After the Surge: The Chartis Group Releases Imperatives for Health System Leaders to Address

With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, the future of healthcare delivery fundamentally changed. Now as providers look to restart broad-based care delivery, few will return to their prior clinical operating or business models. They must put in place a plan that both recaptures short-term volume and restructures their cost base, while strategically positioning themselves for the long-term. The Chartis Group provides healthcare leaders with an initial roadmap to achieve these objectives in the paper "After the Surge: Five Health System Imperatives in the Age of COVID-19."

COVID-19's impact to-date has varied across the country, with some regions experiencing significant pressures from high COVID-19 volumes and others preparing for surges that may not materialize. In both cases, the near shutdown of some urgent and almost all elective care, as well as surprising declines in emergent volume, such as trauma, myocardial infarction and stroke, has led to a massive reduction in patient volumes and a corresponding degradation in financial sustainability.

Ken Graboys, Chief Executive Officer of The Chartis Group and co-author of the report, stated, "Health systems are entering a new era, the age of COVID-19. The future healthcare delivery landscape will be characterized by a materially resized and reshaped patient base; a pressing need for providers to substantively reduce costs while restructuring clinical operations; and a requirement to provide coexisting dual systems of care for both COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients."

Graboys added, "Providers also will have to simultaneously remain focused on their longer-term strategic priorities in the context of the new-normal. While every health system's plan will reflect its unique situation, the importance of a plan itself cannot be overstated."

The Chartis Group recommends five imperatives for health system executives:

1. Providers must engage consumers and other referral sources to recapture patients. This means profiling the consumer base, reactivating "high acuity/high need/high willingness" patients, regaining community confidence and pursuing accretive demand and growth.
2. Providers must fundamentally reduce their cost base. For many organizations, the cash and margin needs are significant and immediate, creating a requirement to actively reshape the asset base and reduce operating costs.
3. Providers must restructure the physician enterprise. Providers must deploy their workforce in a fundamentally different manner to enable new care models which more effectively leverage physician time.
4. Providers must transform their clinical operating model. Health systems must provide coexisting systems of care for the COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients they will simultaneously serve. 
5. Partnerships, both horizontal and vertical, traditional and non-traditional, must be closely evaluated. Health systems should assess their partnerships portfolio and determine where affiliating with other organizations can help them enable or accelerate their action plan.

Greg Maddrey, President of Consulting for The Chartis Group, noted, "Time is of the essence. Those providers who promptly mobilize appropriate resources and bandwidth to address these five imperatives will find that they not only have countered the effects of COVID-19 on their organization, they will also capture a unique opportunity to transform themselves and emerge leaner and stronger."

About Chartis 

Chartis is a comprehensive healthcare advisory firm dedicated to helping clients build a healthier world. We work across the healthcare continuum with more than 900 clients annually, including providers, payers, health services organizations, technology and retail companies, and investors. Through times of change, challenge, and opportunity, we advise the industry on how to navigate disruption, pursue growth, achieve financial sustainability, unleash technology, improve care models and operations, enhance clinical quality and safety, and advance health equity. The teams we convene bring deep industry expertise and industry-leading innovation, enabling clients to achieve transformational results and create positive societal impact. Learn more.