The physical therapy profession, encompassing both Physical Therapists (PTs) and Physical Therapist Assistants (PTAs), is navigating through a period of unprecedented challenge. Recent data highlights concerning trends - not only did the sector see the departure of 15,000 PTs, or 11% of the existing workforce, between 2021 and 2022, but there has also been a consistent 5% annual decrease in applicants to PT programs over the last three to four years. These developments signal an urgent need for
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Health IT & Digital Health-Opinion | Op-Eds | Guest Columns | Analysis, Insights - HIT Consultant
How Beautiful Questions and HRO Principles Enhance Patient Safety
Healthcare often seems like a volume game. How many patients can a doctor see? How long can be spent with each one? How many operations can be performed, or how quickly can beds be turned? There are very slim margins — and most decisions are data-driven. But what if there’s more to it?
If we ask the right questions that challenge current norms and combine those answers with what we learn from analytics, we can identify root causes, address practices, and adjust routines — even in small ways.
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Democratizing Healthcare: How Telehealth and AI Are Transforming Access and Affordability
Each year, the financial barriers to healthcare continue to become more pronounced in the US. For example, the health expenditure per person in the US was $12,555 in 2022, with comparable countries spending about half of that. These costs can put such strain on Americans that a 2023 poll from KFF found that one in four adults will outright skip or postpone getting healthcare, which rises to six in ten among uninsured adults.
There are other accessibility barriers to
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Heart Disease: Still the Silent Killer Despite Prevention Options
Given the attention paid to the devastating impact of COVID-19, one might assume it was the leading cause of death in the US. But while the fatalities were stark – almost 1.2 million Americans died of COVID in the last 4 years – heart disease remains the largest cause of death and by a landslide. In 2021, the year with the most COVID-19 deaths (416,893), heart disease claimed 60% more lives (695,000) in the US. Perhaps more, striking, however, is that many, if most, of these deaths, were
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The Evolution of CPQ in Healthcare: 8 Emerging Trends to Watch
Worldwide, today’s leading healthcare organizations are embracing digital transformation. The implementation of Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ) solutions is a major component of these business evolutions. Any organization aiming to enhance operational efficiency and bolster patient care now sees a finely-tuned CPQ system as table stakes. With an eye toward the future, healthcare and life sciences (HLS) organizations integrating CPQ are set to fundamentally alter traditional care delivery and
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The Rise of Digital Rehab: Tech Solutions for Senior Recovery
Future-forward technologies have traditionally been associated with sci-fi narratives and cutting-edge software companies, often overlooking their potential to transform a wide array of industries beyond entertainment and tech.
The senior care sector, particularly in the realm of short-term rehabilitation, is witnessing a transformative wave thanks to these cutting-edge applications. Imagine a scenario where your loved one benefits from rehabilitation not only through traditional methods but
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Innovative AM Strategies for Fast-Tracking a Device’s Path to Market
Advancements in 3D printing technologies and build strategies have made it possible for medical device manufacturers to accelerate innovation—from concept to commercialization. Additive manufacturing (AM) has become more cost-competitive with traditional manufacturing thanks to new, more efficient 3D printers, expanded options for materials, proven validation processes, software with deep learning algorithms, regulatory master files, and more. Tipping the scale in AM's favor is the ability to
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The ‘Holy Grail’ of Coding Automation: Why Inpatient AI is Around The Corner
Autonomous inpatient coding. This may sound like a pipe dream for revenue cycle leaders, whose hopes were likely raised and crushed in the early aughts. But it's coming sooner than most think.
Why is true inpatient coding automation the "holy grail" – as Kerry Gillespie, a former CFO at Intermountain Health and now an executive consultant at Warbird Consulting Partners, said to me at a Healthcare Financial Management Association roundtable last year?
For decades, inpatient services have
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Is ‘Float Pool’ Nursing the Way Out of the Staffing Shortage?
It’s no secret that health systems across the U.S. continue to struggle with the nurse shortage despite concerted efforts from federal officials to grow the workforce. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services projected that the demand for registered nurses would hit more than 3.6 million by the year 2030 – meaning that the field would have needed to add nearly 50,000 new registered nurses each year since 2014 to meet that demand.
While the use of
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Strengthening Cybersecurity Preparedness for Small Organizations: Lessons from the Change Healthcare Ransomware Attack
Here we go again. The US health system is in a desperate cybersecurity state of affairs. Another healthcare cyberattack has made the news and it’s a big one. UnitedHealth Group’s technology unit, Change Healthcare, is currently facing an ongoing ransomware attack which has reverberated through healthcare systems and affected prescription deliveries. This should raise red flags for all healthcare organizations regardless of their size, but particularly for smaller organizations with
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