Rajani Kumar Sindavalam

expert panel

Patients do not experience healthcare in isolation. Their expectations are shaped by every other part of their lives—from the speed of a fintech transaction to the ease of online shopping and the proactive communication of a hotel—and the digital healthcare experience is lagging behind. Healthcare leaders may be able to glean key insights from other industries, but which lessons are worth borrowing, and where should they draw the line?In healthcare, patients make decisions that can be emotionally charged, financially consequential and deeply personal, with privacy, clinical judgment and safety influencing every interaction. A tactic that drives conversion in retail can have a very different meaning when applied to someone deciding when and where to seek care. For leaders, the key is to identify what makes other industries' experiences effective and adapt those principles without losing sight of healthcare's higher stakes.Members of the Senior Executive Healthcare Think Tank bring expertise across technology, digital health, systems engineering, telehealth, workforce health and transformation. Their perspectives examine how healthcare can rethink everything from patient navigation and pricing transparency to personalization, communication and data—while also identifying tactics that could undermine patient trust.

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Healthcare leaders are constantly being asked to do more: adopt new technology, improve efficiency, expand access and deliver better outcomes. But what if the better question is what they should stop doing, rethink or redesign?Members of the Senior Executive Healthcare Think Tank are challenging leaders to look beyond the usual measures of progress. Their perspectives examine whether healthcare processes are designed around patients, whether technology is actually reducing burden, whether clinicians are spending time on work that matters and whether organizations are willing to question structures and practices that no longer serve their purpose.Taken together, their answers make a compelling case for a different approach to healthcare leadership: Before asking how to do more, ask what is worth doing at all. Below, they offer up 11 questions they think healthcare leaders need to be asking, and how those questions could fundamentally improve care.

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Healthcare organizations have long been rewarded for consistency. Clinical protocols, regulatory oversight and quality standards are designed to reduce variation because mistakes can have life-changing consequences. Yet the same structures that protect patients can also discourage experimentation, making it difficult for organizations to improve care delivery, adopt new technologies or rethink outdated processes.Leading health systems are increasingly recognizing that innovation and patient safety are not opposing goals. Rather, the most successful organizations establish clear guardrails that allow teams to test new ideas in controlled environments, measure outcomes rigorously and scale only what proves effective. Research from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has consistently shown that organizations with stronger patient safety cultures encourage communication, organizational learning and continuous improvement while reducing preventable harm.Members of the Senior Executive Healthcare Think Tank bring perspectives spanning clinical medicine, medical technology, digital health, systems engineering, patient experience and healthcare operations. Below, they share how healthcare organizations can move beyond a fear of failure by combining strong governance, data-driven decision-making and structured experimentation to advance innovation while maintaining patient trust.

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When healthcare CEOs face financial pressure, the traditional playbook often points to the same solutions: reduce costs, slow spending and protect margins. But in an industry where every operational decision can affect a patient’s experience, a clinician’s workload or a community’s access to care, the most obvious financial moves are not always the most strategic ones.Members of the Senior Executive Healthcare Think Tank bring expertise across patient experience, workforce strategy, healthcare technology, quality, policy and organizational transformation. They believe the first step for CEOs facing financial pressure is not simply deciding what to eliminate, but determining where the organization can operate smarter, create more value and strengthen long-term resilience.Their perspectives come at a time when healthcare organizations continue to face mounting financial challenges. The American Hospital Association’s 2025 Cost of Caring report highlights how hospitals and health systems are navigating persistent cost growth, workforce shortages, supply chain pressures and reimbursement challenges that are reshaping how leaders approach long-term sustainability.In this article, Think Tank members outline the strategic decisions they would prioritize if advising a healthcare CEO on finances today—and how to uphold the same standard of care no matter the choices made.

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Patients today have more healthcare information at their fingertips than ever before. Online reviews, provider ratings, quality scores, patient experience surveys and publicly reported outcomes all offer new ways to evaluate healthcare organizations. At the same time, healthcare providers are investing heavily in branding, digital engagement and reputation management as competition for patients continues to intensify.This evolution raises an important question for healthcare leaders: When patients choose where to receive care, what matters more—a trusted brand or measurable quality and outcomes? While transparency initiatives have made performance data more accessible, many patients still begin their search with recommendations, online reviews and existing perceptions of an organization. In fact, according to a 2025 Press Ganey study, 86% of consumers say brand reputation influences their choice of healthcare organization, while roughly 60% rely on online reviews and recommendations when evaluating providers.Members of the Senior Executive Healthcare Think Tank, whose expertise spans patient experience, healthcare technology, quality improvement, operations, AI and policy, largely agree that reputation remains a powerful driver of patient choice. However, they also emphasize that reputation alone is no longer enough. As patients gain access to more information and healthcare becomes increasingly consumer-driven, organizations must ensure their brand promise is supported by consistent experiences and measurable results.Below, they explore how healthcare organizations can strike the right balance between reputation and performance. Because while reputation may earn a patient's attention, long-term trust is built through transparency, exceptional experiences and outcomes that consistently deliver on the brand's promise.

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Not long ago, healthcare leaders could reasonably expect periods of stability between major disruptions. Today, those periods are becoming increasingly rare. One week brings new reimbursement concerns. The next brings staffing challenges, evolving regulations or another breakthrough technology promising to transform care delivery. For many organizations, uncertainty is no longer a temporary condition but the environment in which they operate every day.The organizations that navigate these challenges most successfully aren't necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets or the most sophisticated technology. More often, they're the ones that have built resilience into the fabric of their operations and leadership culture. They communicate openly when circumstances change, empower employees to make decisions and create systems that can adapt when the unexpected inevitably happens.The need for that kind of resilience has never been greater. According to the American Hospital Association, hospitals continue to face mounting financial pressures driven by rising labor, supply and pharmaceutical costs, even as reimbursement challenges persist. At the same time, rapid advances in artificial intelligence, analytics and digital health are reshaping how healthcare organizations operate and compete.To explore what resilience looks like in practice, we turned to members of the Senior Executive Healthcare Think Tank, whose expertise spans patient care, workforce strategy, healthcare technology, AI governance and organizational transformation. Their insights reveal how healthcare leaders can build adaptability into their teams, operations and decision-making processes—creating organizations that are better equipped to withstand disruption, embrace change and thrive in an increasingly unpredictable healthcare landscape.