Service line rationalization is the decision health systems keep not making. But postponing it isn’t a failure of vision or nerve. In the moment, waiting may be the rational call, even though the consequences of delay accumulate over time.
Strategy Catalyst put the question of service line rationalization directly to 27 strategy leaders across 16 member health systems. They candidly told us what they were doing and were even more eager to learn from their peers. Selective service reduction, even when the goal was geographic consolidation, not closure, was a sensitive topic. Many admitted that it might be inevitable but still felt unprepared to address it. The conversations revealed why that deferral is so durable. Below are the four key roadblocks: