Becker's Hospital Review

21 THOUGHT LEADERSHIP continue, but at a much slower pace over the next few years. at's not necessarily a bad thing. A period of stability could help systems standardize not only patient care but also caregiver safety programs, which should bring consistency to threat management, de- escalation training, and post-incident review processes. One challenge I've seen since entering healthcare is that workplace violence prevention still doesn't receive the emphasis it deserves, even though caregivers are statistically five times more likely to experience serious workplace assaults than workers in other sectors. As we continue to build and improve our workplace violence prevention program it is hard to find other healthcare systems who seem to have this figured out. It took OSHA, e Joint Commission, and CMS to establish clear expectations and guardrails for healthcare systems. It took IAHSS to advocate for and help produce recommendations for healthcare security leaders to point to. I'm not usually an advocate for regulation, but in this case, healthcare needed that external push to prioritize violence prevention and build sustainable safety infrastructure. In my view, the next wave of consolidation should be about stabilizing cultures, protecting caregivers, and embedding behavioral risk management as a core operational standard. Growth is important, but how we protect our people during and aer that growth will define whether these consolidations truly succeed. Melinda Hancock. Executive Vice President and CFO of Sentara Health (Norfolk, Va.): Given what we know to be true today, there will be enormous financial pressure building year by year on care delivery. e ability to scale the work needed to think differently about workflows and processes through AI and automation, coupled with the variation of balance sheet strengths, will fuel more consolidation. Our Sentara care delivery, health plan, and administrative support are diligently forging innovative ideas and ways of thinking about healthcare. Sentara has set targets for growth and efficiencies for the next 3 years to ensure the continuance of delivering our mission of improving health every day. Vi-Anne Antrum. Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer of Cone Health (Greensboro, N.C.): As the reimbursement and expense environment continues to escalate, I believe hospital consolidation will continue. At the same time, it will be important to preserve the philosophy that healthcare is local. e larger entities that will be most successful will understand and preserve this while consolidating IT platforms and connectivity to ensure alignment across markets. ere will be gains in expense reduction in places like supply chain and back office. Smart growth will continue in places like pharmacy, ambulatory, and virtual care to support access, affordability, and convenience. We will continue to see innovation in delivery of services in the home setting and a reimagined post-acute care network as part of the larger ecosystem. Coordinated, connected, personalized care that ensures all needs are met will be at the heart of the health systems that win in the coming years! eresa McDonnell, RN. Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Executive of Duke University Health System (Durham, N.C.): Over the next three to four years, hospital consolidation in the U.S. will continue, but with a more selective and strategic focus. Financial pressures, especially for smaller rural hospitals, will drive acquisitions and affiliations, while larger systems pursue scale and integrated networks. is comes at a time when heightened regulatory scrutiny and capital constraints will temper the pace, making partnerships and targeted deals more common than broad roll-ups. JohnRich R. Levine, MSN. Chief Nursing Officer of Reeves Regional Health (Pecos, Texas): Over the next three to four years, I am seeing that consolidation will continue to evolve from large-scale acquisitions into coordinated alliances built around shared capability. Health systems will place greater emphasis on operational integration such as connecting technology platforms, specialty services, workforce strategies, and patient pathways, into cohesive networks. Community and rural hospitals will remain essential anchors in this model, operating with local leadership while benefiting from regional support. at direction calls for leaders who can protect identity and trust while expanding reach and capability, and it is the approach guiding our work at Reeves Regional Health. Healthcare is moving toward a model that brings services closer, responds faster, and meets people where they are. Teams that understand local needs and collaborate across facilities will expand access to advanced care that once required larger institutions. Partnerships built on shared knowledge, coordinated transfers, integrated technology, and workforce collaboration will define success. At Reeves Regional Health, that reality is shaping how our care is delivered. Coordinated emergency and critical care programs move high-acuity patients quickly and keep treatment continuous. Maternal and neonatal collaborations provide specialized services to families within their own regions. Workforce partnerships strengthen bedside care and improve recruitment and retention. Each initiative reduces barriers and builds a system that places care within reach when it matters most. Consolidation now reflects a broader mission of building capacity while preserving identity. It strengthens care while keeping it grounded in the communities that depend on it. For the populations we serve, this approach delivers access, reliability, and trust, which are our lifeline. Michael Antoniades. President of UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial Hospital: I expect healthcare systems to continue expanding their geographic reach through consolidation with other systems or independent hospitals. Given the uncertainties facing the healthcare industry in both the short and long term, consolidation can be a strategic approach that leverages existing infrastructure to support operations across broad regions. is helps hospitals maintain or improve care delivery and financial stability, enabling them to fulfill their community missions. For academic health systems in particular, consolidation offers smaller community hospitals and their patients greater access to academic excellence — such as clinical trials, tertiary and quaternary care, specialty services and more — that might otherwise be out of reach. at said, consolidation also requires thoughtful integration to ensure that local communities' voices and needs remain a priority. Timothy Carrigan, PhD, RN. Regional Chief Nursing Officer of Illinois and Indiana at Trinity Health (Livonia, Mich.): Healthcare has to change and innovate care delivery; the system cannot remain status quo while absorbing dramatic cuts to Medicaid. Hospital consolidation will continue, including mergers, acquisitions, and site of care reductions. I also think health systems will look closely at consolidating or shrinking specific programs, which impacts access to specialized care. Instead of offering labor and delivery at every hospital in a system, hospitals may be forced to consolidate into one site offering labor and delivery services instead. ere will likely be an impact on high-resource centers of specialized care, like cardiac or neurosciences, too. Right now, healthcare consumers are used

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