As health systems look for ways to expand access without adding proportional labor and infrastructure, COOs and strategic leaders say the next year’s biggest partnership opportunities will center on workforce, post-acute care and technology. Several point to joint ventures that free up hospital space, such as inpatient rehabilitation partnerships that let hospitals repurpose beds for acute care demand. Others highlight educational partnerships that build a steadier pipeline of nurses and other clinicians.
Eight executives connected with Becker’s to share the growing value in working with technology partners and academic institutions to adopt AI responsibly, from co-developing tools with clinicians to building governance for AI-powered virtual agents. Across their responses, a common thread emerged: No organization can solve today’s access and workforce challenges alone, and the most valuable partnerships will be those that pair complementary strengths and deliver measurable outcomes.
Editor’s note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Question: Where do you see the greatest opportunity for consolidation or partnership in the next 12 months?
Tim Riddell, MD. Executive Vice President and COO of Ochsner Health (New Orleans): One area that is rapidly evolving is the management of AI-powered virtual agents. As organizations deploy agentic AI across functions, structures for governance, oversight and accountability are essential. I expect greater partnership between operations, HR and technology leaders to define how virtual agents are organized, monitored and integrated alongside human teams. Establishing that operating model will be an important focus for COOs over the next year.
Doug McGill. Vice President of Quality, Strategy and Operations of Emory Healthcare (Atlanta): The greatest opportunity is strengthening alignment between system priorities and local improvement efforts. Healthcare organizations have become increasingly sophisticated at identifying enterprise-wide goals, particularly around patient safety, quality, and operational performance, but sustainable improvement still happens locally.
Over the next 12 months, I expect stronger partnerships among operational leaders, service lines, quality teams, and digital capabilities to better distinguish where standardization creates value and where local flexibility is needed. Core “zero harm” priorities, such as HAIs, patient safety events, and mortality, should remain consistent across the enterprise. At the same time, organizations must recognize that not all performance opportunities are shared equally across hospitals and care settings. The organizations that balance enterprise alignment with local ownership will be best positioned to achieve meaningful and sustainable improvement.
Kasey Paulus. Executive Vice President and COO of WellSpan Health (York, Pa.): The greatest opportunity for partnership in the next 12 months is around building scalable solutions to workforce and access challenges that no health system can solve alone. As healthcare leaders, we’re all trying to meet growing demand, support our teams and create a better experience for patients. That requires closer collaboration between providers, technology partners and innovators who understand the realities of healthcare operations. At WellSpan, we’ve had success partnering with organizations that are willing to co-develop solutions alongside our clinicians and operational leaders, rather than simply selling products. The partnerships that will create the most value are those focused on delivering measurable outcomes for patients, team members and communities.
Eric Deaton. COO of Ballad Health (Johnson City, Tenn.): The greatest opportunity over the next 12 months is the convergence of digital health, virtual care, and centralized operations. By combining telehealth expansion, Clinical Command Center capabilities, remote monitoring, AI-enabled workflows, and enterprise-wide capacity management, health systems can improve access and efficiency without needing proportional increases in labor or physical infrastructure. Ballad’s existing work around telehealth, centralized operational management, and digital transformation appears well positioned to capture that opportunity.
Kathy Donovan, MSN. Senior Vice President and COO of Hospital Sisters Health System (Springfield, Ill.): Partnerships are often a meaningful lever for improving access to care. These opportunities are particularly relevant in building workforce capacity and in expanding care across the continuum. For Hospital Sisters Health System, strengthening the nursing workforce is one piece of a larger strategy to build sustainable capacity and expand access to care through innovative partnerships and joint ventures, including rehabilitation services. These initiatives represent an investment in keeping skilled healthcare professionals and high-quality care close to the communities we serve.
At HSHS, we are intentionally building the future healthcare workforce through strategic educational partnerships that create a seamless pathway from career exploration to professional practice. Through initiatives such as the HSHS High School Healthcare Bootcamp, nearly 500 students participated between summer 2024 and summer 2025, gaining firsthand exposure to healthcare careers and establishing an early connection to opportunities within our health system. These experiences help inspire the next generation of caregivers while creating a sustainable talent pipeline to meet the growing healthcare needs of our communities.
A cornerstone of this strategy is HSHS St. John’s College of Nursing, where significant enrollment growth is directly translating into workforce impact. The college has significantly expanded its nursing workforce pipeline, with total enrollment increasing more than 80% since fall 2023. Growth has been especially strong in programs that support advancement within the nursing workforce, with LPN-to-BSN enrollment increasing more than sixfold and RN-to-BSN enrollment more than tripling. Approximately 60% of the college’s 2025 pre-licensure BSN graduates chose to begin their nursing careers at HSHS, including 90% of accelerated BSN graduates. The college is also exploring opportunities to expand access to pre-licensure nursing education across HSHS markets. These outcomes demonstrate the power of aligning educational capacity with workforce needs, creating a reliable pipeline of highly skilled, mission-driven nurses who are prepared to care for our patients from day one.
Beyond recruitment, these partnerships support workforce stability and professional growth through expanded clinical learning experiences, academic progression opportunities, and leadership development pathways. By investing in learners at every stage, from high school students exploring healthcare careers to nurses advancing their education, HSHS is not only addressing today’s workforce challenges but also developing the clinicians, educators, and leaders who will shape the future of healthcare across our ministries for years to come.
In tandem with workforce stability, access also depends on having the right services available to patients at the right time. HSHS recently entered into a joint venture with Lifepoint Rehabilitation to operate an inpatient rehabilitation hospital in the Green Bay, Wisconsin, area. This new 40-bed, free-standing facility addresses a growing regional need for inpatient rehabilitation care and features the only regional traumatic brain injury unit in Northeast Wisconsin. In addition to bringing national rehabilitation expertise to the region, this partnership also expands local access to acute care services, as it allows HSHS St. Vincent Hospital to repurpose its former 20-bed inpatient rehabilitation unit to support acute care demand.
In the year ahead, partnerships that strengthen the clinical workforce and enhance care continuity across the continuum will remain important opportunities for health systems seeking to expand access to care.
Matt Walsh. Executive Vice President and COO of Rush University System for Health (Chicago): Healthcare’s need for change continues to accelerate. No one organization has all the answers or capabilities necessary to continue to be successful. COOs need to identify the strengths they can build on and the gaps they must address to advance their missions. Opportunities for consolidation or partnership in the next 12 months are highly dependent on each organization’s strengths and gaps and their dedication to finding the right partners that provide complementary strengths and gaps.
Patrick Tuer. Executive Vice President and COO of Encompass Health (Birmingham, Ala.): Over the next 12 months, I see the greatest opportunity for growth through a combination of wholly owned developments and joint venture partnerships with health systems. Both models play an important role in expanding access to high-quality rehabilitation care, particularly in markets where demand is growing and communities need greater access to specialized post-acute services. Joint venture partnerships continue to be especially attractive because they create value for both organizations. Many health systems are evaluating how to best use their inpatient capacity and resources. A JV structure can allow an acute care partner to transition space currently dedicated to inpatient rehabilitation beds and repurpose it for other acute care services that may be needed in the community, while still ensuring patients have access to a high-quality rehabilitation hospital.
These partnerships align incentives around patient outcomes, quality and growth. They combine our rehabilitation expertise with the health system’s local presence, physician relationships and understanding of community needs. As a result, patients benefit from a more coordinated continuum of care, and communities gain access to both enhanced rehabilitation services and expanded acute care capacity.
More broadly, we view partnership and consolidation opportunities not simply as a way to grow, but as a way to build stronger, more integrated care networks. Whether through wholly owned hospitals or joint ventures, our focus is on entering markets where we can meet growing demand, improve access to care and deliver the clinical outcomes that patients and health system partners expect. The most successful opportunities will be those that leverage the strengths of each organization while creating long-term value for patients and the communities we serve.
Carol Gomes. CEO and COO of Stony Brook University Hospital (Stony Brook, N.Y.): Over the next 12 months, I see the greatest opportunity in partnerships that help health systems like Stony Brook adopt AI in a way that is practical and responsible. No health system should have to figure out issues like implementation, oversight and workforce readiness on its own. Working with technology partners and academic institutions can help us evaluate what works, build confidence among clinicians and introduce these tools where they can make a meaningful difference for patients.
