Amid workforce shortages, financial strain, and ever-changing federal and state policies, hospitals are getting more creative with how they meet patient needs and close care gaps.
However, competing patient needs have forced hospital leaders to prioritize some services. Becker’s asked four leaders what care gap they think is the most urgent and how they are trying to close it this year.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Chad Grant. Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer at McLaren Health Care (Grand Blanc, Mich.): One of our top priorities is eliminating delays in access to care across our network, whether it be primary care, emergency services, behavioral health, or high-demand specialties such as oncology and cardiology. Our focus is on scaling successes as demand outpaces traditional capacity. The gap we are focused on now is time-to-appointment or treatment and ensuring continuity across the patient care continuum so patients can move quickly across all care settings without unnecessary delays.
Some examples are access transformation contributing to double-digit improvements in appointment availability, throughput enhancement with standardized flow models resulting in reduced ED care times and improved length of stay, continued growth in virtual care as a meaningful point of entry into the network, and care integration between our medical group and the rest of the health system to improve transitions of care.
William LeCates, MD. Chief Executive Officer at Mohawk Valley Health System (Utica, N.Y.): Over the past year, MVHS leadership has observed a marked increase in individuals arriving at the hospital with behavioral health needs or in crisis, despite the presence of numerous behavioral health resources across the community. At the same time, the New York State Office of Mental Health began investing in “embedded” programs, operated by community-based providers within the hospital, to support the safe and appropriate discharge of patients with complex needs.
In response, MVHS partnered with the Oneida County Office of Mental Health to convene monthly meetings that bring together local behavioral health providers, crisis response teams from the Sheriff’s Office and Utica Police Department, representatives from the homeless coalition, New York State Office of Mental Health staff and members of the state hospital association. These meetings focus on increasing awareness of available services, identifying gaps in the local behavioral health system and developing coordinated strategies to improve care. This collaborative effort, now known as the Behavioral Health Partnership, has created a trusted forum for open communication, shared problem-solving and collective action. After nearly a year of consistent engagement, this model — regularly convening hospital leaders, community organizations, and government agencies — has been recognized by the State’s Office of Mental Health as a best practice.
MVHS has fully embraced its role as a community convener to address complex health challenges. Building on the success of the Behavioral Health Partnership, MVHS recently launched a similar initiative focused on maternal health. This group aims to increase early access to prenatal care by strengthening support for expectant mothers and families, while also working to reduce maternal mortality — both priorities identified in the 2025-2030 Oneida County Community Health Assessment. The inaugural meeting brought together more than 40 representatives from the hospital, community-based organizations, county agencies and health plans. With strong engagement and a shared sense of purpose, the maternal health collaborative is well-positioned to make meaningful progress in improving outcomes for mothers and babies across the region.
John Moynihan, MD. President and Chief of Clinical Enterprise at Inova Health System (Falls Church, Va.): The most urgent gaps we see stem from fragmentation — care that is inconsistent, disconnected, and difficult for patients to navigate, particularly during transitions (e.g., outpatient to inpatient, inpatient to home). At Inova, we are building out what we call “Inova Care,” a systemwide approach to delivering a coordinated, patient-centered and evidence-based continuum of care. We are focused on creating an end-to-end, seamless experience that reduces variability, improves access and ensures patients don’t fall through the cracks at any point in their journey.
Over the past year, we’ve made meaningful progress by standardizing care pathways, strengthening coordination during key transitions, and ensuring information follows the patient across settings. We’re seeing measurable impact, for example, among spinal fusion patients, we’ve increased discharges to home and reduced returns to the ED or hospital by 30%. We’ve also seen increased discharge to home in the lower extremity fracture population — particularly hip fractures — where patients are now more often able to return directly home rather than to a skilled nursing facility, driven by stronger care team coordination and more streamlined, standardized approaches to care, without an associated increase in ED visits or readmissions given our focus on transitions of care. More broadly, we’re seeing positive signals of improved seamlessness across the system, and this will continue to be a core focus of Inova Care.
Baligh Yehia, MD. President of Jefferson Health and Executive Vice President of Jefferson (Philadelphia): For us, the most urgent care gap is how quickly patients can connect with care. Access is foundational — it improves quality and outcomes, advances equity by reducing variation, and strengthens financial performance by ensuring our capacity is used effectively. Our goal is to be the most accessible health system in the country, and access is a core clinical and operational priority.
Over the past year, we have expanded access by overhauling clinician templates to create new capacity, moving to dynamic scheduling, extending hours, growing virtual care and optimizing campuses so capacity aligns with demand across the system. We significantly improved emergency department access by redesigning intake and care workflows, reducing the number of patients who leave without being seen to under 1% across many of our EDs. In 2026, we are pushing access further by using AI‑enabled tools to anticipate demand, proactively pull appointments forward, and connect patients to available care sooner — shifting from reactive scheduling to a more predictive, patient‑centered access model.
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