01/14/2026
2026 Thought Leadership: It’s Time to Rethink the Model of Care
As we move into 2026, one thing is clear:
healthcare doesn’t just need more resources — it needs a different mindset.
For decades, care has been designed around institutions instead of people, crisis instead of prevention, and availability instead of appropriateness. The result is familiar: burned-out clinicians, overwhelmed facilities, rising costs, and patients receiving care in settings that don’t truly serve them.
The question for 2026 isn’t “How do we staff this?”
It’s “Is this the right level of care in the first place?”
We’ve normalized using acute beds for social admissions, emergency departments for chronic management, high-cost agency staffing as a default, and licensed clinicians for tasks that don’t require their level of expertise. This isn’t just a workforce issue — it’s a care design failure. Overutilizing high-acuity, high-cost resources creates bottlenecks everywhere and delays care for those who truly need it.
The future model of care must be layered, not linear.
Right care, right time, right provider.
Community-first, not institution-first.
Designed to support people where they live — not only where we’ve built beds.
That means expanding community and home-based supports, valuing companions and aides alongside regulated professionals, and using technology to mobilize local workforces faster — not just document shortages. Institutional care remains essential, but it cannot be the centre of the system.
Aging in place isn’t a buzzword — it’s a system strategy. It works when supports are matched appropriately, workforce models are flexible and local, and care teams are supported before burnout sets in. This isn’t about doing less — it’s about doing what actually adds value.
2026 requires courageous reframing. More beds isn’t the answer. More agency spend isn’t sustainable. More technology without redesign won’t fix this.
The future belongs to systems that reallocate care, empower communities, and respect clinical expertise by using it where it matters most.
2026 isn’t about surviving healthcare challenges.
It’s about finally designing a system that makes sense.
