There is a train coming down the track. It is called, “The Disruption of American Healthcare”. Disruption will come from technological startups and innovation, like Aledade; from efficiencies; from clinical breakthroughs; from patient demands and their resistance to the rising burden of costs; and from commercial and budgetary necessity.
One of the clearest ways to see the urgency of the challenge is to review data that vividly displays the scale of current inefficiency in healthcare delivery. In the chart I have created and provide here, I have chosen some randomly selected organizations to show their revenues per employee. As you can see, the results for healthcare are simply dreadful.
Even with over 12 million employees, US healthcare is ranked last out of the top eleven in the world in The Commonwealth Fund’s 2014 Report:
- United Kingdom
- Switzerland
- Sweden
- Australia
- Germany & Netherlands (tied)
- New Zealand & Norway (tied)
- France
- Canada
- United States
And of course, as has been noted by many, the US outspends all other countries by a wide margin:
The challenge for healthcare going forward will be how to embrace the inevitable shrinking and realignment of headcount, disruptive technologies and the reduction of infrastructure in ways that are inspiring and honoring for the employees who will consequently be searching for new careers. This represents one of the epic leadership challenges of our time. Healthcare leaders can wait for the future, or trailblaze the future.
