Chief Healthcare Executive Roundtable: Health systems are becoming less ‘hospital-centric’

The role of the health system has been evolving in recent years, and it’s poised to continue changing.

In the latest video from the Chief Healthcare Executive roundtable, our panel of healthcare leaders talks about the broader role health systems are going to play in the near future.

These top healthcare leaders participated in our roundtable.

• Robert Garrett, CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health
• Benjamin P. Levy, MD, clinical director of medical oncology, Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center
• Kevin Beiner, chief operating officer of Northwell Health
• Deepak L. Bhatt, MD, M.P.H., M.B.A, director, Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital, Icahn School of Medicine
• Stephanie Wierwille, moderator; EVP, strategy and innovation, BPD

Check out the video for the full segment. Here are some highlights.

A more comprehensive role

Garrett says he has already seen substantial changes in the role of the health system.

“It was very hospital-centric just a few years ago, and I see it becoming much more community-based and home-based,” Garrett said.

“I see it as part of our mission to improve the overall health status of the communities we serve, not just the folks coming into our hospitals, but those who aren't,” he said. “How can we get care and improve access to them? So yes, I see the health system playing a much broader, more comprehensive role in communities.”

The panel of leaders has discussed the importance of doing more work in preventing illness and helping patients manage chronic conditions so they can stay out of the hospital.

But Garrett says health systems need to be financed more appropriately for taking on a greater role in prevention. As the panel noted in a previous segment on value-based care, healthcare leaders see merit in working to keep people healthier, but reimbursements are still geared largely to treating people when they are sick.

“If we're really going to improve the health status of our country, which does lag behind some other western countries, we need to make sure those incentives come to the health system and to individual providers to take on those tasks,” Garrett said.

Fighting misinformation

Hospitals and health systems will continue to provide major services such as advanced complex care and transplants, Bhatt says.

But he also sees a growing role for health systems as the place for providing trusted medical information, especially as more people turn to AI tools for questions about their healthcare.

“There's a lot of misinformation out there,” Bhatt says.

Health systems are going to have to fight misinformation, he says. Systems are going to have to focus more on providing trustworthy information to their communities, especially as more people turn to AI tools for questions about their healthcare.

“A lot of AI currently is just a matter of what goes in is what comes out,” Bhatt says. “If the basis of the information fed into these large language models contains elements of misinformation, AI can actually help amplify that misinformation.

“Health care systems need to take a much larger role, and I predict they will, in being sources of the truth as far as medical information goes, not just for when you're sick, but for how you can stay healthy,” he adds.

You can see all of the videos from our series on the Roundtable page. We divided the roundtable discussion into a series of smaller videos designed to fit into the busy schedules of healthcare leaders. The panel tackles AI, business trends, the well-being of employees, and other big topics.

The videos are free to watch, but you will be asked to fill out some information to access them. Don’t miss the conversation.