Today, healthcare providers everywhere are under pressure to do more with less. That pressure is increasing every day. Multiple factors are at work:
Patient populations are evolving.
Populations are aging globally. By 2030, the number of people in the world aged 60 years or more is expected to approach 1.5 billion. By 2050, the number is expected to reach 2 billion. In the U.S., the population over the age of 65 is expected to grow from about 50 million today to nearly 100 million by 2060.1 Urbanization is another factor at work. More than half of the world’s population now lives in cities.2 Urban health systems are finding it difficult to keep pace with their growing constituencies, particularly in places where rapid urbanization is resulting in living situations not conducive to health or budget restrictions prevent an investment in additional hospitals.
