Overview
Healthcare organizations are increasingly rethinking service delivery models to create capacity, access specialized expertise, and support growing operational demands. Mickey Davis explains how managed services partnerships that include a global network of talent can help organizations scale support, reduce complexity, and carry critical work from major initiatives through long-term operations.
Key takeaways
- Healthcare organizations are rethinking delivery models as growing technology demands outpace available capacity and specialized expertise.
- The most effective delivery models combine additional capacity, specialized skills, and shared accountability to support work across the full lifecycle.
- Healthcare leaders should evaluate delivery models based on adaptability, continuity, accountability, and measurable outcomes.
Over the last several years, I’ve had countless conversations with healthcare leaders who are working to keep critical initiatives moving while balancing competing priorities across their teams.
Whether you’re advancing IT roadmaps, strengthening cybersecurity, supporting AI initiatives, or maintaining the systems clinicians rely on every day, you’re likely looking for ways to scale support without creating additional complexity.
As demands grow, capacity can become strained, projects may lose momentum, persistent system issues may remain unresolved, and short-term fixes may take precedence over improvements that deliver lasting value.
These challenges are also unfolding within an unforgiving financial environment. According to the American Hospital Association, compensation and related expenses account for 56% of total hospital costs. For technology leaders, that pressure raises the stakes around every investment and makes connecting additional capacity to measurable value even more important.
Healthcare leaders need delivery models that can adapt as priorities change without sacrificing quality, accountability, or continuity. That’s one reason many organizations are taking a closer look at how work is delivered and supported across their technology environments.
Healthcare leaders aren’t just looking for more capacity. They’re looking for access to the specialized expertise needed to keep critical initiatives moving.
Why are healthcare organizations rethinking delivery models?
Healthcare organizations are looking beyond traditional resource models to sustain progress across a growing portfolio of priorities.
A managed services delivery model that offers global talent can help hospitals and health systems expand capacity and access specialized expertise that may not be readily available in every market. Whether supporting an EHR or enterprise resource planning (ERP) initiative, advancing cloud modernization, expanding analytics capabilities, or preparing for AI-enabled transformation, leaders can tap into the skills they need while maintaining a coordinated, resilient approach to delivery.
With clear ownership, shared standards, robust governance, and effective collaboration, organizations can:
- Adjust support as priorities and workloads evolve
- Align the right expertise across the full lifecycle of work
- Build greater resilience into technology operations
- Enable teams across locations to operate as one
The shift from augmentation to ownership
One of the biggest changes I’m seeing in the industry is the evolution of what healthcare organizations expect from service providers. Healthcare leaders are increasingly looking for dedicated, healthcare-experienced service providers and end-to-end partners that understand their environment and can assume responsibility.
The expectation has shifted from task execution to shared ownership.
The expectation has shifted from task execution to shared ownership. A long-term partner should do more than complete assigned tasks or maintain current performance. They should help organizations address root causes, improve performance, and build stronger technology foundations for the future.
Expansion, not replacement
Successful managed services partnerships don’t have to be an either-or decision between internal teams and external delivery partners. A 2024 WittKieffer survey found that 68% of healthcare CIOs planned to expand or maintain their internal IT staffing levels, while 87% reported outsourcing less than one-quarter of their IT functions. The findings point to a more nuanced strategy in which organizations continue investing in internal talent while using external delivery models to add capabilities where they are needed.
Successful managed services partnerships expand organizational capabilities. They don’t replace internal teams.
When aligned to shared goals and outcomes, internal and external teams can complement one another, helping organizations scale support while maintaining continuity across projects, operations, and long-term services. Patients, clinicians, and operational stakeholders ultimately benefit from stronger, more reliable technology environments.
How should healthcare leaders evaluate delivery models and partners?
You may need to redesign your delivery models when critical projects regularly compete with operational demands, support needs change faster than the current model can accommodate, or accountability becomes fragmented across multiple vendors.
Whether evaluating a potential partner or a broader delivery approach, consider how the model is designed and how success will ultimately be measured.
The right delivery model should create capacity, provide access to specialized expertise, and improve outcomes over time.
Questions to ask upfront
Is the partner healthcare-focused?
Healthcare organizations operate in a uniquely complex environment shaped by clinical workflows, regulatory requirements, patient care priorities, and evolving technology demands. Look for a partner with deep healthcare experience and a demonstrated understanding of how technology decisions affect clinicians, staff, and patients.
Can the model adapt as priorities change?
Evaluate whether support can scale across both major initiatives and day-to-day operational requirements.
How will knowledge carry forward?
Understand how project context, decisions, and lessons learned will transfer into optimization and long-term support.
Who is accountable for outcomes?
Look for clear ownership that extends beyond delivering individual tasks or filling defined roles.
Is the partner clear on the outcomes you want to achieve?
The strongest partnerships start with a shared understanding of success. Whether the goal is improving operational performance, creating additional capacity, advancing strategic initiatives, or increasing value from technology investments, your partner should understand the outcomes you’re aiming for and be able to align services accordingly.
How should success be measured?
The value of a delivery model should ultimately be reflected in measurable outcomes, including:
- Progress against project milestones and strategic roadmaps
- Reductions in delays, duplicated effort, and avoidable rework
- Fewer transitions and handoffs among vendors
- Consistent service quality and operational performance
- The ability to adjust support as priorities change
- Continuity from implementation through long-term operations
- Resolution of recurring issues and underlying performance problems
- Greater value from existing technology investments
These measures connect additional capacity to operational and financial results while establishing a clearer foundation for accountability.
Why Nordic continues to invest in global managed services
At Nordic, we believe healthcare organizations shouldn’t need different partners for different stages of the work.
Whether supporting a large-scale transformation, optimizing an existing environment, or providing ongoing operational services, our goal is to deliver a seamless experience through one integrated team.
That’s why we continue to invest in our global delivery capabilities, including the recent expansion of our team in Querétaro, Mexico. The new location strengthens our ability to support our clients while maintaining the healthcare-focused expertise, consistency, and accountability they expect. Nordic’s Mexico location supports client needs across Epic services, managed services, digital transformation, cloud and infrastructure operations, data and analytics, and emerging AI-enabled healthcare solutions.
We operate as one Nordic team across the United States, Canada, Europe, the Philippines, and Mexico. Regardless of location, our teams work within a unified delivery model designed to support complex initiatives, ongoing operations, and the transition between them.
Our goal extends beyond adding resources. We help healthcare organizations move priorities forward, improve performance, address underlying issues, and create stronger technology environments over time.
Looking ahead
Hospitals and health systems will continue to manage growing demands across technology, operations, data, security, and innovation. Delivery needs to evolve alongside those priorities.
For healthcare leaders, the key question is how to build a model that can adapt as organizational needs change, carry work from complex initiatives through ongoing operations, and strengthen the technology environment over time.
The right delivery model can be part of that answer when teams share ownership, consistent standards, and healthcare-focused expertise across locations. Â Additional capacity then becomes a foundation for stronger performance, greater resilience, and sustainable progress.
FAQ
Q: Why are healthcare organizations rethinking their delivery models?
A: Healthcare organizations are looking for ways to expand capacity, access specialized expertise, and maintain progress across strategic initiatives and ongoing operations. Many are evaluating delivery models that can adapt as priorities change while reducing complexity and preserving continuity.
Q: Are managed services partnerships primarily about cost savings?
A: Cost may be one consideration, but healthcare organizations are increasingly evaluating managed services partnerships based on their ability to provide scalability, continuity, specialized expertise, and long-term operational support.
Q: Do managed services replace internal teams?
A: Successful managed services partnerships expand organizational capabilities. They provide additional capacity and expertise while working alongside internal teams to support evolving operational and technology needs.
Q: How can a managed services model reduce complexity?
A: A managed services delivery model can reduce complexity by limiting unnecessary handoffs, preserving knowledge across project and operational work, and providing clear accountability throughout the lifecycle of engagement.
Q: What should healthcare organizations look for in a managed services partner?
A: Healthcare leaders should evaluate the partner’s healthcare expertise, governance model, accountability, ability to scale, approach to knowledge continuity, and capacity to support both complex initiatives and long-term operations.
Ready to create more capacity without adding complexity? Schedule a 1:1 consultation with the Nordic team to discuss how the right delivery model can help your organization scale support, strengthen operations, and keep critical priorities moving.
About the authors
Mickey Davis is president of Managed Services at Nordic, where he leads the company’s healthcare managed services and global delivery strategy. He brings extensive experience in healthcare IT, technology operations, and large-scale service delivery, helping healthcare organizations build capacity, improve performance, and navigate complex technology priorities.