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What does your strategic plan say for the next 5 years?

Victor Basso

Article Summary
  • The coming years will bring intense changes to hospitals, with advances in automation, AI, telemedicine, CDSS, and IoT.
  • Future challenges facing the sector include a shortage of qualified professionals, burnout, waste, slow progress in quality and patient safety, litigation, claim denials, and rising costs.
  • For mid-sized hospitals, the investment required over the next five years could range from R$ 24 million to R$ 46 million.
  • Key investment areas include digital infrastructure, automation, AI, training, decision support, telemedicine, and IoT.
  • Three pillars are essential for making this feasible: qualified personnel, a culture open to innovation, and investment resources.
  • The most practical way to free up resources is to reduce waste through Lean Healthcare.
  • Reducing inventory and inefficiencies can unlock significant capital and help fund this transformation.
  • The central message is clear: without strategic planning, a culture of innovation, and efficiency, it will be more difficult to keep up with the future of the sector.

The future and recent technologies are closer than we think. They will bring convenience and progress, but will we have the Capex to keep up? How much money are we talking about? Which sectors will provide the best ROI? What should be our first step?

What are the sector’s main pains? It has not been easy to find qualified staff, and many professionals are suffering from burnout. Process automation, with or without AI, and digitalization are increasingly important tasks, yet we do not have a comprehensive strategy for them. There are many wastes across multiple processes. Improvements in quality and patient safety are still not gaining momentum. Lean Healthcare remains an idea that has not taken off. Legal processes, claim denials, and an aging population increase our costs without compensation. And now, we face a true tsunami of technological changes that will demand high investments — which, at the moment, are not available.

In the face of such a challenge, we need a well-defined plan and strategy.

Naturally, in such a scenario, it is common to feel overwhelmed — which further contributes to burnout. The main causes are increasing complexity, scarcity of resources, and the absence of a more adaptive mindset open to innovation.

In my latest book — Healthcare Mindset for Exponential Times (200 pages) — I propose a range of solutions, from new business models to a shift towards a more transparent, horizontal, and innovation-friendly culture. You can download the book for free from our platform Opuspac University (opuspac.university.com), our contribution to the healthcare sector, where all materials are freely available, since our business is Hospital Automation.

From here, let’s focus on a specific category: hospitals with approximately 50 beds, serving both SUS patients and private-paying clients. This scope excludes high-end hospitals that do not work with SUS, as well as 100% public hospitals or those directly managed by governments.

In this context, have you already estimated the necessary investment for the next 5 years, considering the arrival of new technologies?

Do you already know how to secure these resources or have a strategic plan to achieve them?

The total value, in this case, may range from 24 to 46 million reais, approximately distributed, from 10% to 25%, across:

  • Digital Infrastructure
  • Automation, RPA, and AI
  • Training
  • Tools to improve analytical decision-making, CDSS
  • Telemedicine and remote monitoring
  • Infrastructure and IoT

It is not essential that these numbers match yours exactly. What matters is that you have your own estimates and a plan to make them feasible.

In other words, to face the upcoming scenarios, the following will be necessary: A) qualified personnel — technical, clinical, and managerial; B) a new culture (or mindset) more open to innovation and the assimilation of the new; and C) available investments.

While we build a group of innovative leaders, it will be necessary to secure Capex. Applying Lean Healthcare techniques to reduce waste is the easiest path. Although not the main source of funding, the most immediate measure may be stock reduction, which usually ranges from 45 to 20 days. This step could free up approximately 4 million reais in capital.

Reducing waste could free approximately 8 million per year, or a total of 40 million over 5 years, very close to the amount required for this investment. The estimated waste is 30%, where our calculations include all activities that do not add value to the client, whether the patient or the next process.

No less important are the costs of poor quality and errors that cause harm to patients — according to WHO, these events represent up to 15% of hospital expenses (source: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/the-economics-of-patient-safety_761f2da8-en.html).

To dive deeper into this subject, we recommend the works Lean Healthcare Culture (waste reduction), Healthcare Mindset for Exponential Times, and Patient Safety, all by the same author and freely available at https://opuspac-university.com.

Conclusion

Considering that, over the next five years, Brazilian hospitals will need to invest millions of reais in digital infrastructure, automation, training, CDSS, telemedicine, and IoT, it is evident that infrastructure will continue to be essential to ensure safe and integrated systems. Automation, in turn, will play a crucial role in expanding operational efficiency. Waste reduction must be considered an indispensable element for the success of this entire process.

In this scenario, it is essential that managers build their tribe, abandon conservatism, and adopt a strong culture of innovation and quality. And the investment will emerge!

Sources

What does your strategic plan say for the next 5 years?

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