Reflections from the Modern Healthcare Leadership Summit: Lessons for Hospitals Leading Through Change

Written By: Jimmy Leppert

image credit: Pure Light Images

At the recent Modern Healthcare Leadership Summit, industry leaders gathered to share strategies for navigating uncertainty, tackling financial challenges, and building resilience in a rapidly changing healthcare landscape. The conversations reinforced what we at Empactful Advisors see every day in our work with hospitals and health systems: technology matters, but people matter more. Success depends on creating clarity, empowering teams, and executing strategies with grit and discipline.

Below are some of the standout insights we heard across the sessions:

Leading Through Uncertainty: Executive Strategies for Growth & Stability

The panel underscored that leadership in healthcare is not just about strategy, but about clarity, communication, and resilience.

• Clarity + Direction: Great leaders create alignment by communicating a clear direction, especially in times of uncertainty.

• Inspiring Teams: Leaders must inspire people to do their best work by fostering psychological safety and encouraging curiosity.

• Resilience as a Core Capability: Eugene Woods of Advocate Health reminded leaders to “embrace the unknown with fearless curiosity,” reinforcing that resilience is not optional in healthcare – it is essential.

• Patients First, People Always: Warner Thomas of Sutter Health highlighted a principle that grounds everything: hospitals succeed when they put patients and people at the center.

• Problem-Solving Everywhere: Eduardo Conrado emphasized teaching problem-solving at every level of the organization so that challenges are addressed not only by executives but by all teams across the system.

• Commitment to Rural Care: The importance of extending digital care to rural communities – reaching more than 1M patients – was another powerful reminder that equity and access must guide growth strategies.

Staying Financially Healthy While Serving Diverse Communities

Financial health is one of the most pressing concerns for hospital leaders, and this session provided pragmatic insights:

• Revenue Cycle Focus: Reducing the cost to collect, cutting down on denials, and streamlining authorizations are critical levers for sustainability.

• Technology as a Tool: Early warning AI systems and automation can reduce manual burdens - particularly for nurses - allowing them to focus on patient care.

• Change + Buy-In: Technology and process redesign only succeed when people buy into them. Without alignment and adoption, even the smartest solutions fail.

• Specialization Through Digital Care: Sub-specialists don’t have to be located in every community, but digital treatment enables them to serve every community.

Facing Systemic Stress: Policy, Technology, and Affordability

This panel captured the urgency and stress that many health systems feel today:

• Technology Hesitation: Leaders must move past the fear factor and embrace tech adoption, or risk falling behind.

• Affordability Pressures: Rising drug prices, escalating insurance costs, and supply inflation are converging to strain already-tight margins.

• Policy Impact: HR1, set to take effect in 2028, loomed large in every discussion. Leaders warned that without preparation, it could trigger widespread closures and systemic disruption.

• Shifting the Adversary: As one panelist put it: “The system is set up so that payer and provider are enemies. Disease should be the enemy.”

Workforce and Labor

Another thread across sessions was the labor crisis. Workforce shortages remain one of the most acute challenges for hospitals. Recruitment, retention, and innovative staffing models must stay at the top of leadership agendas.

Overarching Themes

Across all panels and fireside chats, three themes emerged:

1. Technology is changing everything, but people matter more. Without the right team to adapt and innovate, technology adds little value.

2. Policy change (HR1) is a looming disruptor. Its 2028 implementation will reshape the financial and operational landscape for hospitals. Leaders should be preparing today.

3. Patients first, people always. This philosophy applies both to patient-centered care and to building resilient teams capable of executing strategy in challenging times.

Empactful Advisors’ Perspective

The Modern Healthcare Leadership Summit reinforced a truth we see daily: hospitals that thrive in uncertainty are those that combine strategic clarity, execution discipline, and a people-first mindset.

• We help leadership teams align on what matters most, cut through complexity, and accelerate execution.

• We embed alongside hospital teams to build problem-solving capabilities across all levels, not just in the C-suite.

• We prepare organizations to adapt to major disruptions - from new policies like HR1 to evolving technologies - by strengthening strategy execution and building resilient cultures.

• We drive measurable, unambiguous outcomes that prove out long term strategy through short term results.

The message is clear: uncertainty is permanent, but resilience and adaptability are choices.

At Empactful Advisors, we partner with hospitals and health systems to unlock potential, accelerate measurable results, and prepare leaders to face the future with confidence.

Let’s unlock your organization’s full potential.

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