Thoughts from Ken Kaufman

The American Hospital Association has released a report that we prepared for them on the state of hospital finances—and the results are sobering. We are projecting 2022 to be the worst...

“In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s, there are few.” This famous observation by Shunryu Suzuki, which posits the importance of intellectual...

When it comes to equity, healthcare organizations face three different and very difficult challenges: health disparities among patient populations, income inequality in the healthcare...

In February, U.S. inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index grew 7.9% year-over-year, the highest increase in four decades. The factors influencing the current inflationary...

The long-term attributes of this year’s Final Four are certainly the attributes of success in college basketball. They are also the attributes of success for businesses in a scaled economy. Whatever sort of enterprise you participate in, these observations form your own playbook for success in our current business environment.

March is National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. I didn’t need a calendar reminder to start me thinking about this disease. At this moment, I am recovering from ostomy surgery, the...

Kaufman Hall co-founder and Chair Ken Kaufman and Senior Vice President Lisa Goldstein—formerly a longtime not-for-profit hospital ratings analyst for Moody’s—recently explored the evolving perspectives of healthcare leaders on how to best balance credit ratings with other key strategic imperatives, including the rising importance of health equity

One of the COVID pandemic’s most bitter lessons has been the complete inadequacy and dysfunction of the U.S. public health system, if the word “system” can even be applied.

Artificial intelligence is a new idea that even data experts don’t fully understand. It requires a new view of the role of healthcare in improving health and preventing disease.

With the COVID crisis entering its third year and continuing to demand the immediate attention of hospitals, executives should look closely at Amazon’s example of investing across their businesses to satisfy long-term customer needs.

Healthcare organizations have faced a set of historically intractable problems, some of which have become far more apparent and intense in the 20 months since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, including dealing with the fallout of a public health system.

In my conversations with senior executives at healthcare organizations around the country, I find that leaders have three critical topics on their minds: workforce, workforce, and...

The well-worn phrase “culture eats strategy for breakfast” has new relevance in American business these days. Take the case of State Farm insurance. For almost ten years, Green Bay...

Today, American culture is changing so quickly and with such a high degree of nuance that it is increasingly difficult both to interpret and to navigate. However, navigating how those...

The healthcare gyroscope is a delicate combination of management, governance, and medical attitudes and processes that keeps all complex healthcare organizations functioning in a way that serves the best interests of its patients and associated communities.

On this episode, Ken Kaufman, Chair of Kaufman Hall, and Michael Peregrine, Partner at McDermott, discuss the board’s top post-pandemic governance and leadership challenges.

For a very long time, hospitals have been organized around three principles that inform the way they run their organizations, and how they conduct themselves in the management suite and the board room.

On this episode Michael Peregrine and Ken Kaufman discuss a number of important post-pandemic developments for the board to consider.

For many hospitals and health systems around the country, COVID-19 threatens to create long-term negative changes to volumes, revenues, and margins on top of the pressures that weighed on hospitals even before the pandemic.

Never before have organizations been required to think more rapidly and radically than in the volatile environment of COVID-19, when existing business models are being decimated daily, and organizations need to hit a new target that is hazy at best.

Healthcare organizations have rotated toward a transactional operating platform because that platform is highly correlated to efficient operations, consistent levels of clinical care, and excellent financial performance.

After several years of research and development, the automated teller machine made its first appearance in 1967 at a branch of London’s Barclay’s Bank. Two years later, the first U.S. ATM was installed at a branch of the Chemical Bank on Long Island.

Hospital leaders have been responding to what will likely be the biggest challenge of their careers. Read more.

What personal and organizational characteristics would separate winners from losers during and after the COVID pandemic? Read the 4 principles that apply to healthcare leaders.

Data have long told a story of racial disparities in quality of care and in rates of morbidity and mortality from cancers, heart disease, and maternal and child health.

The more we learn about the revenue shock that hospitals are experiencing from COVID-19, the clearer it becomes that recovering from that shock will require a rethinking of hospital operations. Read more.

As Ken Kaufman speaks with healthcare executives around the country, he receives many questions about the CVS Health/Aetna and UnitedHealth/Optum business models. Read more about his take on the matter.

What would happen if legacy healthcare providers were immersed in the totality of consumers’ lives and used those insights to redefine the healthcare experience?

Given industry pressures, significant changes in the nature and delivery of rural healthcare are inevitable. What is the future of rural healthcare?