How healthcare CEOs can create capacity without asking people to do more

In my conversations with health system leaders, capacity is almost always part of the discussion. Whether it's workforce shortages, inpatient demand, or financial constraints, the challenge often comes down to the same question: How do we do more with limited resources?

But I believe we're overlooking an important opportunity. Some of the capacity health systems need already exists within their organizations. It's simply tied up in redundant processes, disconnected workflows, and administrative work that takes valuable time away from patient care.

Instead of continually asking people to do more, what if leaders focused on eliminating the work that prevents them from doing what they do best?

Wright Lassiter III, president and CEO of CommonSpirit Health, reinforced this idea when we spoke at the Vizient Connections Summit: “Technology has to earn its way into healthcare. It should solve a real problem, make work better for caregivers, or improve care and outcomes for patients.”

Wright's point applies well beyond technology. Successful transformation isn't measured by what we implement, but by the impact it has on people, operations, and ultimately, patients.

Here are four opportunities I see for health system leaders to unlock capacity already within their organizations.

Start with the problem, not the technology

Some organizations fall into the trap of identifying a technology and then searching for a problem it can solve. The most successful transformations start with a clear understanding of what's getting in the way of better performance.

The people closest to the work often have the best perspective. Clinicians know where they're navigating multiple systems to complete a single task. Analysts know how much time goes into reconciling information before decisions can be made. And frontline teams know which temporary workarounds have quietly become permanent processes.

As Wright noted at Summit, subtraction is part of transformation. Removing unnecessary variation, redundant processes, and complexity allows people to focus on what matters.

For CEOs, this requires discipline around major technology and transformation investments. Before making a commitment, leaders should be able to identify the problem they're solving, what work will improve, and how to measure impact.

CommonSpirit offers a compelling example. The organization uses AI to earlier identify patients at risk of sepsis, contributing to an estimated 3,600 lives saved in 2025. Its Virtual Integrated Care program also facilitated 800,000 virtual visits, reduced emergency department hold hours, and improved the patient experience.

These different applications of technology both demonstrate what happens when organizations focus on solving meaningful problems rather than implementing new tools.

Turn efficiency into strategic capacity

Every health system has work that must get done. But that doesn't mean every task requires the same level of expertise, time, or effort.

Consider a quality improvement team. Their expertise is best spent identifying interventions, collaborating with clinicians, and improving patient outcomes. Yet many teams spend significant time assembling data and producing reports before they can begin that work.

Using Vizient tools, Yale New Haven Health's quality and safety team reduced more than 3,000 hours of performance improvement work to minutes, shifting capacity from producing scorecards to executing solutions.

That's an important distinction. Saving time is valuable, but what organizations do with that time matters even more.

CEOs can apply this thinking across the enterprise by identifying where highly skilled employees are spending time on work that doesn't require their expertise. Eliminating that burden can free teams to focus on strategic priorities, whether that's improving quality, expanding access, or strengthening financial performance.

Efficiency alone doesn't guarantee better outcomes. The real value comes from intentionally redirecting that capacity to the areas where it can make the greatest difference.

Close the gap between insight and action

Health systems have access to tremendous amounts of data, but insights only create value when they lead to action.

Consider a hospital trying to reduce length of stay. The data may reveal an opportunity, but improving performance requires clinical, operational, and financial teams to understand what's driving delays and work together on a solution.

Too often, getting to that point requires teams to pull information from multiple sources, reconcile conflicting reports, and spend valuable time determining the next steps.

This is where intelligent orchestration can make a difference. By connecting data, AI, and workflows, organizations can move more quickly from identifying an opportunity to making a measurable improvement. Technology helps bring the right information together, while coordinated processes and clear accountability help teams act on it.

For CEOs, an important measure of performance is how quickly the organization turns insights into results. Reducing the time between identifying an opportunity and implementing a solution gives teams more capacity to focus on continuous improvement.

And as healthcare becomes increasingly complex, that ability to move quickly and act collectively will be an important differentiator for high-performing organizations.

Unlock capacity across the enterprise

Some of the greatest opportunities to improve performance exist between departments, where disconnected decisions and processes prevent health systems from realizing their full potential.

Consider supply chain. In conversations with more than 100 CFOs and COOs, Vizient found that only about 20% of negotiated savings reaches the bottom line, leaving nearly $46 billion in unrealized value across healthcare.

Capturing that value requires more than a strong contracting strategy. Clinical, supply chain, finance, procurement, accounts payable, and supplier teams must work together to ensure negotiated savings translate into meaningful financial results.

The same principle applies to patient discharge, access, and quality improvement. When departments optimize their individual operations without considering the broader system, opportunities get lost.

CEOs are uniquely positioned to see across these organizational boundaries and bring teams together around shared priorities. That may mean starting with a few high-impact workflows where unnecessary handoffs, variation, or disconnected decisions are limiting performance.

We've seen how powerful this approach can be when organizations move beyond functional silos and align their leaders around a common vision. Instead of measuring success solely by departmental performance, the focus shifts to whether the organization achieved the intended result.

That's how health systems begin to realize the full value of their people, resources, and investments.

Creating capacity that counts

Creating capacity is only the first step. The real opportunity comes from what organizations do with it.

Whether it's giving clinicians more time with patients, helping teams move faster from insight to action, or unlocking financial resources for strategic investments, the value should be measurable. Leaders should track the capacity they create just as closely as they track cost savings, connecting those improvements to outcomes that matter for their organizations and the communities they serve.

Healthcare will always be a complex, people-intensive business. One of the most important responsibilities we have as leaders is to make it easier for our people to do their best work.

Sometimes the best way to move healthcare forward isn't by adding more. It's by making better use of what we already have.