🏥 JPM Part 3: The Big Health Systems

Updates from CommonSpirit, Sutter, and Providence

Happy Tuesday, Hospitalogists!   Do me a favor and register for my upcoming virtual event. It's going to be a really great discussion around behavioral health, scaling the service line, and redefining whole-health measures. Register here!   Today we're diving into JPM one last time looking at some of the largest health systems in the country. Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe Here Roundup from JPM Note that these decks will be uploaded to the Hospitalogy membership HUB - apply here.   Decks uploaded include: AdventHealth Ardent Health CommonSpirit Intermountain Mayo Clinic Providence Sutter Health We are working on making Plus membership free for health system corporate development / strategy folks, and you guy in particular will get a lot of value out of it. Health Systems at JPM: Key Themes For large health systems, key themes from JPM included much of the following: Utilization was bonkers in 2024; Contract labor is down, and we are retaining our clinical labor; Increased focus on investing in digital infrastructure; As demand for ambulatory care grows (and with this demand…new competitive threats), health systems are building out density in their networks to keep patients within the health system flywheel Health system transformation to improve broken consumer experiences and diversify revenue Sutter Health has made significant progress on its strategic vision, adding 1,700 physicians and clinicians to its footprint in the past 2 years alone, and cutting contract turnover by 42%. Sutter also plans to invest $1B+ in its ambulatory footprint as the hospital model continues to evolve. Look at the enhanced focus on ambulatory buildout over the coming years. In total, Sutter has 23 ambulatory and 3 acute sites planned for opening over the next 3 years, which will boost capacity by an estimated 400,000 patients: Meanwhile Sutter wants to tie in its ambulatory investments with its tech capabilities. What?? Technological capabilities and health systems…almost an oxymoron! Still, later on in the presentation Sutter claims to have 1.14M active users on its patient portal/platform , up from 1.07M in 2023, used for things like online scheduling. Sutter also noted the importance of digital engagement, and this was a key theme in my recent conversation with Praia Health and Providence - folks who are digitally engaged with your organization are MUCH more likely to use your services and rate their experiences highly. Sutter's utilization numbers are up and to the right: a 6.8% increase in admissions, 6.2% increase in ED visits, 9.2% increase in ambulatory visits, and 9.2% increase in home visits. This growth led to pretty strong topline revenue growth, too - through the first 3 quarters of 2024, Sutter Health grew revenues 17.2%. Operating income bumped up to $200M from $80M, and net income swelled to $1.054B, up 143% from $433M. Their war chest - cash & investments - sits right at $10B as well. Providence is redefining itself after a tumultuous few years. In many aspects, Providence is leading the way in health system innovation, partnering and collaborating with other provider organizations on initiatives like Truveta, or spinning off its venture arm Allumia late last year (after forming in 2015). Goes without saying, but Providence also runs several AI-driven initiatives with enterprise scale partners like Nuance:  Providence's presentation held a heavy focus on clinical transformation and revenue / income diversification. Meanwhile, solid utilization across the board… Has led to financial stabilization and recovery in 2024: Past 2025, Providence will look to finally go back on offense as its acute care footprint and inpatient market positioning: I covered some of CommonSpirit's strategic vision late last year, but this presentation was a solid update to this report, just 3 months later. CommonSpirit is focused on the grand concept of 'Systemness' which really seems like a fancy way of saying 'centralization.' For instance, exiting noncore assets, unifying disparate systems, and nationalizing its programs across its assemblage of assets. This was a good slide on Commonspirit's portfolio transformation, and it's interesting to see the health system call out behavioral health and home health as two points of emphasis for service line diversification (side note that I have an upcoming virtual event with Intermountain and NeuroFlow on scaling behavioral health programs). That's it for the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference roundup! Thanks for indulging me for 3 parts - we'll be back to regularly scheduled programming Thursday. I have an absolute bursting-full backlog of news and stories to get to, so I hope you're ready for that (you aren't). Thanks for the read! Let me know what you thought by replying back to this email.   — Blake   Share Hospitalogy, Earn Rewards Have friends who'd love Hospitalogy too? Click the link below to share Hospitalogy with your friends and earn awesome rewards! PS: You have referred 0 people so far Share Hospitalogy! Get your brand in front of 41,000 executives and healthcare decision-makers. Let's Partner I'm building an exclusive community for healthcare leaders. Join the Movement Here. Workweek Media Inc.  1023 Springdale Road, STE 9E Austin, TX 78721   Want to ruin my day? Unsubscribe.