The healthcare system's climate practices are costing high sums of money — and are taking years off lives — according to a Sept. 15 report from the House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee. 

As health care technology and clinical documentation requirements become more complex, health systems must find ways to enable physicians to maintain a high level of quality in their documentation, while keeping their primary focus on the patient. Ambient intelligence solutions, built on natural language understanding (NLU), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies can help.  

Amid provider shortages and a fierce competition for talent, employee attraction and retention has become a top priority for healthcare leaders. 

Rural healthcare systems have faced significant financial challenges for decades and many strategies and tools that have historically been used by larger health systems have been unavailable to smaller, rural organizations. This is finally changing. By tapping into these solutions, rural health systems can improve their pricing, productivity and overall financial health.

In the wake of lessons learned during the early phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals are now rethinking traditional design and prioritizing flexible spaces to bolster surge capacity and isolation in future infectious disease outbreaks, The New Times reported Sept. 13. 

Charlotte, N.C.-based Novant Health has set quantitative goals to further environmental sustainability within its organization. 

Providing a superb patient experience requires skillfully integrating many technological and clinical elements of healthcare, such that they create a seamless journey. Organizations have at their disposal one key lever that makes this complex task considerably easier: a consolidated electronic health record (EHR).

Binesh Batra, MD, has been named COO of the medical foundation that is creating a single enterprise organization in Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente's Colorado and Washington state markets, according to a leadership announcement shared with Becker's Sept. 9.

A Kaiser Health News analysis of federal data published Sept. 9 highlights an increasing trend among hospitals — establishing independent, nonprofit health center "look-alikes" for primary care patients to improve their financial picture.

Providence Holy Family Hospital in Spokane, Wash., is implementing changes in its maternity center with the intention of improving communication between patients, nurses and physicians, the Spokane Journal reported Sept. 8. 

ZFUZE shows 91.4% Fusion Rates at 8 months

Operational inefficiencies, labor shortages and the fast-changing billing environment that came with COVID have contributed to rising denial rates in the revenue cycle process.

A new initiative in New Haven, Conn., plans to unite leaders from community organizations and state and local governments with Yale-affiliated university, hospital and health system faculty to address healthcare needs in the area. 

Norfolk, Va.-based Sentara Healthcare has launched three community care programs. 

Everyday, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data (yes, that number has 17 zeroes in it!). And the pace of data creation only continues to accelerate. As good data stewards, we must take ownership of the data we create and harness it to solve healthcare’s challenges while making our systems more efficient. In this article on information governance and data stewardship, we illustrate the roles data use and retention policies play in advancing healthcare.

Did you know that despite the introduction of many new patient experience solutions in healthcare, most do not address the underlying issues that providers are challenged with today? Watch this video to learn how Dash® by Relatient has helped some provider groups increase online scheduling by up to 300% by solving for the underlying complexities of patient engagement and scheduling.

Proliferating severe weather events, mass shootings and other disasters in the United States mean that hospitals and healthcare systems must have a well-thought, up-to-date plan for handling various crises.

Patient experience has become a critical element in the delivery of healthcare. But despite the importance of the patient experience, organizations often still struggle with delivering experiences that patients want rather than what organizations believe they want.

The urgency of modernizing the patient financial experience is undeniable, as out-of-pocket healthcare costs keep rising along with patients' expectations for cost transparency and more convenient payment options. 

Walmart, the nation's largest private employer, is expanding abortion coverage in employee healthcare plans, The Washington Post reported Aug. 20.