Healthcare organizations have access to a wealth of data, yet 92% of healthcare professionals say organizations should do more to leverage financial and operational data to inform strategic decisions, according to a recent report.
Integrating financial analytics into decision-making processes is increasingly vital as hospitals and health systems nationwide contend with high costs, narrow margins, shifts in patient demand, and other financial and operational pressures. Doing so, however,
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Health IT & Digital Health-Opinion | Op-Eds | Guest Columns | Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
AI Agents in Healthcare: Retaining Talent, Improving Patient Care
The aging population is creating an unprecedented demand for healthcare services while the available healthcare workforce is declining. Meanwhile, the healthcare system continues to rely heavily on manual processes which have to date been powered by people. After a patient visit, a healthcare provider typically requires a full administration team to manage data across various systems, just to receive reimbursement
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Efficiently Sustainable: How Hospitals Can Create Operational Sustainability
If any sector requires process improvement, it’s healthcare. There are well publicized NHS waiting list woes and A&E delays, but behind these figures are workforce and operational issues that create real stress on clinical staff and impacts patient satisfaction.
Nurses spend 10% of their time searching for equipment (according to a 2009 study) and sadly little has changed in more than a decade. Another study also revealed nurses claim that they experience “16-30% preventable wasted
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The CISO Connector: Bridging Business Goals, Operations, and Security in Healthcare
The role of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) has evolved far beyond traditional cybersecurity responsibilities, especially in healthcare organizations. Today, a CISO must be positioned as a vital connector, aligning business goals, operational efficiency, and security needs. This strategic role is essential not only for breaking down siloes between security and operations teams, but also for fostering organization-wide adaptability, strategic thinking, and a holistic understanding
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Adopting Uniform National Provider Directory Standards Will Promote Interoperability
The concept of interoperable care centers on the ability of providers to share patient information. Still, providers continue to find navigating the exchange of patient data difficult.
A 2019 data brief from the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology underscores the interoperability challenges that clinicians face:
85% find it challenging to exchange data with EHRs that aren’t theirs73% use multiple systems or portals to exchange data71% of referral partners
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Balancing User Experience and Technical Complexity in Surgical Software Design
In healthcare, the impact of well-designed medical devices reaches far beyond their physical form. When these devices are thoughtfully crafted with the end-user in mind, they become catalysts for efficiency and accuracy in diagnoses and treatments. A symbiosis of clear interfaces, intuitive controls, and an overall positive user experience not only propel healthcare professionals toward optimal care delivery but also alleviates the challenge of navigating cumbersome
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The Road Ahead for Healthcare Finance Leaders: Navigating Challenges in AI Adoption & Data Quality
The road ahead for healthcare leaders continues to be fraught with challenges. According to a recent McKinsey survey, health system executives see digital and AI transformation as crucial to overcoming ongoing challenges such as rising costs, workforce shortages, aging populations, and increasing competition from nontraditional players. While AI, traditional machine learning, and deep learning are projected to result in net savings of $200 billion to $360 billion in healthcare spending, 75% of
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The Imperative to Stay the Course on Value-Based Transformation
Is value-based care still the right strategy to reduce U.S. healthcare costs? Or is it time to move to what comes next in the generation-long battle to constrain total medical spending?
The question is being increasingly asked and with good reason. For 2024 medical costs are projected to rise 7.0% year over year for Individual and Group markets. That is greater than the medical cost trend in 2022 and 2023, which was 5.5% and 6.0%, respectively, and adds to a decade-plus of at least 5.5% per
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Breaking the Vicious Cycle of Hospital Staffing
Matt Dane, Senior Vice President, Business Development, Hallmark Health Care Solutions
The healthcare labor market is in the middle of a fundamental shift. Healthcare workers are looking for greater flexibility and balance when it comes to their working arrangements, which poses significant challenges for nurse recruitment and retention. At the same time, traditional staffing models employed by large healthcare providers, which have heavily relied on staffing agencies to fill labor gaps, have
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Small Language Models vs. Large Language Models: Which is Better for Healthcare?
Large language models (LLMs) use AI to reply to questions in a conversational manner. Our friend ChatGPT is an LLM. It can reply to an uncapped range of queries because it taps into one billion or more parameters of data. Small language models (SLMs) are their pocket-sized cousins.
An SLM specializes in tasks associated with smaller, more focused datasets. For instance, a hospital could leverage an SLM to enhance clinical documentation. How? By training the SLM on the patient’s
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