoming the norm.”
Dr. Lubarsky considers his team the “mission-driven architects of community health” who are able to connect at a deeper level because of digital technology and interoperable platforms to align around big strategic imperatives and each patient’s care journey.
“By leveraging technology to reduce low-value tasks and enhance clinical workflows, we’re making space for what matters most: meaningful, judgment-driven, and compassionate care,” said Dr. Lubarksy. “From AI integration to human-centered leadership, we’re investing in the skills and mindsets our workforce will need — not just for today’s challenges, but for those we can’t yet see. This isn’t just workforce evolution. It’s the beginning of a transformation, and we’re building toward it, together.”
Abhi Rastogi, president and CEO of Temple University Hospital and executive vice president of Temple University Health System in Philadelphia, has a similar focus.
“We’re seeing a significant shift towards a more interdisciplinary workforce,” he said. “Our focus is on empowering our team through continuous learning and development and fostering stronger collaboration across different roles and campuses to enhance patient care coordination. We integrate clinical services and programs across our health system, giving our clinicians and staff the collaborative support and resources they need to adapt to the continually growing and complex needs of our patients.”
Health system leaders charged with managing the workforce — from recruitment, credentialing, and training to scheduling and retention — understand just how challenging this moment is for healthcare professionals. Hospital staff are expected to care for more patients with higher acuity levels. There is greater competition for both patients and talent, rising regulatory demands, more administrative burden, and increased incidents of workplace violence. On top of that, they must juggle a multitude of non-clinical operational tasks daily.
These pressures are fueling workforce stress and dissatisfaction, leading many clinicians to consider leaving their jobs. At the same time, health systems are grappling with financial strain and labor shortages, striving to increase workforce efficiency and productivity. This confluence of disruptive forces is prompting leaders to rethink their operational processes and technologies, seeking solutions that streamline clinicians’ workflows while advancing care delivery.
The urgent need to improve healthcare workers’ experiences by transforming healthcare operations was a central theme of the 2025 symplr Healthcare Operations Summit, held in partnership with Becker’s Healthcare. The event convened HR, clinical, IT, and operational leaders to explore how technology can help health systems transform operations.
Key insights are summarized below.
While the clinical aspects of care delivery get tremendous, well-deserved attention, running a hospital or health system entails performing a significant number of non[1]clinical operational tasks. These tasks encompass hiring and credentialing employees, training, scheduling, supply chain management, facility management, vendor contracts, and much more.
These various operational tasks are performed by people across the organization, often through manual, labor-intensive processes. When organizations deploy technology to streamline these functions, the tools are often point solutions used by one department or team to perform a single task. This results in organizations having a huge number of decentralized point solutions and operating in silos.
“There is so much administrative burden that people are dealing with every day,” said Michelle James, BSN, RN, senior vice president for patient care services and chief nursing officer at PeaceHealth (Vancouver, Wash.).
Ekta Vyas, PhD, chief human resources officer at Keck Medicine of USC (Los Angeles), said fragmentation and a lack of “systemness” are the greatest problems confronting health system leaders and staff. She explained how fragmentation has been exacerbated by the many mergers and acquisitions throughout healthcare in recent years. Oftentimes, when organizations merge, silos multiply, fragmentation increases, and more point solutions are introduced — many of which aren’t integrated. This lack of a unified, cohesive system creates significant frustration for team members as they try to do their jobs effectively.
This pressure-cooker environment can unintentionally increase the burden on frontline staff. It’s something Brad Shaink, executive director of innovation and business applications at Houston Methodist, sees firsthand. “We’re putting in so many new technologies, and we’re asking nurses and everyone to do so much more,” he said. “The entire purpose of adding new technology is to take weight off of an individual who is working in a back office or on the front line.”
Healthcare organizations are increasingly embracing strategies that center operational transformation, with the aim of increasing efficiency and decreasing burden on team members.
Mr. Shaink believes technology-driven transformation can enable an organization to become more innovative while freeing up staff time and enhancing the human touch. “My entire passion of bringing together people, process, and technology is to make healthcare smarter so it can be more human,” he said.
In the same vein, symplr Chief Marketing Officer Kristin Russel said the company’s vision is about simplifying healthcare operations so caregivers have more time for meaningful patient interactions.
But operational transformation hinges on strong partnerships, particularly when it comes to handling complex, behind-the-scenes processes. BJ Schaknowski, symplr’s CEO, emphasized this point, noting the importance of collaboration in managing critical functions, such as credentialing, scheduling, contract oversight, compliance, and vendor access. “These are the things that have to happen — but it’s not where you want your physicians and nurses spending time,” he said.
The symplr Operations Platform unifies the solutions organizations need to drive greater operational efficiency through increased automation and reduced time and effort. It is designed to eliminate silos, decrease fragmentation, and enhance integration. By fostering a more collaborative, cohesive, and cross[1]functionally aligned organization with a stronger sense of “systemness,” the platform also helps lighten the burden on the workforce.
For leaders, the platform makes it easier to manage staff and operations by providing greater operational consistency, along with visibility, to centralized data. For frontline staff across functions, the platform saves time and makes it easier to perform operational tasks.
“It’s using technology to enable individuals to do more,” Mr. Shaink added.
Driving operational transformation across an enterprise demands cross-functional collaboration and alignment. In this context, change management has become a growing focus for hospital and health system leaders. Many are sharpening their ability to foster cohesion and accountability, while also strengthening essential “soft skills” such as relationship-building and effective communication.
As the chief nursing officer at PeaceHealth, Ms. James focuses on breaking silos and improving alignment by partnering with leaders from HR, IT, and finance.
Together, leaders at PeaceHealth have implemented an integrated workforce time-keeping and scheduling system to benefit the organization’s workforce. “In looking at time[1]keeping and scheduling, we wanted to make sure that whatever we did, we wanted to automate, integrate, and ease the way for our caregivers and frontline managers,” Ms. James said.
In the planning stages of this initiative, Ms. James and her collaborators prioritized listening to frontline workers to understand their needs. The leaders consistently asked, “What are the things we need to do differently to ease your way and give you back time so you can do the important things?” When they implemented the solution, it was essential to communicate frequently and consistently, Ms. James said.
Sandra Johnson, vice president and chief revenue officer at Columbia, Md.-based MedStar Health, said leaders must use change management techniques to drive major shifts, even ones that benefit people, like implementing symplr’s Operations Platform.
“Before even starting the process of looking at workflows or anything like that, we get people prepared for the fact that we are going to have change and that change is good,” Ms. Johnson said. “You have to communicate constantly. I’m constantly telling people what’s going to happen, how it’s going to impact them, and how it’s going to benefit them.”
While there is always organizational inertia that makes change difficult, the benefits of operational transformation are significant: organizations can realize improved integration, cross-functional cooperation, and productivity, while people will have easier, more satisfying jobs, engaging in work that matters.
Importantly, change is not a one-time event to simply “set and forget.” Leaders at the summit emphasized that transformation is an ongoing journey, and effective change management must be a continuous, deliberate process embedded into the organization’s culture.
Healthcare’s future depends on the ability of organizations to support their people with tools and systems that reduce complexity, not add to it. And the path to operational transformation is not about replacing the human element of care; rather, it’s about enabling it. By investing in integrated, enterprise-wide technologies like symplr’s Operations Platform, health systems can ease administrative burdens, foster collaboration and cohesion, and give caregivers more time to focus on what matters most: their patients.
The insights shared by leaders at the 2025 symplr Healthcare Operations Summit make clear that progress hinges on thoughtful collaboration across departments and a willingness to embrace change. As the industry continues to evolve, those organizations that prioritize operational excellence will be best positioned to thrive, bringing more humanity, efficiency, and sustainability to healthcare delivery.
