A few weeks ago someone sent me a copy of a whitepaper that was recently published by Deloitte titled, A look around the corner: Health care CEOs’ perspectives on the future. It’s definitely worth reading if you’re into this type of thing. But the most interesting part of the paper for me was the survey that asked a large group of healthcare CEOs what they viewed as their top near term challenges. Here were the top 10:

Facilitating physician alignment and integration into leadership roles
Reducing operating costs to respond to cuts from payers
Integrating non-acute services to become a system of care
Managing in uncertainty as a result of health reform, payer consolidation, fiscal constraints
Implementing health information technologies and integrating them into evidence-based care
Building new/non-conventional relationships with commercial health plans to share risk and savings
Engaging more directly with employers and consumers
Redesigning current acute clinical programs to be responsive to innovations in diagnostics and therapeutics
Engaging consumers in wellness, preventive health, and personal accountability
Protecting or enhancing the brand and reputation of the system

The recurring theme in this list speaks to the substantial change that healthcare executives are focused on: financial changes, facility changes, technological changes, payment model changes, and a larger focus on the patient and patient experience. This is an awesome time to be working in healthcare. This list should give us all hope that big change is on the way.