Dr. Rupal Malani

It's, you know, there are challenges to be sure in this space, but an area of interest for stakeholders across the board within health care, I would say.

My clients and providers that we see across the health system landscape that are most successful are incredibly focused in both their strategy as well as in execution.

They're focused in strategy, meaning they're very specific about the segments that they want to play in and exactly what they want to deliver, meaning whether that's number of ASCs and types of specialties, whether that's the amount of kind of

margin headroom that they want to create, again, for investment back into core patient care.

They're also very focused then in execution.

There's really an increasing acknowledgement amongst health systems that the capabilities required to be successful are fundamentally different in the pre-acute space.

And so those capabilities are some of the capabilities that I was talking about earlier with M&A that health systems are really needing to invest in to meet the expectations of their consumers.

And so oftentimes providers are recognizing that partnership is actually the fastest way to deliver these capabilities in the market.

And partners can help them decide where to put the facility, how to lay it out, what specialty should go in it, and of course, how to run it efficiently and deliver those digital expectations that really allow them to put patients first.

And that, honestly, I would say is maybe something that's a little bit different than if I think back to

10 years ago, or maybe even pre-pandemic, that acknowledgement and self-reflection and willingness to partner on something that they would feel so close to patient care and their core competency is something that I've really seen as a pivot in the last handful of years.

The US is expected to face a shortage of up to 64,000 physicians this year, growing up to 86,000 by 2036.

We actually conduct a physician survey every year and have done so for several years now.

And in our most recent report, we found that one third suggested that they were likely to leave their current role in the current year.

And 60% of those are leaving clinical practice altogether.

And so we're seeing health systems really take this very seriously and continue to modernize care teams away from the traditional one-on-one, in-person doctor-patient visit and towards care models that incorporate a diverse set of clinicians, APPs, nurses, pharmacists, all working collaboratively and cohesively and at the top of their license to ensure that patients are getting the care that they need when they need it and frankly, where they need it.

Health systems, in addition, are redesigning and rethinking their compensation and incentive structures to be more aligned with this, while also investing directly and indirectly in well-being programs.

So directly, I think of programs to enhance and promote balance.

So that can be flexibility in scheduling, as one example.

But also indirectly, deploying technology, for example, to reduce the pajama time, you