Roughly two-thirds of healthcare IT teams describe themselves as strained or stuck in constant "firefighting" mode. Only a small fraction — under one in five — say they're comfortably managing operations. The word "firefighting" itself is arguably misleading — it implies chaos and surprise, when in reality much of the strain comes from planned work that simply never lets up. Vendor releases. Security patches. New integrations. There's no season when the building isn't under construction.
That distinction matters. A fire eventually goes out. Continuous construction doesn't — it just becomes the baseline condition of the job.
