Becker’s asked C-suite executives from hospitals, health systems, academic medical centers and universities across the U.S. to share their top 2026 priority for balancing financial or operational stability with growth in mind.
The 91 executives featured in this article are all speaking at the Becker’s Healthcare 16th Annual Meeting, from April 13 – 16, 2026 at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.
To learn more about this event, click here.
If you would like to join as a speaker or a reviewer, contact Mariah Muhammad at mmuhammad@beckershealthcare.com or agendateam@beckershealthcare.com.
For more information on sponsorship opportunities or vendor access-only badges, contact Jessica Cole at jcole@beckershealthcare.com.
As part of an ongoing series, Becker’s is talking to healthcare leaders who will speak at our conference. The following are answers from our speakers at the event.
Question: What’s your top priority for balancing financial or operational stability with growth as we welcome 2026?
Rohit Chandra, PhD. Chief Digital Officer of Cleveland Clinic: We’re focused on using artificial intelligence as a catalyst for enhancing quality and safety and transforming care delivery, making it smarter, more predictive, and patient-focused. Tools such as AI scribe and AI-driven medical coding will continue to reduce administrative friction, allowing us to focus on personalized experiences and outcomes. Ultimately, our vision is a future where operational enhancements fuel growth, and growth accelerates our ability to deliver care that is not only efficient but profoundly centered on each patient’s journey.
James Hereford. President and CEO of Fairview Health Services at M Health Fairview (Minneapolis): My top priority is sustaining our hard-won stability through disciplined execution while investing in growth that clearly improves patient access and value. We’re keeping margins resilient by focusing on workforce sustainability, capacity management, and everyday operational excellence —creating room to care for more people without adding unnecessary complexity. With that foundation, we’re able to invest by scaling areas like specialty and quaternary care and pharmacy services, while expanding smarter, digital pathways into care. Every dollar of growth should strengthen our financial footing and make care easier, safer, and more personal for the communities we serve.
Jochen Reiser, MD, PhD. President and Professor, John Sealy School of Medicine, and John D. Stobo, MD Distinguished Chair of The University of Texas Medical Branch; CEO of UTMB Health (Galveston, Texas): We are driving strategic growth in a sustainable way and developing innovative programs to meet future market demands. Successful deployment requires us to strengthen core operations, improve employee engagement and elevate customer service while also leveraging artificial intelligence to accelerate efficiencies and reduce costs. Diversifying revenue through our pharmacy enterprise continues to be a core focus of our successful strategic growth.
Warren E. Moore. President and Chief Operating Officer of Inspira Health (Mullica Hill, N.J.): At Inspira Health, every decision is anchored in our mission, and by putting our patients and employees at the center of all we do, we can grow responsibly while improving outcomes across South Jersey.
In 2026, we’re bringing this to life by strengthening systemness – which is a community first, technology-enabled approach that aligns people with data and partners across and beyond hospital walls – in a way that supports both operational stability and sustainable growth.
We are doing this by leveraging real-time data, AI-driven insights, and disciplined efficiency practices to empower our health system’s leaders to manage resources as if they are running their own small businesses.
In today’s dynamic healthcare environment, both agility and strategic collaboration are essential to expanding access and improving the patient experience for all.
Sophia G. Holder. Executive Vice President and CFO of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (Pa.): As the CFO for Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), my top priority for 2026 is continuing to strengthen financial sustainability and resilience at CHOP amid ongoing and anticipated headwinds, including reductions in Medicaid funding. We are building our financial resilience muscle, focusing on a number of initiatives including revenue cycle performance, optimizing labor management and efficiency, and deploying automation and AI to fundamentally redesign how we work across our clinical, research and business segments, enhancing efficiency while improving the employee and workforce experience. This work is critical to ensure we are making proactive, strategic decisions rather than reacting in the midst of financial and operational challenges. At the same time, we are mindful of protecting our ability to invest in long-term growth and innovation. By balancing these efforts, we can safeguard CHOP’s financial foundation while continuing to advance our mission and lead in pediatric healthcare delivery.
Nolan Chang, MD. Executive Vice President, Strategy, Corporate Development, and Finance, The Permanente Federation; Regional Medical Director, Business Management Southern California Permanente Medical Group: An integrated, value-based care model is the most effective approach for both financial sustainability and growth in the current healthcare landscape, which faces multiple challenges, including rising costs, staffing shortages, and policy changes. Permanente physicians prioritize value of care, not volume of services provided, with a relentless focus on patient outcomes, prevention, care coordination and efficiency to minimize expensive hospitalizations, readmissions and redundant tests, ultimately keeping patients healthier and reducing overall system spending.
The use of AI and digital health tools, such as the Kaiser Permanente Intelligent Navigator, can also enhance the patient experience, guide patients to the right care, and streamline operations, ensuring efficient and effective care delivery. In addition, true financial stability and growth in healthcare require breaking down barriers that isolate clinical care from important social determinants of health, such as financial security and environmental factors, to improve overall patient health. By implementing these strategies, healthcare organizations can navigate financial pressures while continuing to innovate and ensure high-quality, accessible care for all.
Susan Huang, MD. Chief Physician Executive of Providence; Chief Executive of Providence Clinical Network (Renton, Wash.): As we enter 2026, we’re focused on strengthening our financial and operational foundation and transforming how we deliver care while keeping our Mission at the center. That means operating with discipline, directing our resources toward what most improves access and experience, and staying resilient in a rapidly shifting healthcare environment. We’ll also continue modernizing how we provide care by leveraging our scale, integrated clinical network and long-standing commitment to equitable, community-rooted care. Streamlining how work gets done, elevating clinicians’ voices and prioritizing innovation that solves real operational challenges will help us improve patient and caregiver experiences and strengthen our long-term performance. With a strong core in place, we can continue to grow responsibly in 2026 and beyond, expanding access, improving outcomes, strengthening affordability, and advancing our commitment to be the best place to give and receive care.
Ketul J. Patel. President and CEO of Wellstar Health System (Marietta, Ga.): For Wellstar Health System, balancing stability and growth means strengthening and scaling our core competencies and understanding how those strengths translate in the markets we serve. For Wellstar, that includes leveraging new technology to further elevate safety, quality, and the patient experience, and working with Augusta University’s Medical College of Georgia to expand our academic and research mission. By building on what we do best and thoughtfully adapting our model with a future-focused outlook, we can strengthen operational and financial stability while enabling scalable, sustainable growth.
David Lubarsky, MD. President and CEO of Westchester Medical Center Health (Valhalla, N.Y.): There is no stability or growth unless you start first and foremost with your patient and community health needs. When you do that, all three aims are achieved in tandem. Our priority will be delivering the needed services in each of the communities we are privileged to serve.
We are starting with strategic service line expansion, particularly in oncology, and bringing high-acuity, academic-level specialty care closer to patients in their own communities across New York’s Hudson Valley. We are also leveraging technology to create more accessible front doors to ensure we are available when, where, and how patients need us.
At the same time, we are deepening consistency across the system, delivering the same high-quality, compassionate care our patients expect and deserve, across time, geography, modality and acuity.
Anthony Chang, MD. Chief Intelligence and Innovation Officer of CHOC Children’s (Orange, Calif.): I like to approach AI as a capital expenditure in the form of an AI tech stack and allow it to mature and yield dividends. I usually recommend a 3 to 12% range of CapExp and the amount is up to the institution for their AI appetite.
Pooja Vyas, DO. System Vice President of Care Coordination Liaison, Physician and Provider Advisement at SSM Health (St. Louis): As we welcome 2026, my top priority for balancing financial and operational stability with growth is to align disciplined financial management with operational excellence so we can unlock capacity for strategic expansion. This means focusing on core initiatives like reducing clinical denials, shortening length of stay, and improving documentation integrity to achieve a CC/MCC capture rate. These efforts not only strengthen revenue integrity and protect quality scores but also free resources for growth. At the same time, maintaining a strong net operating income and bond rating ensures we have the financial resilience to invest in high-impact areas such as provider recruitment, patient access, and virtual health. By driving efficiency and quality improvements while safeguarding financial health, we create a foundation that supports both stability and sustainable growth for SSM Health.
Deepti Pandita, MD. Vice President of Clinical Informatics and Chief Medical Information Officer at UCI Health (Orange, Calif.): As we head into 2026, my top priority is ensuring that our clinical AI and informatics strategy strengthens UCI Health’s operational resilience while accelerating responsible innovation. We’re focused on building the infrastructure, governance, and data quality pipelines that allow AI tools to meaningfully reduce clinician burden and improve patient outcomes without introducing instability into clinical operations.
Judd Hollander, MD. Senior Vice President of Healthcare Delivery Innovation at Thomas Jefferson University (Philadelphia): Thoughtful design of virtual care workflows and operations will enable increasing access and capacity while decreasing real estate footprint.
Amy E. Lee. President and Chief Operating Officer of Nantucket Cottage Hospital (Mass.): As we look ahead to 2026, our top priority is maintaining the financial and operational stability of Nantucket Cottage Hospital while thoughtfully advancing growth that strengthens care for our community. Operating in a geographically isolated, high-cost environment with significant seasonal fluctuation requires a careful and disciplined approach. We are focused on stabilizing and supporting our workforce, including housing, recruitment, and retention, recognizing that our people are the foundation of safe, high-quality care. Growth efforts are being guided by clear community needs and long-term sustainability, rather than expansion for its own sake. We are also leveraging partnerships within the Mass General Brigham system to improve access, coordination, and efficiency. Through this balanced approach, we aim to remain financially resilient while continuing to deliver compassionate, reliable care for our island community year-round.
Nicole Fox, MD. Associate Chief Medical Officer and Medical Director of Pediatric Trauma at Cooper University Health Care (Camden, N.J.): My top priority is fostering collaboration and efficiency across the organization. Healthcare demands have never been greater, and we have found that our patient’s needs often cross multiple service lines. This requires re-imagining how we work together to align priorities and break down silos in the best interests of our patients to maintain financial and operational stability. This requires a mindset shift, moving away from individual goals and asking: “how can we best achieve our objectives and serve our patients together?”
Peter D. Banko. President and CEO of Baystate Health (Springfield, Mass.): Our system chief transformation officer regularly reminds me to hold ‘hope’ and ‘despair’ in each hand in equal measure. Growth is hope. And creating that stability is despair. Financial resilience inherently demands operating with discipline, making difficult decisions and executing swiftly and decisively. Growing an organization requires intentionality about where to win – geography, services and talent. Our FY26 strategic priorities are a healthy balance of growth (access and throughput, high reliability organization journey and deeper health plan-provider integration) and stability (accelerating our cost transformation path by $130 million).
Ian Jasenof, MD. Chief Medical Officer of Mile Square Health Center, UI Health (Chicago): Medicaid is the financial backbone of FQHC operations. It provides predictable patient volume, cost-based reimbursement through the Prospective Payment System, and critical protection against uncompensated care—particularly in Medicaid expansion states. While Medicaid alone does not eliminate margin pressure, it is the single most important payer supporting long-term financial sustainability for safety-net primary care.
The key to improving healthcare outcomes and financial stability is to focus on patient engagement – the is the secret sauce to healthcare!
Kurt Koczent, RN. Executive Vice President and COO of University of Rochester – Thompson Health (N.Y.): In 2026, our top priority is to achieve sustainable growth while maintaining operational and financial stability through a three-pronged approach. First, we are leveraging market analysis and trends to identify service lines with unmet demand, ensuring our health system provides comprehensive care that meets the needs of our community. Second, we are committed to excellence by encouraging every department to obtain and maintain the highest credentials in their respective fields. Expanding services only makes sense when it improves patient outcomes and strengthens our reputation. Finally, and most importantly, we are focused on being the best place to work. We believe that engaged, satisfied associates create exceptional patient experiences, and those experiences foster loyalty and trust within our community.
Quanna Batiste-Brown, DNP, RN. Vice President of Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer at Touro Infirmary, LCMC Health (New Orleans): In 2026, balancing operational stability with growth requires a disciplined focus on the health of the work environment as a core business strategy. Data consistently show that workforce engagement, psychological safety, and leadership culture are among the strongest predictors of retention, performance, and patient outcomes. While attracting talent is essential, the ability to retain and sustain that talent will ultimately determine our capacity to grow. By leveraging employee engagement data, turnover trends, and frontline insights, we can identify the drivers of turnover, strengthen retention-focused processes, and proactively invest in our people. In a highly competitive market dominated by two major health systems, a healthy, stable workforce is not only a differentiator, it is a strategic advantage that enables consistent operations, scalable growth, and high-quality care.
Paula Ferrada, MD. Chair Department of Surgery at Inova Fairfax Medical Campus; Division and System Chief of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery at Inova Healthcare System (Fairfax, Va.): Our top priority as we enter 2026 is making sure growth is intentional and grounded in purpose. Financial and operational stability don’t come from doing more, they come from doing what matters well. For our trauma system and our Fairfax perioperative enterprise, this means aligning access, capacity, and urgency across the system, investing in our people, and building processes that are reliable enough to support both excellence and growth. When our teams trust the system and understand the ‘why’ behind decisions, stability becomes the foundation rather than the constraint.
Culture has to come first. Trust, transparency, and shared accountability are not soft concepts; they are operational imperatives. When we keep the patient at the center and consistently parent value guiding choices about resources, flow, and priorities, growth becomes a reflection of who we are rather than a departure from it. We believe that when culture leads and patients remain the north star, financial health and operational performance will follow, not by chance, but by design.
Andrew Molosky. President and CEO of Chapters Health System (Temple Terrace, Fla.): While the environment is certainly challenging, our approach remains consistent. Diversifying revenue streams, a focus on any and all quality bonus metrics, turnover management, and of course sound operations decisions are the drivers. While not fancy or groundbreaking we are daily focused on keeping the pendulum from swinging too far in any one direction and overcorrection or panic management tends to lead to outcomes that often carry a lot of collateral damage. Staying strategically proactive avoids those drastic swings and will keep the confidence of key stakeholders which is critical to weathering challenging times.
Brandi Fields, DNP, RN. Vice President of Clinical Services and Quality Improvement at UK King’s Daughters (Ashland, Ky.):
- Closely monitoring operational utilization of resources
- Continuously questioning the status quo to improve team workflows, enhance patient care, and, ideally, support stronger financial performance.
- Exploring new ways of getting the work done — can we leverage AI or other technologies to help us overcome long-standing workflow barriers?
- We have seen examples in other industries, such as airlines, where AI is being used to optimize the movement of baggage staff across airports — routing teams efficiently to save time and ensure critical timelines are met. We should consider how similar principles could be applied in healthcare. For instance, our phlebotomy teams cover a large, complex hospital footprint and must prioritize timed, stat, and routine lab draws. Currently, staff rely on experience and judgment to decide which floors to visit and in what sequence, which can result in delays for time-sensitive labs. By leveraging AI or advanced routing technology, we could optimize daily workflows — mapping the most efficient paths, dynamically prioritizing tasks, and reducing delays. Implementing such tools could be a true game-changer, improving both patient care and operational efficiency.
2. Staying connected with our team
- Regular rounding to identify workflow barriers and gather frontline input.
- Being open to new ideas for care delivery and supporting exploration of potential pilots.
- Continuously reviewing recent publications to identify best practice solutions.
3. Leveraging data for insights and improvement
- Analyzing financial, customer, and quality data to identify opportunities.
- Designing performance improvement efforts that drive real, sustainable change.
Ryan Vervack. Chief Technology Officer of University of Maryland Medical System (Baltimore): My goal this year is to create durable operational stability that funds growth, rather than competes with it. I hope to grow by leveraging AI and other technologies to automate routine work, augmenting (rather than replacing) staff, and focusing on scalable design. This will help us build our solutions once and deploy them across the enterprise. All of this has to be viewed through the lens of reliability, since stability is non-negotiable in healthcare. Reducing unplanned work and standardizing platforms allows us to focus on intentional, governed innovation.
Donna Royster, MHA. Senior Imaging Manager of Providence Medical Center (Everett, WA): One of our top priorities heading into 2026 is adapting to the new prior authorization requirements that came out of the CMS Interoperability and Prior Authorization Final Rule. Starting Jan. 1, 2026, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, and many commercial plans must turn around prior authorization decisions much faster — 72 hours for urgent requests and seven calendar days for routine ones — and they must give clear explanations when something is denied. To get ready, we’ve streamlined our workflows and tightened up documentation, so our requests go out clean and complete. Staying ahead of these changes will help reduce delays, protect our revenue, and, most importantly, make sure our patients get timely, exceptional care with as few administrative barriers as possible.
Stacey-Ann Okoth, PhD, DNP, RN. Chief Nursing Executive Officer of Mountain Division at CommonSpirit Health (Chicago): We have to think and work differently to experience a full transformation of our healthcare environment. My top priority for 2026 is ensuring our clinical teams have the necessary resources and support to maintain high-quality patient care while navigating evolving reimbursement models. This means optimizing operational efficiencies without compromising staffing levels or investment in necessary technology.
Matthew Ruble, MD. Chief Medical Officer of Discovery Behavioral Health (Irvine, Calif.): “America’s healthcare system is neither healthy, caring, nor a system.” Walter Cronkite’s quote highlights our two national and local strategic goals to operationalize accessible, superior, compassionate care. The first is our innovative technology for acute and rapid triage, that is sensitive, specific, and validated for diagnosis and patient activation.
The second is to continue our progress as the first true learning health system for behavioral health by incorporating real time measurement-based care for intra episode of care precision.
JohnRich R. Levine, DNP, DPA, MSN. Chief Nursing Officer of Reeves Regional Health (Pecos, Texas): At Reeves Regional Health, my top priority is protecting operational stability, so growth strengthens the organization rather than strains it. In a rural hospital like Reeves, every new service line, technology, or staffing change carries real consequences for cash flow, workforce resilience, and patient experience. I spend a great deal of time asking whether our teams have the structure, skills, and clarity to absorb growth before we pursue it. When we invest first in standard work, leadership development, and frontline engagement, I believe growth becomes sustainable and trusted by both staff and community.
Maulik S. Joshi. President and CEO of Meritus Health (Hagerstown, Md.): As we look toward 2026, our top priority is disciplined, mission-aligned growth that strengthens our financial and operational foundation without compromising access to care. That starts with investing thoughtfully in our academic expansion — supporting the growth of our medical school as we welcome our second class and deliberately evolving from a single graduate program into a university. These efforts are essential to building a sustainable workforce pipeline while reinforcing our long-term stability.
At the same time, we are navigating an ever-changing healthcare landscape as the sole community provider, which means we must remain agile and resilient. Volumes continue to rise, and while demand underscores our value to the community, persistent challenges in allied health recruitment and retention require new strategies around staffing models, culture, and employee engagement. Building resilience into our system — financially, operationally, and culturally — allows us to absorb setbacks, adapt quickly, and continue delivering high-quality, accessible care.
Ultimately, growth for us is not about expansion for its own sake; it is about strengthening our organization so we can weather turbulent times, support our people, and ensure our community has reliable access to care today and well into the future.
Finances and growth are a means, not the end.
Sunil Dadlani. Executive Vice President, Chief Information & Digital Officer and Chief Cyber Security Officer at Atlantic Health System (Morristown, N.J.): In 2026, my focus is on radically simplifying our technology footprint to stop the “digital bloat” that’s exhausting our teams. We are moving away from having a different app for every problem and instead consolidating into a few core platforms that actually talk to each other. This isn’t just about saving money; it’s about leading with data and process re-engineering to make sure we aren’t just digitizing bad habits. This strategy allows us to shift our resources toward the use cases that drive the highest impact and value to the communities we serve.
Stephanie Zeiber. Director of APP Development, Primary Care and Outpatient Medical Specialties at Sentara Health (Norfolk, Va.): One of our top priorities for balancing financial and operational stability with growth as we enter 2026 is strengthening advanced practice provider retention. While recruitment has historically been a primary focus, retention represents a critical and often underleveraged opportunity as the APP workforce continues to expand. National projections estimate a 45% growth in nurse practitioners and a 33% growth in physician assistants over the next decade, compared to just 3% growth in physicians (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025). This shift presents a significant opportunity to optimize care delivery by fully leveraging APPs to practice at the top of their scope.
APPs are able to deliver approximately 80 to 90% of physician-level services in many settings at roughly half the cost, making investment in APP development and retention a high-value strategy with strong return on investment. Key focus areas include removing organizational practice barriers, establishing dedicated APP leadership structures, implementing comprehensive transition-to-practice programs, building a sustainable pipeline through student preceptorships and local academic partnerships, and creating meaningful career advancement pathways. Furthermore, integrating APPs into new innovative, team-based care models offers high-impact alternative pathways for care delivery. Collectively, these strategies work to enhance access, improve quality, and provide more consistent clinical support.
These strategies will be explored further in my upcoming presentation at Becker’s 16th Annual Meeting, “Investing in People: How Structured APP Development Advances Organizational Strategy,” which highlights both current and emerging initiatives aimed at advancing APP development as a core component of our long-term growth and sustainability strategy.
Brad L. Meyer. CEO of Bluestem Health (Lincoln, N.E.): As we move toward 2026, we’re working to make our operations smoother by simplifying processes, eliminating unnecessary roles and tasks, and ensuring our workflows are reliable. This approach will help us lower costs and maintain stability. We’re also planning to upgrade our technology with better analytics, AI-powered EHR tools, automated billing, and stronger cybersecurity. These improvements will make a real difference: less paperwork, fewer errors, faster payments, and more time to serve our patients. Most of these tech upgrades pay for themselves within 18 to 36 months, and we’ll use those savings to support smart growth, enabling us to expand without risking our financial or operational stability.
Becky Stoll. Senior Vice President of Crisis Services at Centerstone (Nashville, Tenn.): Entering the coming year, we are committed to leveraging a true service line strategy to package key services to support growth. A service line strategy enables us to bundle a set of services with a specific payer or population in mind, to make the entire continuum more user friendly and accessible. It also allows us to analyze outcomes in a more holistic way to drive improvements and continue to refine the services overall. The crisis continuum is one of the services where we are using this strategy, and in doing so, are able to optimize the delivery of care at every node of the continuum across our footprint to ensure quality, continuity, marketability and, ultimately, sustainability of the service.
Lisa Gossett, MSN, RN. System Chief Nursing Officer and Chief Experience Officer of Premier Health (Dayton, Ohio): As we enter 2026, my top priority is workforce stability. I want to both strengthen and future-proof our workforce while maintaining financial and operational stability. Our caregivers are our greatest asset and are the backbone of care delivery. Strengthening the current workforce by supporting their growth, reducing burden, improving efficiency, and supporting their well-being. All of this is essential to providing high-quality care. At the same time, we must prepare our teams for the future by inspiring innovation, evolving care delivery processes (and models) and integrating digital innovation. Additionally, partnering with academic institutions to help prepare a workforce that will look and practice differently in the future. Investing in our people creates stability now and positions the system for the long-term strategic growth we aspire.
Ericka Powell, MD. Vice President of Medical Affairs at WellSpan Ephrata Community Hospital (Pa.): Operational efficiency will be a key strategy as we face significant CMS rules changes including price transparency. Growth will look like improved process, improved documentation and cost control while ensuring improved access and community impact. Telehealth will need to be a key driver in healthcare access and growth.
Joe Caristi. CFO of Speare Memorial Hospital (Plymouth, N.H.): As we start the new year, we’re focused on two things at Speare: strengthening our financial foundation and positioning ourselves to grow. Like many independent critical access hospitals, we’re facing significant headwinds, but we’re taking concrete steps to navigate them while staying true to who we are. Our independence matters because it means we answer to our community. That’s worth protecting, and our strategic plan is designed to do exactly that. The work ahead is a mix of innovation and fundamentals. We’re exploring how AI can help our teams work smarter, but we’re also tackling the basics such as streamlining workflows, optimizing schedules, and tightening up our reimbursement processes. None of it is glamorous, but all of it matters. In having a relentless commitment to process improvement, Speare’s ability to meet the needs of our community will continue to grow.
Jose Lopez, MD. Chief Medical Officer of Holy Cross Health Florida (Fort Lauderdale): The current uncertain financial situation created by the Big Beautiful Bill has forced us to explore all options to reduce costs. Our efforts have focused on non-clinical contract renegotiations and elimination. We have also examined reducing non-profitable, duplicative services in our service area. The goal is to ensure these efforts do not affect the quality of the care our patients receive and that our colleagues have what they need to do their jobs.
Patrick Nolan. Executive Vice President of Finance and Infrastructure and CFO at Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare (St. Paul, Minn.): Our top 2026 priority for balancing financial stability with growth is breaking down barriers to access for children who need the highly specialized care we provide. As a world leader in complex pediatric healthcare, Gillette’s Children’s provides a level of care that simply isn’t available in a general health system. Removing internal and external friction to accessing our services not only benefits organizational performance, but it results in better outcomes for the individuals we serve. In 2026 we’re focused on growing the availability and capacity of our services, collaborating with community provider and payer partners to streamline referrals and authorizations, and building outreach and education efforts to support this priority. From a financial stability perspective, our performance is aligned to our mission. We do well organizationally when we continue to reach more individuals who can benefit from our expertise.
Mark G. Moseley, MD. President of USF Tampa General Physicians; Executive Vice President of Tampa General Hospital (Fla.): For our academic health system, growth is always in service to our shared purpose and vision. We do not grow just to be bigger, because bigger is NOT necessarily better in healthcare. Achieving a certain size and scale is important, but divorced from the focus and prioritization of shared purpose and vision, we believe health systems can lose their focus and ability to execute on their priorities. And that doesn’t work at a time of uncertainty and stiff headwinds in our industry. Stability and growth are on a spectrum, and thoughtful leaders work on achieving an equilibrium at a given point in time. Too much growth without a sense of stability, and you risk burn out and lack of coordinated efforts. Too much stability and not enough of a growth mindset, and you lose the ability to adapt to the conditions on the ground and even risk stagnation and decline. Leaders must calibrate where they are on that continuum, and work hard to communicate with their teams to help them know what is needed in the moment. Our organizational goals are clear, deliberate, and tied to achieving our long term strategic plan. We are fixed on the destination of where that plan will lead us, but will seek to be flexible on the journey in terms of how we get there. In doing so, we plan to bend the arc of time in our favor, and weather the headwinds that this year will bring.
Kelly Macken-Marble. CEO of Osceola Medical Center (Wis.): At Osceola Medical Center, we are focused on achieving our mission by ensuring access to care and offering the right services to meet community needs using data to drive direction. We are experiencing growth in primary care and have added services in mental health and addiction care to meet community needs. The balance comes in growing carefully as we watch possible changes in Medicaid reimbursement and proposed changes to 340B programs.
William Davis. President of Illinois Region at Deaconess Illinois (Marion): While we have several priorities for 2026, one particular point of focus will be on reducing claim denials by addressing both upstream and downstream processes. The growing number of denials requires strong countermeasures, as we are committed to delivering high-quality healthcare and must ensure fair compensation for the services provided.
Few industries, if any, could sustain a model where so much effort goes uncompensated, yet in healthcare, our resilience often becomes a double-edged sword as we find ways to weather these challenges. Tackling this issue head-on is critical to maintaining operational stability while continuing to grow and serve our communities effectively.
Robert D. Winfield, MD. Professor of Surgery, Vice Chair of Academic Affairs and Chief of Acute Care Surgery at University of Kansas Medical Center (Kansas City): My top priority for balancing operational stability with growth is the wellness of my surgeons. As division chief of a group of surgeons that has seen explosive growth in patient volumes and complexity over the last decade at the University of Kansas Health System, it’s important to ensure that people are getting the time they need to both recover and pursue the additional activities that align with their unique sense of purpose. While we all love the clinical component of our job, educators find joy in educating, researchers find joy in investigation, and taking steps to protect the time needed to do those things is critically important, even as the demands of clinical operations increase. Well surgeons not only feel better, they take better care of patients; taking a holistic view of what wellness means for each surgeon ensures that we will be well-positioned to adapt to ongoing growth in clinical operations while continuing to honor our academic missions.
Todd Norris. Chief Population Health Officer of Ballad Health (Johnson City, Tenn.): To balance financial/operational stability with growth in 2026, my top priority is to fully explore and leverage best practices in population health management along with current and emerging technologies. Fundamentally, population health strategies in a health system impact multiple priorities, some in the realm of community benefit and overall health improvement, others in the realm of quality, and still others in the realm of value-based or risk-based care. Growing health systems naturally experience service demands in all areas which can stretch limited resources. Existing digital care platforms and new AI platforms allow population health officers to continue to build programs which balance the need for efficient operations and ROI with the demands of growth. The key will be striking the right balance between high-touch and high-tech approaches, especially where motivational interviewing and intensive care coordination/management and health-related social need navigation are proven drivers of health improvement and avoided high-cost utilization.
Vi-Anne Antrum. Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer of Cone Health (Greensboro, N.C.): As we deliver on Strategic Vision 2030, Cone Health will be delving deeper into value-based care as our top priority for balancing financial and operational stability with a keen eye toward improving the human experience as we welcome 2026. Advocacy remains a strategic imperative for all health systems, and we are no different in that regard. I’m optimistic and excited about the work ahead as we reimagine putting health back in healthcare while remaining committed to serve our communities in their time of need. We will welcome Dr. Paul Krakovitz in March. I know he’ll bring some wonderful insights into this work as we create the future of healthcare!
Nicholas Gavin, MD. Vice President and Chief Clinical Innovation Officer of Mount Sinai Health System (New York City): As we head into 2026, our focus is simple: listen to our patients. That means offering care that’s convenient, high-quality, and holistic, while making sure every service meets the same trusted standards. That’s how we grow while staying true to the patients and communities we serve and how we position Mount Sinai for sustainable growth.
Deborah Visconi. President and CEO of Bergen New Bridge Medical Center (Paramus, N.J.): As we enter 2026, my top priority is disciplined, mission-aligned growth grounded in strong operational fundamentals. Health systems must focus on efficiency, standardization and accountability to ensure financial stability before expanding services or investing in new initiatives. Every growth decision should clearly improve access, quality, or outcomes while remaining financially sustainable. When operational stability is strong, growth becomes intentional and scalable rather than reactive.
Joy Oh. Chief Information and Digital Transformation Officer of Christ Hospital Health Network (Cincinnati): We will see the same challenges in 2026 that we saw in 2025: regulatory changes, payer constraints, and continued care delivery model shifts towards outpatient and population health. Coupled with the increased “patient as a consumer” mindset and pressure to deliver seamless and digitized experiences, health systems are increasingly pressured to “do more with less”.
In order to address this, a top priority for our organization is continuing to leverage AI to reduce clinician burden, improve employee productivity, and improve revenue via improved documentation, coding, and claims management. We have seen success utilizing strategies such as “Epic First” and “Fail Fast” to maximize our investments and reduce time and resources spent on less profitable endeavors.
Another priority (less glamorous but no less important), is continuing to double down on IT governance and benefits realization. By reducing the funnel of projects coming in, as well as focusing on ROI and value justification, we can continue to deploy our staff on the most value added projects quickly and effectively.
Neil Roy, MD, MBA. Vice President of Diagnostic and Operative Services and Chief Medical Officer at Adventist HealthCare (Gaithersburg, Md.): As we head into 2026, my top priority is being realistic about growth in Maryland, because it works very differently here. We operate under a global budget model. For a simplified example, a hospital might be given $500 million to care for its community for the year. If we go over that, we’re responsible for the overage. If we come in under, we keep the difference. Because of that, simply doing more volume doesn’t help us and in some cases can actually hurt us financially.
Margin in this model comes from efficiency and value. From a surgical standpoint, that means focusing on more complex cases with short lengths of stay and lower variable costs. That reality really shapes how we think about growth.
For us, growth is focused on three things. First, investing in our clinicians and their wellness, including making the EMR better, creating opportunities to connect, and building real relationships between new physicians and leadership. Second, using proven technology to make the work we’re already doing more efficient, like ambient AI and smarter OR scheduling, without being early adopters. Third, staying laser focused on length of stay by improving interdisciplinary rounds, better leveraging inpatient hospice, and working more closely with nursing facilities to avoid unnecessary delays.
This is really about disciplined growth, not growth for growth’s sake, so we can stay stable and still move forward.
Bess Wildman. Vice Dean of Academic Administration and Finance at UChicago Medicine: We are all continually thinking about whether our priorities still align with our vision for the future. For many, we have followed a formula that ensures revenue growth outpaces expense growth by leveraging efficiency, technology, and economies of scale. We are living in interesting times, and our future outlook is riddled with uncertainty and unknowns. It is hard to predict the impact of political clashes, policy changes or even the operational impact from introducing AI into the clinical, academic, and educational settings. Layer these on top of perhaps the better understood challenges like workforce shortages, unionization, inflation, or capital demands, and it is very hard to have confidence in how these variables play out in a long-range plan.
Because of this, I like to think that our plan is now modular growth. Meaning, we are not changing direction; growth is a key building block to our strategy. We are doing more scenario modeling on the front end of big decisions, and we are more closely monitoring for early signals that we should change or slow something down. We have also doubled down on operational effectiveness. We have spent a lot of time designing ways to add value and remove cost. The great news is that the uncertain times have made our physicians and leaders dig into this work. I believe that we are able to drive change which may have been more difficult in a more stable climate.
Jeremy Stephens. Chief Human Resources Officer and Executive Vice President of Tidelands Health (Georgetown, S.C.): From an HR perspective at Tidelands Health, we’re focused on developing a strong pipeline of healthcare professionals to fill current and future positions to serve our fast-growing region.
With a pipeline of trained professionals ready to join our health system, we avoid extra costs associated with using agencies to supplement labor, reduce costs of contract labor, fill jobs faster and cut down on the need for some overtime.
Our innovative student programs and partnerships with local schools and colleges have shown significant success. Through these key partnerships, we fill about 30 percent of our open positions annually and help keep recruitment costs down.
Michael Antoniades. President of UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial Hospital: Our top priority this year is to maintain a strong culture of daily operational management and clear communication across the organization. This deeply ingrained approach ensures financial and operational stability while supporting sustainable growth by keeping everyone aligned, accountable, and focused on delivering high-quality care.
At UChicago Medicine Ingalls Memorial, we track performance daily through dashboards and regular communication, focusing on patient experience, quality, service, access, staff satisfaction, and efficiency. These daily report-outs roll up to a monthly organizationwide half-day meeting where leaders review performance across all service areas, discuss plans, and address key projects. The monthly sessions are disciplined and data-driven, where we:
• Set clear expectations and accountability — foundational elements to how we run our health system and plan for the future.
• Encourage ownership, teamwork, and open communication.
• Have candid conversations and share information openly.
• Showcase the work of our leaders and teams.
• Work altogether to solve problems.
We balance growth with careful planning, recognizing that success today doesn’t guarantee tomorrow’s results. Incorporating the tailwinds and headwinds of the future, along with our commitment to expanding our capabilities to improve care for our communities, is not optional — it’s foundational. Our motto follows a 20/80 approach: We spend 20% of our time learning and understanding our challenges and 80% on how we move forward. This is a critical part of how we manage our entire business, it is heavily weighted on execution, enabling actions or pivots when needed to deliver our objectives.
As part of the UChicago Medicine system, Ingalls benefits from a shared commitment to quality and innovation, strengthening our financial and operational position for the future.
Ngozi Ezike, MD. President and CEO of Sinai Chicago: At Sinai Chicago, our priority is our ongoing effort to achieve financial stability in a challenging marketplace, especially for safety net health systems. We’re facing prospective cuts and changes in Medicaid reimbursement, which already accounts for 70 percent of our patients. Combine that with changes in ACA coverage if subsidies are not restored that will lead to even more uninsured patients and more demand for charity and uncompensated care at Sinai and other safety nets across the country. Sinai Chicago is already one of the top providers of such care nationwide.
We’re focused on strengthening our core operations by improving clinical and operational efficiency, especially enhancing our revenue cycle management and controlling costs. We need to exercise strong financial strategy and discipline to position Sinai to take advantage of opportunities to invest in our caregivers, technology and facilities, grow our philanthropy and enhance our partnerships and collaborations in service of our mission of care. This is how we expand access to care, growing volume and revenue and ensuring we can continue that mission for another century.
James Fenush, MS, RN. Vice President of Nursing Emergency Services and Clinical Support Services at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center: As a nurse executive at an academic medical center, one of my highest priorities is nursing and allied workforce sustainability. Leadership initiatives are centered on reducing registered nurse turnover and vacancies, decreasing reliance on agency staffing, and strengthening targeted recruitment efforts. These actions ensure that the right nurse is available to care for the right patient at the right time. By prioritizing workforce stability and engagement, this strategy promotes financial sustainability, supports organizational growth, and advances our commitment to high-quality, value-based care.
Darrell Bodnar. Chief Information Officer of North Country Healthcare (Lancaster, N.H.): As we head into 2026, my top priority is keeping our strategy, culture, and day-to-day execution tightly aligned so we can respond quickly to operational needs and external pressures like regulatory change, reimbursement shifts, and compliance requirements. In a rural health system, the ability to pivot without creating disruption is essential to staying stable and sustainable. From a technology standpoint, we’re focused on enabling flexibility, not adding complexity. That means getting the most out of our core systems, being thoughtful and responsible about AI and automation, and making sure every initiative has clear ownership and a real operational purpose. When people, process, and technology are aligned, we can stay financially sound while still moving the organization forward. From a growth perspective, we’re focused on tools that improve efficiency, reduce burden, and allow us to expand services and access while minimizing any increase to operational overhead and aligning initiatives with RHTP guidelines.
Chad Konchak. System Assistant Vice President of Data Analytics at Endeavor Health (Evanston, Ill.): As we look ahead to 2026, one of our top priorities is managing the cost and complexity of the technology required to support a large, integrated health system. Our focus is on rationalizing our applications and prioritizing core platforms that can deliver multiple capabilities (sweating the asset) rather than continuing to add complexity. With the growing attention and investment in AI, this discipline is even more important to ensure our technology decisions remain financially responsible and operationally sound.
Mark Behl. President and CEO of NorthBay Health (San Francisco): As I look ahead to 2026, growth is certainly a key goal for NorthBay Health. However, as an independent, locally managed health system, we must approach that growth thoughtfully and strategically. That is why, to ensure we’re good financial stewards of our budgets, our priority has been to grow where we’re most needed and at a pace that aligns with both community demand and long-term sustainability. We also balance growth with a commitment to being a trusted healthcare partner in the communities we serve today and those we may serve tomorrow, without losing sight of our roots.
Sandra Scott, MD. CEO of One Brooklyn Health (N.Y.): As we enter 2026, our top priority is driving growth that strengthens rather than strains our organization. We are tightening performance where it matters most, stabilizing day-to-day operations, so care is delivered reliably, and investing in practical technologies that streamline workflows and reduce administrative burden. Guided by our strategic plan, this approach keeps leaders in the organization focused on supporting our teams, improving patient outcomes, and expanding access where our communities need it most while building a stronger, more resilient organization.
Sowmya Viswanathan, MD. Chief Physician Executive of BayCare Health System (Clearwater, Fla.): BayCare expects 2026 to bring both challenges and opportunities in health care and we are preparing with balanced optimism. As chronic disease burdens rise alongside health care and pharmacy costs and an ageing population, we are strengthening our population health and value‑based care infrastructure. Our VBC strategy aligns with the enterprise’s quintuple aims: lowering costs, improving quality outcomes, enhancing patient experience, supporting provider wellbeing, and expanding access.
At the same time, we continue to advance our tertiary and quaternary capabilities, such as cardiac surgery and cancer care, to ensure patients receive world‑class, comprehensive care close to home. Grounded in our mission to “improve the health of all we serve” and supported by disciplined financial stewardship, these efforts come together to deliver connected, exceptional patient care for all the communities we serve.
Christopher Burks, MS, MBA. Vice President of Laboratory and Support Services at Brown University Health (Providence, R.I.): My top priority is strengthening revenue cycle performance as Brown Health expands into Massachusetts. With rising volumes, new acquisitions, and our transition to Epic, the focus is on scalable, consistent processes that protect financial stability while enabling growth. Maintaining strong documentation, aligned workflows, and disciplined authorization and billing practices is essential to sustaining margin as we move into 2026.
Steve Smith. Assistant Vice President of Enterprise Contact Center and Access at Inova Health System (Fairfax, Va.): As a leader in the operation and access space, from my perspective we should focus on developing processes within the scheduling and registration workflow to identify and reduce errors in real-time. This is crucial because these errors directly correlate with driving write-offs and denials, which ultimately put a financial strain on our organization.
Currently, we run reporting within Epic after the fact to identify scheduling errors. While this method helps us catch mistakes, it would be a game changer if we could bring more automation within the scheduling and registration process prior to the actual scheduling. Increasing accuracy would significantly reduce the number of errors and improve our overall efficiency.
By implementing more real-time error detection and automation, we can ensure that we are proactively addressing issues before they become larger problems. This would not only enhance our scheduling accuracy but also positively impact our organization financially.
John D. Couris. President and CEO of Florida Health Sciences Center at Tampa General Hospital (Fla.): At Tampa General, our top priority for balancing financial or operational stability in 2026 is advancing our 3/30 initiative—our work to improve our EBIDA margin (Earnings Before Interest, Depreciation, and Amortization) by three points over the next 30 months while ensuring that growth and quality remain inseparable. We will accomplish this by building highly reliable, innovative processes that anticipate inflationary pressures, workforce challenges, and evolving payer dynamics, allowing us to strengthen our financial foundation without compromising care. By aligning our operational discipline with our quality journey and growth initiatives, we will create real value for patients, payers, and employers, positioning Tampa General for long-term sustainability and success.
Nancy Beran, MD. Vice President and Chief Quality Officer of Ambulatory at Northwell Health (New Hyde Park, N.Y.): In order to create operational stability and cover our expanding ambulatory environment, this year we have prioritized the redesign of our department. This redesign encompasses cross-training and broadening the skill sets of our quality nurses and embedding them in our regional operational infrastructure. Close working relationships will allow our teams to drive quality improvement and patient safety over our greater than 1,000 ambulatory site network. This redesign will allow our ambulatory quality department to become more proactive, drive continuous process improvement, and decrease safety events.
Stephanie Everett. Administrator of Mountrail Bethel Home; CEO of Mountrail County Medical Center (Stanley, N.D.): Making sure you have the right people in the right seats leading your building is crucial. And giving them the tools and the power to grow into those positions. Leaders not only need to understand their team they are working with, but they need to understand the financials and budgets that come along with their department they are leading. And how it affects the health center as a whole. Just because you have growth doesn’t mean it makes sense.
Kaleem Qazi. Vice President of Operations at Insight Hospital and Medical Center Chicago: As we enter 2026, our top priority is to strengthen the quality of care we deliver while building financially sustainable and operationally resilient models. We are committed to designing systems that are both clinically excellent and economically sound, ensuring efficiency without compromising patient outcomes or experience.
As traditional safety nets face increasing constraints, we will remain focused on expanding access to care, improving quality metrics, and elevating patient experience. Our responsibility is to prove that compassionate, high-quality care and financial solvency are not competing goals — but complementary ones.
By aligning clinical excellence with disciplined, innovative operations, we position our institution for long-term stability, growth, and meaningful impact in the communities we serve.
Joseph Carr, RN. Vice President of Supply Chain at Akron Children’s (Ohio): As we welcome 2026, our top priority is strengthening a resilient, data-driven, patient-centered operating model that balances financial and operational stability with Akron Children’s continued growth, all in service of our mission, “To improve the health of children, teenagers and young adults through excellence in patient care, education, research, advocacy and community partnerships.”
For Supply Chain and Support Services, this means designing operations that scale seamlessly as our footprint expands across the communities we serve, while elevating the patient and family experience:
- Patient Experience First – In environmental services, we are standardizing and modernizing cleaning practices to ensure a consistently safe, healing environment. In food and nutrition services, we are elevating food quality and service models with strategic franchise partnerships.
- Supply Chain as a Growth Enabler – Our five-pillar supply chain strategy strengthens stability and fuels growth through logistics and inventory optimization, disciplined spend management, ERP and automation, leadership and change capability, and the expansion of our “Commit for Kids” strategic sourcing program across clinical, purchased services, and pharmaceuticals.
- Coordinated Change Management & Readiness – With Akron Children’s continual expansion, our ability to manage change is as critical as our ability to execute. In close partnership with our operational excellence teams, we are embedding structured change management, readiness reporting, and adoption metrics into every major initiative to ensure our teams, facilities, and clinicians are prepared to deliver reliably from day one.
By aligning people, process, and technology around patient experience, and by coordinating transformation through disciplined change management, we are creating a stable, scalable operating platform that allows Akron Children’s to grow responsibly while advancing our mission.
Monica Price. Vice President and Group Financial Officer of Texas Health Mid-Cities, N. Tarrant and Denton Region (Arlington): My top priority for balancing financial stability with growth in 2026 is to ensure that we continue to have a stable foundation. Underlying all of the ups and downs within our facilities are strong same store sales that need to continue to be fostered. We cannot afford for those to shrink as we work to grow faster than the market. Regular review of these foundational services with key stakeholders is essential to ensuring that we maintain our stability in these areas. Oftentimes, the lessons we learn in these reviews also help propel us in growth so they both go hand in hand.
Michele Szkolnicki, BSN, RN. Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer of Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey (Pa.) Medical Center: As we enter 2026, my top priority for balancing financial and operational stability with growth is continuing to strengthen workforce sustainability. I believe that no organization can truly grow without a resilient, supported nursing and clinical workforce, and I’ve seen firsthand how transformational it is when caregivers feel valued and able to practice at the top of their license. For me, growth isn’t defined only by launching new services – it’s driven by getting better at what we already do well, especially in the areas where patient experience, clinical excellence, and operational reliability shape both our reputation and our results.
I’m committed to pushing our quality outcomes even higher and reducing the variation that creates both risk and waste. In my experience, excellence in quality and financial strength are inseparable. A big focus of mine this year is making nursing’s impact more visible. Too often, the incredible work of nurses is assumed rather than showcased, so we’re striving to bring stronger data transparency, clearer outcomes reporting, and tighter alignment between bedside practice and organizational strategy. I’m also prioritizing stronger nursing‑provider relationships because collaboration, not hierarchy, is the foundation of quality care.
And I want every nurse to understand the direct connection between their daily decisions, patient outcomes, and the financial health of the organization; not as an added burden, but as a source of professional influence and empowerment. When nurses see and believe in their impact, they engage differently. They innovate. They lead. And that’s ultimately what fuels both stability and meaningful growth.
Lily Henson, MD. CEO of Piedmont Augusta Hospital (Ga.): In order to grow and achieve financial and operational stability, my top priority is recruitment and retention of a stable workforce that reflects our organizational culture.
Pete November, President and CEO of Ochsner Health (New Orleans, La): Our top priority for 2026 is striking a sustainable balance between financial stability and growth through smart, efficient practices. For Ochsner Health, this means using our culture of innovation and operational excellence to improve efficiency without compromising high-quality care. By standardizing processes across the system and reinvesting savings strategically, we can expand access, enhance experiences, and streamline throughput without escalating costs. We also believe that investing in our teams is key to balancing growth and sustainability. Through the prioritization of innovation, continuous learning and strategic partnerships, we empower our people to deliver exceptional care while preparing for the future of healthcare with both optimism and urgency. This proactive, collaborative approach is critical to navigating the complexities of the industry while staying true to our mission.
Steve Davis, MD, MS. President and CEO of Cincinnati Children’s: As we head into 2026, we’re very intentional about where and how we grow. Growth for us is not about volume for volume’s sake; it’s about expanding access and impact in ways that improve our financial and operational resilience at the same time.
There are three elements to that balance:
- Focus growth where marginal cost is low and mission impact is high.
We’re prioritizing ambulatory, digital, and network-based care models where we can serve more children without proportionally increasing fixed costs. That allows growth to improve operating leverage rather than strain it. - Operate as one system, not a collection of sites.
Stability comes from standardization — clinical pathways, staffing models, supply chain, and technology platforms — so that growth doesn’t introduce variability or inefficiency. Every new investment has to plug into a system that already works. - Protect our people and core capabilities.
Financial discipline isn’t about across-the-board cuts. It’s about being very clear on what we will not compromise — quality, safety, culture, and key talent — while continuously removing friction, waste, and work that doesn’t add value.
In short, growth is one of our primary tools for stability, but only when it’s tightly aligned with our mission, executed with operational rigor, and paced so our teams can absorb it successfully.
That mindset — disciplined growth with systemwide execution — is what we believe positions Cincinnati Children’s to be both resilient and impactful in 2026 and beyond.
Rick L. Stevens. President of Christian Hospital & Northwest Healthcare (St. Louis): My top priority is advancing the commitment and sustainment of the Christian Hospital Operating System – our management system that provides a shared leadership expectation and necessary tools for driving performance improvement and excellence in execution to provide the best care to our patients. The framework includes Strategic Alignment, Key Performance Indicator Improvements, Systems & Structures, High Reliability Tools, and Lean Methods which has demonstrated improvements in clinical excellence, operations, workforce, and growth.
Josephine Jorge-Reyes, PhD, RN, MSN. Vice President of Nursing at UCI Health Irvine (Calif.): Workforce retention and allocation of resources in the most appropriate capacity especially as it relates to professionals providing services to the highest level of their licensure. Reducing waste with an assessment of workflows and patterns of resource usage that do not meet goals of operational effectiveness. In addition, leveraging technology to improve operational performance.
S. Kalyan Katakam, MD. Regional Vice President of St. Louis And Southern Illinois Region at SSM Health (St. Louis): At SSM our priority in 2026 is to strategically grow key service lines and primary care with an intent to increase market share while maintaining profitability. While doing this, we are focused on continued operational efficiencies in ambulatory, in-patient and surgical spaces. All of this will be supported by exceptional quality and patient safety performance and continued transition to value-based payments.
John Zerwas, MD. Chancellor of The University of Texas System (Austin, Texas): Academic health systems serve a unique mission that distinguishes us from other providers. At our core, we are focused on advancing medical knowledge through cutting-edge research and training the next generation of healthcare providers. Supporting the growth of these core missions, which are all facing shifting financial landscapes, is a top priority. Delivering stability is key to a successful environment where faculty and students can develop innovative treatments and advanced care models, benefiting our patients, driving system growth, and, most importantly, improving healthcare delivery beyond our communities’ geographic boundaries.
Kellan Tittle, MBA. CFO of People Incorporated Mental Health Services (Eagan, Minn.): Our top priority as we enter 2026 is to balance growth with financial sustainability. We will do this by investing in tools to help our staff reduce administrative time allowing for more time in direct care. We will also ensure we can meet rising community needs by focusing on an integrated treatment plan that improves the whole person with the goals of higher revenue and better outcomes.
Robin Damschroder. Executive Vice President, CFO and President of Value Based Enterprise at Henry Ford Health (Detroit): At Henry Ford Health, our top priority for 2026 is balancing financial stability with bold transformation to meet the demands of the OBBBA and the rapidly evolving healthcare landscape. Incremental improvements are not going to get us there. We need to make major investments in clinical care and operations, especially as AI implementation surges within the healthcare industry, creating opportunities to significantly reduce administrative burdens and improve care delivery.
We’re also expanding our focus on high-value care, ensuring patients are getting the right care in the right place at the right time. We’re continuing to see strong growth across ambulatory, retail, and home care services, as we focus on treating the most critical patients in our inpatient facilities, which is necessary to meet the needs of Michigan’s aging population. With more than half of our revenue coming from ambulatory, home care, and pharmacy—as well as record growth for our integrated health plan—we’re diversifying our revenue streams and positioning Henry Ford Health to manage population health while ensuring long-term resilience and sustainable growth.
David Marcozzi, MD. Chief Clinical Officer of University of Maryland Medical Center; Associate Dean of Clinical Affairs at University of Maryland School of Medicine (Baltimore): As a state, Maryland is a national healthcare innovator through its longstanding all-payer hospital rate-setting system. This system has evolved over time (e.g., All-Payer Model in 2014, Total Cost of Care Model in 2019–2025), but the state has demonstrated that it is possible to control healthcare cost growth while improving quality and population outcomes.
The soon-to-be-implemented AHEAD model builds on that foundation by expanding accountability beyond hospitals to prevention and primary care, robust coordination of care and appropriate utilization.
For UMMC, this means continuing to evolve how we deliver care, including: tighter clinical integration across the care continuum and reduction of unwarranted care variation to deliver high quality care for all. Headwinds remain—financial reimbursement changes, workforce fatigue, and rising patient acuity and volumes. The charge is executing at a high level in support of this innovative model to optimize care for our patients and help inform healthcare policy nationally.
Gina Temple, PhD. President of St. Francis Hospital, St. Francis Hospital, Interquest, Mountain Region at CommonSpirit Health (Chicago): In 2026, my top priority for balancing financial and operational stability with growth at CommonSpirit Health is rooted in our core mission to serve and heal. As a ministry, we are pursuing a unified, system-wide approach to achieve this, focusing on strategic initiatives that will drive operational improvements and enable sustainable growth. Our efforts include a comprehensive realization plan that targets key areas such as carefully managing discretionary spending, strategically prioritizing our hiring, enhancing patient access to care, and optimizing our clinical capacity. At St. Francis Hospital specifically, we are adopting Lean as our Operating Management System to accelerate the implementation of these initiatives, ensuring our financial resilience and capacity to fulfill our mission.
William A. Wertheim, MD, MBA. Executive Vice President of Stony Brook Medicine (N.Y.): My top priority is to continue aligning operational efficiencies with strategic growth opportunities so we can deliver on the full potential of an academic health system: providing exceptional clinical care, supporting leading-edge research and healthcare workforce development. Doing so allows us to adapt to an evolving healthcare landscape and focus on purposeful investment that expands access to care and improves the patient experience. At the same time, we are strengthening the capabilities that will shape the future, including advancements in digital health and medical innovation, continued leadership in research and innovations in education that support the healthcare workforce of the future.
Nikki Carter. Chief Strategy Officer of US Markets at Bon Secours Mercy Health (Cincinnati): Amidst a complex, fast-changing environment we face in 2026, our priority is to develop and support the execution of a successful mission-based strategy. The elements of agility and innovation are “culture must-haves” to achieve growth, financial and operational stability simultaneously. Agility is important for all levels of the organization to embrace change and adopt best practices. Innovation is particularly important for leaders to identify solutions and opportunities for differentiation through internal resources or in partnership with external innovators.
These complementary traits are central to maintaining a balanced framework. Agility enables us to respond quickly and effectively to external pressures, including regulatory shifts, local market dynamics or evolving patient needs. Innovation allows us to strategically and proactively create or enhance care coordination, access, services and value for the communities we serve.
Our mission of extending the compassionate ministry of Jesus guides our strategy, and this competency-driven approach propels our strategic, financial and operational initiatives: portfolio assessment and management, revenue diversification and service delivery differentiation. By embedding agility and innovation into our culture and operations, we can deliver the right care in the right place at the right time.
Rohit Yadav, MD. Vice President of Quality and Performance Improvement at Loretto Hospital (Chicago): In terms of balancing financial or operational stability with growth for 2026, my priority will be to ensure Loretto Hospital continues to expand our current service lines as well as establish new services for the west side of Chicago. Over time, community health needs shift with population health. To that end, Loretto Hospital is committed to always ensuring the services we are providing are meeting the needs of our community.
Eilidh Pederson. CEO of Western Wisconsin Health (Baldwin): The top priority for balancing financial or operational stability with growth is having your own facility in order. Conducting a readiness assessment is the priority before one can tackle growth. Do you have a sound operating margin? Are your quality scores at or above industry standard? And is your employee turnover below the benchmark? Once you have achieved financial sustainability, high quality outcomes, and a stable workforce, you know you are ready to grow services.
Matt Chance. Senior Vice President and COO of Scottish Rite for Children (Dallas): This year, our top priority is keeping up with the rapid population growth in our area while staying true to what makes our care special. We are working to expand access to our highly specialized services, but never at the expense of the excellent clinical outcomes and patient experience our families depend on.
Zafar Chaudry, MD. Senior Vice President, Chief Digital Officer and Chief AI and Chief Information Officer of Seattle Children’s: In 2026, the top priority is to ensure we don’t just grow bigger, but smarter. We must focus on “trimming the tail” of legacy technical debt to free up capital, while simultaneously deploying AI-driven orchestration that lowers our unit cost to serve. By prioritizing platform consolidation over fragmented innovation, we achieve financial stability; by leveraging predictive analytics to turn data into a proactive asset, we create the agile foundation necessary for sustainable expansion. Ultimately, the goal is to make our operations so efficient they become invisible, allowing our mission and the growth to take center stage.
Roko Miles. Executive Director of Operational Excellence at Northeast Georgia Health System (Gainesville): As we welcome 2026 – a year of transformative change – my top priority for balancing operational stability and financial sustainability while enabling growth is building scalable, agile systems supported by an adaptive, engaged, and empowered workforce.
We are entering what futurists describe as the transition generation, an era marked by accelerated and complex change, overlapping systems and the need to continuously evolve. Long-term stability will no longer come from rigid structures, but from our ability to continuously learn, adapt, integrate, and deploy capabilities and innovation where they create the most value. This work is anchored in our continued commitment to adopting Lean as an operating management system to sustain performance while enabling adaptability.
By strengthening how we see and think differently about where value is created, where we are going, and the evolving needs of the communities we serve, we position our organization to sustain performance today while enabling meaningful, resilient growth for the future.
Sham Firdausi. Deputy CFO of County of Santa Clara Health System (San Jose, Calif.): My top priority is building a resilient finance system through revenue cycle excellence and strategic team investment. I started as Deputy CFO at County of Santa Clara Health System three months ago, overseeing 600-plus finance, revenue cycle and supply chain professionals, supported by amazing leaders. I believe in access because I relied on safety net care myself once, so protecting it is personal.
Public healthcare is under attack. It’s being gutted. H.R. 1 represents an almost $1 billion shortfall for us by 2028, so we can’t afford a single preventable denial or coding gap. But we also can’t cut our way out of this crisis. I’m investing heavily in developing our teams because strong, capable people are how you navigate existential threats.
Strategic technology in clinical operations and revenue cycle amplifies what our teams do best. Financial discipline isn’t about austerity. It’s about capturing every dollar we’ve earned and investing in the people who protect access for those who depend on us. That’s how we sustain our mission when it matters most.
Daniel Messina, PhD. President and CEO of Richmond University Medical Center (N.Y.): Richmond University Medical Center of Staten Island in 2026 will enhance its focus on disciplined expense as an essential cultural element within the operation to effectively drive sustainable growth across the enterprise. This will be accomplished by ensuring actionable data is in the hands of all leaders, both administrative and clinical. The organization will focus on continuing to streamline operational overhead, reduce inefficiencies, maximize workforce productivity and patient experience in the hospital, ambulatory centers, and physician network. This grassroots focus will ensure that strategic growth through data driven stewardship will help ensure long-term financial solvency.
Dustin M. Riccio, MD. President and CEO of St. Joseph’s Health System (Paterson, N.J.): As we enter 2026, my top priority is ensuring that every growth decision at St. Joseph’s Health strengthens our operations.
Healthcare is moving faster and faces more pressure than at any point in my career, with persistent labor shortages, rising costs, and ongoing regulatory uncertainty. Given that environment, our focus is disciplined growth: expanding primary care and specialized services only where we can execute reliably, staff appropriately, and consistently deliver high-quality outcomes. This same discipline applies to additional partnerships which we will pursue when they clearly improve access, sustainability, and performance.
Financial and operational stability comes from execution. Each of our leaders is being tasked with owning their division’s performance, controlling costs and improving throughput so that growth will be earned, durable, and aligned with our mission.
Steven Blair, MD. President and CEO of Sutter North Medical Group (Sacramento, Calif.): At Sutter North Medical Group in Northern California, we are committed to advancing growth and expanding access to quality care for our increasing patient population. As we plan for future expansion in 2026, it is essential to evaluate the financial impact of recent federal legislation and its influence on sustainable growth strategies. To maintain competitive compensation for our clinicians while supporting increased care demands, we must prioritize operational excellence and optimize the use of key resources, including physical space, clinical support staff, and clinician time. Maximizing clinician efficiency and service delivery remains a top priority, acknowledging that time has become a critical factor in clinical satisfaction. Additionally, the cost and availability of space — particularly in California — require thoughtful stewardship as it represents a significant investment. By fostering operational resilience and excellence, we will enhance community care and sustain satisfaction levels among both clinicians and patients. Furthermore, leveraging alternative solutions such as artificial intelligence will support staff satisfaction and strengthen our ability to deliver on our goals.
Nida Shekhani. Deputy COO and Chief Strategy Officer of Fred Hutch Cancer Center (Seattle): Our top priority in 2026 is ensuring that growth strengthens — not strains — our financial and operational foundation. We have seen significant increases in new patient volume and have invested deliberately in the infrastructure needed to support that growth, but with cancer incidence projected to rise more than 20% nationally over the next decade and costs continuing to increase, our current operating model cannot keep pace. We are undertaking a major clinical transformation now, from a position of strength, to expand access, improve the patient experience, and maintain exceptional quality and safety. By redesigning how we deliver care and investing in high-ROI, mission-critical initiatives, we can care for more patients who need us while ensuring our organization remains sustainable for the future.
Paul Hiltz. President and CEO of Naples Comprehensive Health (NCH) (Fla.): We’re prioritizing disciplined growth anchored in operational excellence. That starts with ensuring our foundation is strong, workforce stability, care delivery efficiency, and financial performance, as we continue to grow. We’re investing in initiatives that improve access and outcomes, using data to guide decisions and measure impact. Growth is essential, and it must be aligned with our mission and focused on elevating quality and enhancing the patient experience.
Robert Cubeddu, MD. President of Rooney Heart Institute at Naples Comprehensive Health (Fla.): Our top priority is ensuring that growth strengthens our ability to deliver exceptional patient care. We are maintaining operational and financial discipline while continuing to invest in the people, technology, and programs that drive clinical excellence and innovation. By standardizing care, leveraging data, and supporting our teams, we can expand access and advance outcomes in a way that is sustainable, mission-driven, and centered on the patient. We are becoming the patient and payers No. 1 choice by focusing on quality.
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