Hospitals
-
Drug Shortages Not Only Exacerbate Healthcare Burnout But Can Also Harm Patient Care
The second quarter of 2023 ended with 309 active drug shortages, the highest total in nearly a decade, according to a new report from ASHP. One of the organization’s executives pointed out that drug shortages have two major impacts on health systems: they create a lot of extra work for the pharmacy department, and they force clinicians to make tough decisions about patient care that could potentially result in worse patient outcomes.
-
Improving health in one of the most complex and costly chronic conditions
Kidney care in the U.S. needs an overhaul. Changing today’s expensive, disconnected care model requires moving from volume to value.
Misha Palecek, Chief Transformation Officer, DaVita Kidney Care
-
CMS Lowers No Surprises Act Fee After Court Nixes Price Hike
CMS recently announced that it will change the administrative fee that providers and insurers must pay when initiating a reimbursement dispute under the No Surprises Act — the agency is lowering the fee from $350 to $50. This move came a week after the Texas Medical Association won a court case challenging HHS over its 600% price hike on the fee.
-
HHS Launches Civil Rights Investigation Into Vanderbilt’s Sharing of Transgender Patient Data
Vanderbilt University Medical Center is under federal investigation after it turned transgender patients’ medical records over to Tennessee’s attorney general. HHS launched the investigation a couple weeks after two VUMC patients filed a class-action lawsuit against the hospital for releasing their records to the attorney general.
-
What Providers Need to Know About Fighting the Nursing Shortage Through Tech
A new Accenture report laid out considerations that hospitals should keep in mind as they adopt new technology aimed at improving nurse retention. Some of the report’s key recommendations for providers were to build a strong, cloud-based technology infrastructure and to involve nurses early on in the process of adopting a new digital tool.
-
Artificial Intelligence, Health Tech, Hospitals, Legal
Senator Probes Google About ‘Premature Deployment of Unproven Technology’ In Healthcare Settings
Senator Mark Warner (D-Virginia) penned a letter to Google leadership expressing concerns about Med-PaLM 2 — the company’s generative AI tool for healthcare providers that is currently being used by Mayo Clinic and other health systems. The letter requested that Google provide more clarity about its chatbot’s training, accuracy, ethical considerations and deployment in healthcare settings.
-
How Did The 3 Biggest For-Profit Hospital Chains Perform in Q2?
HCA and Tenet reported net incomes for the second quarter, while CHS posted a net loss. All three health systems found themselves in a better financial position in Q2 2023 than they were in Q2 of last year, driven in large part by declining contract labor expenses.
-
Hospitals Still Struggling to Get Back Online 4 Days After Cyberattack on Prospect Medical Holdings
Hospitals and outpatient treatment centers in at least three states are struggling to get their systems back online following a ransomware attack waged last week against parent company Prospect Medical Holdings. Some of these facilities have partially or completely halted patient care.
-
Health Tech, Hospitals, Pharmacy
Which Drugs Are Driving Next Year’s 3.42% Increase in Hospital Pharmacy Spend?
Hospitals’ pharmacy spending is projected to rise by 3.42% next year, according to a new report. Specialty drugs, including Ozempic and Humira, as well as neurology medications are the primary drivers of this increase in pharmacy expenses.
-
Clinical Care Capacity Planning
Learn how to manage clinical care capacity more efficiently during uncertain times.
-
Geisinger Launches Heart Failure Monitoring Program Using Bodyport’s Smart Scale
Geisinger is launching a pilot program in partnership with virtual heart failure monitoring startup Bodyport. About 200 of the health system’s heart failure patients will be using Bodyport’s cardiac scale at home — the scale uses sensors to measure a person’s metrics of heart function and body fluid status after they stand on it for about 20 seconds.
-
Health Tech, Hospitals, Startups
Rush Launches Program to Scale RPM for Chronic Conditions Management
Chicago-based Rush University System for Health recently struck a partnership with Cadence — the health system is beginning an RPM pilot using the startup’s technology platform and clinicians. Rush will enroll Medicare and Medicaid patients who have one or more of the following chronic conditions: hypertension, congestive heart failure and type 2 diabetes.
-
‘We Can Be More Selective About Who We Treat’: UHS CFO’s Comments Spark Concerns About Cherry-Picking
Last week, the CFO of Universal Health Services stated that the company chooses which patients to treat based on whose insurance plans offer the highest payments. The comments have sparked some media attention, but healthcare finance experts say the practice of cherry-picking patients is nothing new to the industry.
-
Hospital Downtime Planning: The Right Strategy & Technology to Ensure Uninterrupted Patient Care
It’s never a question of whether a hospital will experience downtime — it’s a matter of when. Adopting the right downtime technology means hospitals can cut costs, reduce stress on staff and mitigate risk of cyberattack by automatically encrypting data to HIPAA standards.
-
How Geisinger, UNC Health Are Deploying Predictive Algorithms
Executives from Geisinger and UNC Health discussed the most impactful ways they have deployed predictive AI across their health systems during a recent virtual panel. At Geisinger, these predictive algorithms are reducing avoidable emergency department admissions, and at UNC, they are helping to identify sepsis before it becomes severe.
-
NorthShore Study Proves Hospitals Can Save Millions by Providing Post-Discharge Psychosocial Support
NorthShore University HealthSystem teamed up with Laguna Health in 2021 to study whether greater post-acute care support can improve patient recovery and reduce readmissions. The research partners recently released results of the study, which found that giving patients emotional and psychological support after their discharge hastens recovery, decreases costs and alleviates physician burnout.