Jessica Crum-Global Entrepreneurs to Watch in 2026

Entrepreneurship often begins when professional experience makes a problem impossible to ignore. Dr Jessica Crum spent more than two decades working across nursing, patient flow, hospital operations and transfer-centre leadership, watching healthcare organisations struggle to connect available capacity with the patients who needed it. She saw how delays could emerge not from a lack of resources alone, but from disconnected workflows, unclear decisions and gaps between clinical and operational teams.

Roshira Insights grew from Crum’s decision to address those gaps beyond a single health system. The firm advises healthcare organisations on patient access, transfer-centre operations, enterprise capacity management, clinical workflows and technology-enabled decision support. Her operational leadership has contributed to 30% growth in referrals, a 33% increase in completed transfers and a 13% improvement in completion rates. Now, as Founder and Principal Advisor, Crum is turning years of frontline and executive experience into an entrepreneurial platform designed to help health systems solve complex access challenges at scale. TradeFlock Magazine explores how she is building Roshira Insights and the thinking shaping its next phase of growth.

What first shaped your understanding of patient access and healthcare leadership?

Sometimes, you understand a problem long before you know what to call it. I think that is what happened with me and healthcare access. As a child, my family sometimes travelled for hours to reach specialised care that was unavailable close to home. I did not think about it then as a question of healthcare operations or system design. I simply knew that getting the right care could require time, planning and uncertainty, and I could see what that meant for my family.

Years later, when I began working in patient flow, I started seeing the same issue from inside the system. I began as a patient flow supervisor at a progressive health system focused on throughput and access, then moved into patient flow and hospital operations director roles. Working across transfer centres and command centres made me realise how many decisions have to line up before a patient can actually move. Hurricane Ida brought that understanding into sharper focus because changing circumstances demanded quick decisions without losing sight of the person who needed care.

Looking back, I can see a question running through much of my career even though I never set out with a plan to answer it. How do we make a complex healthcare system work better for the person who is waiting? Roshira Insights grew from that question, with work spanning patient access, enterprise capacity management, transfer-centre strategy, command-centre operations, clinical workflows and technology enablement.

Where can AI make the greatest difference in healthcare operations?

My view of AI has become more measured as I have seen how complicated healthcare operations can be. AI can organise scattered information, anticipate demand, identify constraints and surface delays before they affect care. Used thoughtfully, it can extend human capability and give clinicians and operational leaders better information for decisions that still require judgment.

The concern begins when AI is asked to solve a problem that the operating model itself has not solved. Outdated service information, inaccurate schedules, inconsistent documentation, or unclear workflows can produce recommendations that sound confident but are neither safe nor useful. A sophisticated technology layer cannot compensate for unreliable information underneath it. That is why I believe governance has to develop alongside technology. AI should support clinical and operational judgment rather than replace it, which means dependable data, validation, transparency, and human oversight need to be built into how these systems are designed. Innovation becomes much more valuable when it helps people make safer, timely decisions while keeping responsibility with the people who understand their consequences.

“Access is a human need, and expanding it is how we can create meaningful impact.”

What operational change could make the greatest difference for patients and frontline teams?

The longer I worked around hospital operations, the more I noticed how much time frontline teams could lose simply trying to understand what was happening. Nurses, physicians, case managers and operational leaders might all be working toward the same outcome while searching for updates, reconciling information or reacting to barriers that could have been identified earlier.

A clinically led daily management model can change that by bringing the right people together around patients who need action that day. A shared, real-time plan gives each barrier an owner, a next step, an expected response time and a clear escalation pathway. Clarity matters because people should not have to rediscover the same information before they can act.

Technology and AI can strengthen that model by organising information, anticipating demand and surfacing exceptions. Clinicians gain more time for care while leaders can direct resources where they matter most. The goal is not simply operational efficiency. It is creating a system that supports the people providing care while remaining responsive to the people waiting for it.

What do you want Roshira Insights to become over the next five years?

I want Roshira Insights to grow without becoming disconnected from the reason it began. The opportunity I see is a trusted healthcare advisory and thought-leadership firm that can reach more organisations while preserving the personal, clinically grounded approach at the centre of our work.

I envision broader advisory partnerships, research, education, speaking and practical technology and AI solutions that help organisations improve access, strengthen care delivery and better support healthcare teams. Knowledge developed through one engagement should also have the potential to help another health system facing a similar challenge.

Scaling responsibly will matter because growth can create distance between a firm and the people it was created to serve. I am preparing by deepening strategic partnerships, developing practical frameworks and continuing to learn while building a foundation for thoughtful growth. My ambition is not simply to make Roshira larger. I want effective solutions to reach more organisations and communities while keeping the human reason behind the work firmly in view.

“Technology can extend what people are capable of doing, but responsibility still belongs with people.”

What do health systems still misunderstand about patient flow?

I have seen a bed look available on a dashboard and still not mean that a patient can actually move. The longer I worked in patient flow, the harder it became for me to see capacity as a bed-counting exercise. Staffing, diagnostics, discharge readiness, transportation, physician decisions and post-acute options can all determine whether capacity is genuinely available. That realisation also changed how I viewed technology. More information does not necessarily create better decisions when accountability is unclear or workflows are inconsistent. Someone still has to understand who owns the decision, what needs to happen next and when a barrier should be escalated.

Health systems can make a meaningful shift by treating flow as an enterprise clinical operating model rather than a function focused simply on moving patients faster. Shared measures, standard work, clear escalation pathways and earlier identification of barriers create the structure needed to make better decisions. The purpose is ultimately about helping each patient reach the right level of care, in the right place, at the right time.

What makes centralised transfer centres successful?

Centralising a transfer centre can look simple until you ask what happens after the call is answered. I learned that the real challenge is not where the call sits, but whether everyone involved understands what happens next. A centralised team can answer calls efficiently and still struggle when hospitals have different acceptance pathways, incomplete service information or unclear ownership of the next decision.

Strong models therefore require more than centralised staff. Sponsorship, clinical governance, accurate service information, defined decision rights, consistent processes and clear response expectations have to work together. Without that alignment, centralisation can create another handoff rather than a simpler path to care.

A prior enterprise role showed me what can happen when the operating model is redesigned alongside the transfer process. The work contributed to a 33% increase in completed transfers and a 13-percentage-point improvement in completion rate. The numbers demonstrate measurable progress, but the larger objective was creating a trusted network that could preserve specialised capacity while helping patients receive higher-acuity care and return closer to home when appropriate.

What have you learned about building teams and leading sustainable change?

I tend to notice the people who look beyond the responsibility written in their job description. They want to understand how their work affects the larger system, and they are willing to ask questions when something does not make sense. Curiosity matters to me because it keeps people learning, but it becomes much more valuable when paired with integrity, compassion, and accountability.

Frontline teams have also taught me to listen differently. People closest to the work often know where patients, information and decisions are becoming delayed long before a dashboard makes the problem visible. Trust grows when people feel heard and then see thoughtful follow-through. That understanding has shaped how I approach sustainable change. Meaningful outcomes, clear accountability, education, shared ownership, leadership presence and humility all matter because transformation cannot be sustained by strategy alone. Every operational decision ultimately affects a human life, and I want that understanding to remain visible in how Roshira approaches healthcare strategy and technology.

What has entrepreneurship changed about the way you lead?

Earlier in my career, I often believed dedication meant continually giving more of myself. Looking back, I would have been more intentional about protecting my own well-being while pursuing meaningful change. Caring deeply about the work can make it easy to carry every challenge personally, particularly when the problems involve people and systems you genuinely want to improve.

Entrepreneurship has added another dimension to that lesson. Leaving the structure and certainty of an established organisation means making decisions before every answer is available while carrying responsibility for the direction, reputation and future of the business. Building something publicly also requires a level of vulnerability I did not fully appreciate before becoming a founder.

Roshira has made me more comfortable trusting my experience and instincts while still gathering the best information available. I have learned to move thoughtfully, adjust as I learn and remain grounded in purpose. Uncertainty becomes more manageable when decisions stay connected to integrity, service and the value I hope to create.