Preparing for the Next Normal Now: How Health Systems Can Adopt a Growth Transformation in the COVID-19 World

Health systems have been at the epicenter of the fight against COVID-19 and have had to balance the need to alleviate suffering and save lives with substantial financial pressures.

Health systems’ income statements are likely to see negative pressure as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. While health systems have ramped up capacity to handle COVID-19 cases and incurred additional costs to procure personal protective equipment and operationalize surge capacity plans, they also have had declines of up to 70 percent in surgical volume and 60 percent in emergency department traffic.

In a recent McKinsey survey of health system CFOs, more than 90 percent of respondents reported that COVID-19 would have a negative financial impact, even after accounting for federal and state funding.