Hospitals serve as the lifeblood of our communities, delivering essential healthcare services to millions while also providing critical jobs nationwide. However, many of these indispensable institutions face severe financial strain. Nearly 40% of American hospitals expect to continue losing money from operations into 2024, with almost 80% operating at or near break-even. This precarious financial situation poses a significant threat to the sustainability of our healthcare system and, by
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Managing Technical Debt in Healthcare: A Guide for Hospitals and Health Systems
Organizations of every size and industry experience challenges associated with technical debt, which refers to future costs and inefficiencies resulting from not retiring outmoded IT applications.
The challenges are particularly acute for hospitals and health systems, especially in the wake of increased activity related to mergers and acquisitions (M&A). According to healthcare consultants Kaufman Hall, hospital and health system M&A activity increased 23% in 2023 to 65 announced
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Third-Party Cyberattacks: The Healthcare Sector’s Achilles’ Heel
The healthcare industry's continual digital revolution requires it to increasingly rely on third-party vendors for everything from electronic health records to telehealth platforms. While these partnerships offer undeniable benefits like improved patient care, cost savings and efficiency, they also expose healthcare organizations to third-party, or supply chain, cyberattacks.
The numbers are sobering. A recent analysis of data breaches by Security Scorecard for its Global Third-Party
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How ePaper Digital Whiteboards are Improving the Patient Experience
The link between patient experience and health outcomes is well-established: positive interactions enhance communication, adherence, and reduce readmissions, ultimately leading to improved results and greater provider profitability, according to a 2023 report from the National Library of Medicine. However, in the fast-paced hospital environment, particularly in the Emergency Department (ED), maintaining patient comfort can be challenging. Effective patient experiences also require swift,
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Unpacking Medicare Advantage Terminations and How Plans Can Navigate Them
The U.S. healthcare system has been undergoing its own stress test. Stakeholders are currently experiencing a variety of pressures with a primary focus on finances, including administrative costs. The COVID-19 pandemic is often used as a convenient delimiter for the emergence of these problems, but in reality, tensions were brewing long before now and were caused by a variety of factors. Medicare Advantage (MA) is facing the headwinds of these issues – and as a result, MA
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5 Cybersecurity Strategies for Remote Patient Monitoring Systems
Remote patient monitoring systems have unlocked new standards of care. They can reduce lines in hospital waiting rooms, streamline checkups and enable fast, personalized treatments for improved health outcomes. However, they also present a growing cybersecurity risk.
Cyberattacks against health care are an increasingly frequent problem — 2023 saw the highest number of data breaches and the most leaked information on record. Wearables and other remote monitoring devices may add fuel to the
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Healthcare as a Right: How AI is Shaping Global Access
The World Health Organization estimates that by 2030, the world will face a shortage of approximately 10 million healthcare workers globally if health systems do not make significant changes. This looming crisis threatens to leave millions without accessible, quality care, potentially leading to devastating consequences for individuals and communities worldwide. Luckily, AI tools are providing innovative solutions to this issue in a variety of ways that can alleviate the administrative burden on
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Bed Shortages: How AI Can Help Reduce Length of Stay in Hospitals
Length of stay management in acute care facilities represents a critical frontier for providers and payers to improve their own bottom lines, and also improve patients’ experience with the healthcare system.
Let’s take a closer look at how today’s systemic inefficiencies arose, and how collaboration within provider networks, and between payers and providers, might improve length-of-stay procedures and inefficiencies in the future.
Acute care facility bed shortages, and how they
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AI in Healthcare: Balancing Automation with Human Expertise
AI holds immense promise in healthcare, from improving patient care and operational efficiency to early disease detection and personalized treatment plans. AI's potential in a patient-centered environment hinges on understanding its capabilities, limitations, and the critical role of human oversight. While AI can greatly enhance human abilities, it is not infallible and cannot replace human expertise. Recognizing and preparing for AI's predictable (and unpredictable) outputs, ensuring
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Revitalizing Medicare Advantage: How The Push to Streamline Prior Authorization Will Impact Senior Care
As a physician, the odds that you’ve had a negative experience related to the prior authorization process are (unfortunately) highly likely. According to the American Medical Association’s (AMA) 2023 Prior Authorization Physician Survey, 1 in 4 physicians report that prior auths “have led to a serious adverse event for a patient in their care.” Think about the toll that this takes on professionals whose primary job is providing lifesaving care, and the thing preventing this care is outside their
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