Whitepapers & E-Books

Market shifts over the last two decades have resulted in a steep uptick in patient financial responsibility for care, with patient revenue now surpassing that of many healthcare organizations’ largest insurance payers. But patients face financial and economic challenges of their own, making it critical for organizations to be proactive about how to meet patients' needs and clearly communicate financial expectations.

This report outlines a clear strategy healthcare organizations can implement to improve patients' financial literacy and retain them amid an increasingly competitive marketplace.

You'll learn:

• Ways to lead with open and honest communication to provide compassionate financial care
• Strategies to create better connections with patients
• How to improve patients' knowledge about payments

Revenue cycle leaders know the staffing crisis in healthcare is not limited to clinical functions; there’s also a revenue cycle staffing crisis.

Based on increasing revenue cycle work and a shortage of skilled workers, it is impossible to hire enough people or ask current employees to work harder.

It’s time to work smarter, not harder. What does working smarter in the revenue cycle mean? It means finding innovative ways to do more with less.

Download for best practices on:

 

• Developing a smarter revenue cycle and administrative strategy
• Cutting down on outdated manual processes
• Streamlining existing processes with intelligent automation

  Learn more about what intelligent automation is, how it works, which revenue cycle tasks are best automated and what the benefits are

This white paper examines findings from both in-vitro and in-vivo studies on new porous PEEK technology.

Key findings examined in the white paper include:

• New porous PEEK technology produced higher osseointegration capability when compared to solid PEEK, solid titanium and porous titanium in cell culture.
• New technology possessed higher fusion and quality of fusion grades at 12- and 26-weeks post-op when compared to solid PEEK.
• New technology Proved to obtain new bone formation throughout porous structure.

Chronic kidney disease places an enormous burden on the healthcare system. Roughly 37 million Americans have CKD, though 9 in 10 adults with this condition don’t know they have it.

To date, kidney care has focused on diagnosis and treatment. But 1 in 4 patients "crash" into dialysis, where dialysis must be initiated urgently with no opportunity for patients and providers to discuss treatment alternatives or make optimal decisions.

What’s needed is "crash prevention" by using predictive intelligence to identify patients likely to need future dialysis, leading to earlier intervention.

Download this white paper on The Kidney Care Paradigm Shift. It focuses on:

 

• Predicting & preventing advanced CKD
• Identifying at-risk patients earlier through predictive intelligence
• Benefits of avoiding emergent dialysis

Treating CKD is costly and inefficient, but doesn’t have to be. Discover a new paradigm that leverages predictive intelligence for earlier intervention.

Limited grocery options, minimal access to healthcare in rural areas and lack of public transportation are all examples of social determinants of health that your members can and do face. Couple these factors with the rising rate of cardiometabolic conditions such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity, and you're looking at the perfect storm for your members.

Based on these challenges, a virtual care solution that only caters to the tech-savvy hoping to shed a few pounds isn't going to cut it. This report shares how a SDOH-attuned, virtual solution can offer your members access to:

• Personalized eating plans that fall within their budget and food accessibility
• Accessible, human-led care — even with limited access to technology
• Cognitive behavioral therapy-based coaching to address underlying causes
• Health literacy skills to sustain future success

Supply chains remain fragile. As of December 2022, healthcare product shortages remained five times higher than pre-pandemic levels. Other key supply chain issues are workforce shortages, cost containment and lack of supply chain visibility.

Supply chain leaders have an urgent need to better understand product availability. To address these challenges, create more resilient supply chains and reduce product shortages, leaders don't need another dashboard. They need actionable data and insights. 

A new white paper outlines three key strategies to increase supply chain visibility and decrease product shortages. 

Key focus areas include:

• Leveraging the data in your ERP system 
• Using a supply chain data model with prospective information 
• Streamlining pharmacy operations
• How Renown Health is using data to reduce product shortages

Every segment of healthcare is experiencing extraordinary workforce changes. Burnout, turnover, rising labor costs and skill gaps are diminishing the supply of qualified workers. Meanwhile, demand for workers is on the rise and business models are in flux.

This research report gathers perspectives from 150 healthcare leaders from providers, health plans and government agencies.

Key focus areas include:

• Workforce disruptions and their impact on performance
• Obstacles to workforce progress
• Keys to finding and keeping talent
• Top 5 qualities of a sustainable workforce
• Workforce investment priorities in 2023
• The role of partnerships
• How technology empowers a more human workforce

Leaders today are forced to make decisions without a playbook. Find out how C-suite leaders are responding to today’s workforce threats and are investing in a new path forward.

Today, the call center serves as the “non-digital” front door for most health systems, managing patient needs that span scheduling and appointment reminders to registration, authorizations, financial assistance, and payment collection. With persistent staffing shortages and antiquated technology, call centers are frequently unable to meet evolving patient expectations. 

To achieve call center transformation, health systems need to pivot their focus from marginal improvement of agent efficiency to reducing the number of calls that agents need to manage. A digital front door, powered by intelligent automation, can address the reason for most calls upstream – freeing up staff capacity for higher-value and more meaningful work.

In this whitepaper, you will learn:

 

• Why the call center must be reimagined to meet today’s needs
• New approaches to optimizing patient access, while eliminating downstream work for staff 
• Best practices for transforming the call center into a competitive differentiator that complements a world-class patient experience, including the highest ROI workflows to automate

Healthcare's workforce is in crisis. Waves of employee departures amid a once-in-a-century public health crisis have left hospitals all over the nation scrambling to fill critical roles across the enterprise. There are no easy solutions.

These 10 must-read articles collectively examine healthcare's workforce crisis and offer insights into the kind of leadership necessary to nurture high-performing teams. Articles examine:

 

• Why healthcare employees are increasingly less engaged
• How six health systems are battling labor shortages
• The 15 states affected most, least by the "Great Resignation"

Facing frequent no-shows, high staff turnover and resource draining, paper-based processes in patient access, Wayne HealthCare was due for a digital upgrade.

Read the case study to learn how using EngageCare self-service technology to transition administrative and financial tasks to patients helped Wayne improve patient safety, reduce no-shows and increase staff efficiency.

Download a copy of the case study to learn how Wayne:

• Reduced denials 80 percent
• Decreased no-shows and cancellations, saving revenue
• Reallocated staff and eliminated need to fill 5 vacant positions

A "wrap network" or "gap network" is an extended network of providers where employee health plan members can acess care if they are in a different location or if they require care from a specialist that is not in the plan's primary network.

But, 28 percent of health system human resources decision-makers say they are "very unfamiliar" with these networks.

It is time to close the gap of awareness and ensure that health system human resources decision-makers fully understand wrap networks, their costs and their benefits.

In this whitepaper, you will learn:

• The most important attributes of a wrap network
• Today's wrap network gaps and the opportunity for better solutions
• Opinions of out-of-network wraps from health system human resources decision makers' and provider-sponsored heath plan executives.

Healthcare has a people problem. For years prior to the arrival of COVID-19, hospitals in various corners of the nation experienced troubling shortages of medical staff, a problem that has been exacerbated by the pressures of a multiyear pandemic.

The crisis is pushing leaders to rethink long-term strategies related to training, education, recruitment and contingency planning. In the near-term, health systems must make immediate adjustments to staffing models and learn how to utilize new technology to better support care teams, especially in the operating room.

This e-book offers an inside look at how Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus and Methodist Healthcare System in San Antonio are leveraging an ecosystem of technology to alleviate staff burden and optimize OR performance.

Supply chain inefficiencies cost hospitals $25.7 billion annually. With the right strategies, however, supply chain teams can not only lower supply chain and healthcare costs but also serve as a direct bridge to improved care quality.

At the Becker's Supply Chain Leadership Virtual Forum, six healthcare supply chain experts discussed their systems' supply chain transformation efforts and shared how supply chains can become a strategic asset when bolstered by the power of data, standardization and process efficiency. This report offers seven takeaways from the discussion.

Key learnings:

• How labor challenges are affecting supply chain teams
• Top priorities for healthcare supply chain leaders in 2022
• The key to successful supply chain transformations
  
  

Patient safety is a primary concern for all health systems and medical devices play a critical role in supporting the safe and effective delivery of patient care.

Key Takeaways:

• Health systems can support medical device availability through optimized preventative maintenance schedules and standardized workflows.
• Dedicated monitoring and remediation of OEM-reported FDA alerts and recalls can minimize the potential impact on device availability and patient safety.
• Patient safety should be a key consideration throughout a health system's capital planning process 

Learn how we worked with this fully-integrated healthcare system to deliver a whole-person approach to care for its employees and spouses with chronic conditions.

Results include:

• A coordinated experience across conditions for people living with both diabetes and hypertension Multiyear impact on clinical diabetes measures, including reduced HbA1c levels and a fewer hypoglycemic readings
• Measurable impact on systolic and diastolic blood pressure rates among those with uncontrolled hypertension
• Reduced spending incurred through medical care, emergency room visits and pharmacy costs associated with managing chronic conditions, resulting in a positive ROI

Before COVID-19, the opioid epidemic was the nation's most consequential public health threat. The pandemic has magnified the impact of the opioid crisis on communities as unemployment, homelessness and behavioral health disorder rates soar.

Learn how eight organizations across the country have used technology and collaboration to achieve the following:

• 61 percent reduction in opioid prescriptions
• 32 percent reduction in opioid deaths
• 50 percent decrease in emergency department visits for patients with high utilization patterns
• $34 million in cost savings

This downloadable whitepaper will cover:

• Four proven strategies for addressing the opioid epidemic on an organizational and community level
• Statewide efforts to reduce opioid prescribing and use, including implementation of seven best practices for prescription opioids
• How collaboration helped achieve measurable results outside opioids — including decreased ED visits and significant cost savings

Accessing clinical patient data can be like drinking from a fire hose. From diagnoses and labs to genomics and social determinants of health, the sheer volume of information can be overwhelming. Yet despite all this available data, painting an accurate picture of an individual’s health can be a significant challenge.

So why is it so difficult to create a patient's "digital twin?"

In this insight brief, we explore some of the common obstacles to gathering, integrating and leveraging clinical data, such as:

• Siloed information within the EHR and between health IT systems
• Varied data accessibility
• Inadequate capture of detail or specificity
• Inconsistent data structure; and
• Variations in clinical terminology

Telehealth adoption skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, propelled by the urgency of finding solutions to the restrictions imposed on in-person healthcare encounters. As hospitals and health systems scrambled to meet demand for care under those limitations, the benefits and value of telehealth were magnified. Now, as the healthcare industry emerges from the crisis, organizations are thinking about the future of telehealth — looking beyond its pandemic-fueled adoption and growth to more strategic considerations.

This e-book highlights findings from Becker's-Teladoc Health's 6th annual telehealth benchmark survey, which elicited responses from healthcare CEOs, CFOs, virtual care leaders, directors, CIOs and other decision-makers about their organizations' stance on virtual care and plans for it going forward.

Key learnings include:

• What the survey findings reveal about the future of virtual care and health systems
• Some of the barriers holding back telehealth expansion and the resources healthcare organizations need to surmount those barriers
• How staffing models need to evolve to continue delivering the benefits of telehealth adoption amid persistent workforce shortages

Matching supply and demand for expensive, constrained resources, such as operating rooms, inpatient beds and clinical staff is among healthcare's most difficult and important challenges. Many healthcare organizations have traditionally managed these issues by using informal knowledge or staff privileges to determine how OR blocks, patient beds and nurse schedules are allocated.

However, with advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning and insights gleaned from other industries, hospitals and health systems are now better equipped than ever to more efficiently manage scarce resources.

This report outlines how health systems –including Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health and Winston-Salem, N.C.-based Novant Health — are using technology to tackle staffing shortages and optimize capacity and resources management, resulting in:

• Increased access to care for patients
• Higher revenues for provider organizations
• Improved clinician satisfaction

The Sanford Health Fargo (N.D.) Sterile Processing team is leading an effort to optimize physician preference cards, in collaboration with the Supply Chain and Perioperative teams, resulting in a 90%+ preference card accuracy rate. To date, they have achieved $1.4 million in savings through on-hand inventory reduction alone, not including labor and productivity gains.

With the help of Tecsys’ Elite™ Healthcare POU technology, Sanford Health has automated and systemized data capture, closed the data loop on preference card picking cycles, eliminated redundant processes and driven down on-hand inventory value.

This success story documents their journey at each step of the way. 

Key Takeaways:

• Understand how an ongoing commitment to continuous improvement can increase cost savings, drive operational efficiency and reduce waste.
• Measure inventory performance with accurate analytics and analyze real-time data using the right technology.
• Identify the financial impact of unused materials resulting from out-of-date surgeon preference cards.

Every health plan cares deeply about the member journey. But many still provide a fragmented, disjointed member experience. Health plans must reexamine how they engage with members to deliver seamless, personalized, retail-like experiences. 

Technology can enable health plans to deliver true omni-channel engagement. In this new white paper, discover how leading plans are leveraging data and technology to turbocharge the member experience, transform member interactions and boost engagement. 

Download to learn how health plans can: 

• Create a holistic view of members, leading to personalization
• Use data for insights and to drive action
• Build greater trust with members
• Turbocharge the contact center and transform the member experience
• Overcome barriers to technology adoption

Profound advancements in medical imaging are poised to dramatically shorten time to diagnosis and treatment. However, with more sophisticated imaging comes more data and the need for more computing power to support high-speed information sharing across the care continuum. Additionally, healthcare technology leaders will have to find new ways to achieve more dynamic cybersecurity amid rising rates of malware and ransomware attacks targeting healthcare organizations. 
 
Maintaining, growing and securing on-premises data storage presents major challenges for hospitals and health systems in such an environment. This white paper examines why cloud storage and computing will become essential supports for hospitals and health systems keen to make the most of medical imaging technology advancements.
 
In this eBook, you will learn:

 

• How health systems are reaping the benefits of cloud technology for medical imaging
• The four pillars for optimized medical imaging data use and storage

The pandemic amplified long-standing pain points of both patients and employees.
A lack of access, ease, empathy, and partnership have real impacts on individual and
organizational wellbeing. Addressing these issues will require healthcare leaders to
listen, understand, and act. In other words, to adopt a holistic approach to empathy.

The reasons to operationalize empathy at scale are compelling. Not only is it the moral
approach, it makes business sense. Organizations across industries have seen
improved financial performance, increased patient and employee satisfaction, higher net
promoter scores…etc.. With so much at stake, empathy in healthcare is imperative.

In this guide you’ll learn:

• The cost of empathy deficiencies – and how to avoid them
• Three ways to foster human-centred experiences throughout your organization
• How to leverage real-time data, closed-loop processes, and AI to modernize your experience programs

The commonality of cyberattacks and both natural and human-made disasters means healthcare teams have had to take on a new role: disaster recovery experts.

As hospitals and health systems navigate these events, their primary goal of improving patients' health remains unchanged. Organizations must keep downtime to an absolute minimum and ensure continuity of care.

Becker's Healthcare recently spoke with Hector Rodriguez, executive security advisor, WWPS health and life sciences at AWS, about how enterprise resilience and immutable IT infrastructures can reduce risks for patients and organizations.

Download this brief report to learn:

 

• How enterprise resilience protects patient safety and cuts costly organizational downtime
• What enterprise resilience plans should cover & key considerations for where to focus initial efforts
• The value of immutable IT infrastructures & how employee training fits into enterprise resilience

Five CIOs met with DrFirst and CHIME CEO, Russ Branzell, to discuss the great resignation, staff burnout, and how clinician productivity and job satisfaction are contributing to the industry’s 6.4% and rising departure rate. 

See how these leaders are improving their teams' workloads and quality of life while making patient care more efficient.

Download the brief to see the strategies and tactics healthcare leaders are using to address:

• Repetitive tasks within EHR workflows

• Nursing shortage and the rising cost of contract staff

• Recent resignation and retirement trends

Recognized as a technology leader among Massachusetts healthcare organizations, South Shore Hospital in Weymouth recently prioritized efforts within its emergency department to reduce costly adverse drug events and readmissions with innovative technology and a three-step process.

This three-page case study explains how the hospital improved ED processes for patients and clinicians with a combination of new tools and strategy.

Download the report to learn about:

• The hospital's three-step approach to managing high-risk patients
• How to prevent medication errors and readmissions among ED patients
• How to achieve greater staff satisfaction with technology

Stay one step ahead of fraud by leveraging AI and advanced technologies.

Health plans are overwhelmed by fraudulent activity. Unfortunately, the pandemic opened the door for even more cybercriminals to find new schemes to submit improper, fraudulent claims.

Given the sheer volume, it’s impossible to pursue every instance of fraud. Health plans have launched special investigation units, with high-dollar cases as their top priority. While many lower-value cases fall by the wayside, these cases can have a broad impact on patients, quality of care and financial results.

A new white paper from Becker’s Hospital Review looks at the fraud landscape, drawbacks of current approaches to fight fraud and the role of AI in preventing fraud. This white paper details:

• The magnitude of fraud in healthcare
• Drawbacks of the rules-based approach used by many organizations
• Why leading healthcare organizations are turning to AI for data protection and fraud prevention
• Specific solutions that can reduce fraud, waste and abuse

Fraud in healthcare is only getting worse. Learn how your organization can use AI to more effectively manage this costly problem.  

For large health systems, software scalability is critical. As organizations grow, they need data to flow seamlessly across their health IT systems to achieve a unified care record and analytics that span the care continuum. However, many first-generation data sharing initiatives fail to address fundamental technical challenges, including access, scalability and performance.

Learn how top healthcare organizations met these challenges with a new healthcare integration engine and experienced:

• 78 percent faster legacy interface conversion
• Deployment of 2,000 interfaces in less than two years
• Zero hours of unscheduled downtime
• Millions of dollars in savings

Given the breadth and depth of potential use cases, one thing is clear – more and more people will find themselves working in environments where ML plays a critical role. And thanks to the emergence of low-code and no-code software, ML is no longer the exclusive preserve of programmers, data scientists, and people who paid attention in math class. More of us can – and will – be involved in developing and deploying practical ML solutions.

This eGuide will help you understand:

 

• The key concepts behind ML and common applications
• How it’s becoming more useful to people at all levels of organizations

 

It might be cliché to say healthcare in the U.S. is having a transformative moment, but it's cliché for a reason — because it's true.

Healthcare delivery is experiencing a profound transformation. And as hospital and health system leaders work to balance in-person and remote care while navigating crisis-level staffing shortages and integrating new technology solutions, they must not overlook one facet of healthcare that has long been ripe for improvement — the patient experience.

These 10 articles comprise actionable insights for hospital and health system leaders committed to delivering a better patient experience.

Articles headlines include:

• 5 leaders on their system’s most valuable patient experience strategy this year
• NewYork-Presbyterian CXO Rick Evans: Patient experience is rebounding, but our work is not over
• A powerful way to start a medical appointment? With non-medical questions

The concept of connected healthcare is ambitious: bring together comprehensive data about patients, including clinical, environmental and administrative data. Then, use this data to provide clinicians with insights and a better line of sight for treating the whole person. At the same time, leverage this connected healthcare infrastructure to provide a better consumer experience.

Innovative new technology solutions are rapidly turning the vision for connected healthcare into reality.

A new white paper from Becker’s Hospital Review looks at the current state of connected healthcare and details:

• The goals, promise and benefits of connected healthcare
• Opportunities for connected ecosystems to improve patient and provider experiences
• Barriers that must be addressed to achieve truly connected healthcare
• Tips for communicating with and engaging patients in using connected digital tools Learn the benefits to your organization and patients from realizing the vision of connected healthcare and discover what it will take to get there.

At virtually every stage of a patient’s wellbeing, different forms of technology and software support the expansion of better healthcare. As the reliance on technology grows, ensuring that these lifesaving systems don’t break under the strain is imperative.

  To keep operations running smoothly, healthcare IT professionals must perform regular and exhaustive testing. Fortunately, the introduction of automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI) has made testing easier to deliver.

In this eBook from Keysight Technologies, you will discover  

• How automation can improve workflow management to help physicians and patients alike
• How AI-driven test automation helps your EMR become more interoperable and user-friendly
• Six critical tasks that can be optimized with robotic process automation
• The importance of testing both on-site and wearable medical devices

 

Please fill out the form to download the eBook.

Surgical revenue is more important than ever. However, manual processes and tools are holding healthcare organizations back from effectively using operating room resources, resulting in an incredible opportunity cost.

Fortunately, advances in artificial intelligence and automation can enable you to break out of the status quo and accelerate growth.

By using six strategies implemented at leading health systems across the country, you can harness these capabilities to improve operating room access, increase strategic case volumes and capture more market share.

In this whitepaper, learn how to:

• Boost operating room and resource utilization
• Automate manual work to reduce staff workload
• Drive immediate bottom-line improvements
• Optimize referrals and prevent leakage
• Improve surgeon satisfaction

Health system leaders face an operational paradox. Operating rooms, inpatient beds and infusion chairs appear to be available. Yet, the reality is often very different. These assets experience dramatic peaks and valleys in usage. As a result, patients receive appointments, but when they show up for care at peak times, they have to wait.

Other asset-intensive industries like airlines or package delivery services face similar challenges. However, through sophisticated modeling and simulations, organizations in these industries can predict and match supply to demand with considerable accuracy. Every day, millions of packages are delivered on time and scores of travelers safely reach their destinations. The healthcare sector needs the same types of capacity-optimization tools.

These were the overarching themes that emerged during a hospital operations summit as part of Becker's Hospital Review's 12th Annual Meeting in Chicago. Dozens of hospital executives participated in the summit. This white paper is based on their conversations and includes specific learnings from:

• Rush University Medical Center in Chicago
• UCHealth in Aurora, Colo.
• Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tenn.

The Department of Veteran Affairs has made significant changes to improve how it partners with hospitals in supporting Veteran care, but hospitals are still struggling with old processes that drain resources and impact timely and sufficient reimbursements. This whitepaper explains the intricacies and challenging processes of the VA so providers can successfully capture revenue for these complex claims.

You'll learn:  

• How changes in the VA influence Veteran benefits today
• Pitfalls that make it challenging to work with the VA 
• Effective ways to capture reimbursement for services rendered to Veterans

Health systems are painfully aware of the complexities of revenue cycle management and understand the need for RCM partners. In fact, 93% of health systems rely on at least one RCM partner.

But there are different reasons for pursuing RCM partnerships and very different approaches to partnership. Which approach and partners are best for your organization?

Here are insights from new research conducted with the Health Management Academy:

• 4 key reasons health systems pursue RCM partnerships
• 2 primary approaches to RCM partnership, and the key differences between them
• Factors to consider when vetting and evaluating RCM partnerships
• Why so many leading health systems are considering enterprise RCM partnerships

The key takeaway: RCM partnerships are necessary but they're not all alike. Understand the differences to make the best RCM decision for your health system.

In today’s economic environment, health systems can’t afford the increased denials and prolonged accounts receivable days caused by inaccurate front-end data. As staff shortages persist and labor costs increase, manual workflows to review and correct patient data on the back end are not sustainable.

To succeed, revenue cycle leaders need to transform the first interaction many patients have in their care experience into a competitive differentiator, manage ever-changing payer rules, and navigate an exacerbated workforce shortage. Leading health systems are automating front-end processes to eliminate back-end administrative burden – removing patient and staff hassles that compromise quality, impact reliability, and escalate cost.

In this whitepaper, you will learn:

• Why common approaches to revenue cycle improvement fall short
• The role of intelligent automation in strengthening the front end of revenue cycles with higher accuracy and faster payment, without additional headcount
• How a leading health system decreased authorization-related write-offs by 55% and saved nearly 3,000 staff hours

Healthcare finance departments need an effective way of procuring reliable data to empower the decisions they make every day. 

Enterprise resource planning software can increase efficiency by providing quick access to a wide range of information, which can also allow the organization to reduce its operational costs. 

Explore how enterprise resource planning software can help decrease the need for manual tasks and save on overhead costs while still delivering quality care.  

Key takeaways:

 

• Defining healthcare finance KPIs
• The importance of tracking healthcare finance KPIs
• The challenges of legacy software in healthcare

The perfect storm of COVID-19, staffing shortages and a switch to value-based payment models are leaving healthcare organizations struggling to keep up with a constantly shifting industry.

KeyBank and Cain Brothers are helping healthcare organizations remain flexible and agile. Hear from three industry leaders to learn how your organization can be prepared for upcoming challenges.

• Agapito “Aga” Morgan, commercial healthcare leader, Key Corporate and Commercial Bank
• Dave Morlock, managing director, head of health systems practice, Cain Brothers, a division of KeyBanc Capital Markets
• Kellen Williams, senior manager of business development, Laurel Road, a brand of KeyBank

In this whitepaper you will learn how:

• The healthcare landscape is expected to shift in the coming years
• Value-based care will reshape the industry
• Organizations can be forward-thinking in multiple dimensions

Patient financial obligation reached $491 billion in 2021, and the self-pay portion for patients with insurance now accounts for nearly 60 percent of bad debt. The standard model for patient payments is no longer sufficient.

This is why leading health systems like Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare, St. Louis-based Ascension and Norfolk, Va.-based Sentara Healthcare have embraced a bold new approach for patient payment and more effective revenue capture. This ebook highlights four ways to bolster patient engagement and drive a 40 percent increase in net-new cash.

In this ebook you'll learn:

• How health systems can achieve substantial returns with an integrated technology and services approach
• The components of a bold new patient payment model
• How to create a seamless patient experience that drives higher revenue performance

In the wake of COVID-19, an estimated 48 million people in the U.S. lost their jobs. This spike in unemployment caused many people to lose employer-provided health insurance. Loss of coverage at this scale has a major effect on healthcare providers’ bottom lines.

What can providers do?

Take proactive steps to find hidden insurance coverage among patients who present as self-pay. Results include increased collections from patients and payers, decreased bad debt and improved financials.

A new white paper contains insights on maximizing self-pay revenue through better coverage detection.

Key learnings in the whitepaper focus on:

• Why you’re missing billable insurance coverage
• The impact of missing or hidden coverage – which includes writing off bad debt
• 4 ways to find insurance for self-pay patients
• Selecting the right coverage detection technology to meet your organization’s needs
• How coverage detection works

Revenue cycle leaders know the staffing crisis in healthcare is not limited to clinical functions; there’s also a revenue cycle staffing crisis.

Based on increasing revenue cycle work and a shortage of skilled workers, it is impossible to hire enough people or ask current employees to work harder.

It’s time to work smarter, not harder. What does working smarter in the revenue cycle mean? It means finding innovative ways to do more with less.

Download for best practices on:

 

• Developing a smarter revenue cycle and administrative strategy
• Cutting down on outdated manual processes
• Streamlining existing processes with intelligent automation

  Learn more about what intelligent automation is, how it works, which revenue cycle tasks are best automated and what the benefits are

As the fallout from the pandemic lingers, healthcare organizations are seeing expenses rise faster than patient volumes or revenues. Negative margins will continue through 2022 for many, and with little likelihood of relief from payer rates, it’s harder than ever for CFOs to sleep well at night.

This whitepaper covers how to best support CFOs today, and how organizations can implement these five steps to improve financial health:

Improve patient data and charge capture

Improve coding efficiency

Help the team avoid burnout

Monitor physician and organization performance

Minimize risk and optimize value-based care

Finance teams want access to real-time information to make informed, data-driven decisions. But this information is often lacking.

90 percent of respondents to a recent Becker’s/Multiview survey said data analysis is important to achieving their organization’s financial goals, yet only 25 percent have access to robust real-time information to drive better financial performance.

As a result, finance teams are often caught up doing time-consuming “Excel gymnastics.” Many finance teams are more focused on preparing financial statements or getting through audits than making data-driven decisions.

Gain insights from this recent survey among financial leaders which include:

• Why “liquid” data and real-time data are so important
• The unique challenges faced by finance teams at small hospitals
• Effective solutions that enable finance teams to make real-time, data-driven decisions
• Why vendor partnerships are key to data-driven decisions and increased operational efficiencies

Learn what it takes to go from manual, Excel-based processes to real-time, data-driven decisions.

High deductible health plans (HDHPs) have shifted the already-complex payer reimbursement burden onto the shoulders of consumers who are unprepared to bear it.

Consumers, on the one hand, need increased support to understand their bills and figure out how to pay them. On the other hand, patients with more skin in the game are becoming more demanding about the quality of their customer experience.

These changes necessitate a new patient payment model that focuses on delivering convenience and clear communication to patients, driving both quicker payments and increased patient satisfaction.

Download this whitepaper to learn:

• The current state of patient collections, with data
• How to help patients take charge of their new responsibility
• How to identify hidden coverage
• How to increase the likelihood of quick, easy payment

The economic landscape of the healthcare market has been forever altered by the COVID-19 crisis. Existing challenges have intensified, and the pace of change is accelerating, raising the bar for organizations to adapt strategically and quickly.

Download the e-book to learn more about how health leaders can ready their organization for growth with forward-thinking strategies that include:

• Meeting the consumer on their terms
• Adapting to new competition
• The growing role of strategic partnerships
• Mastering the new indicators of growth
• Tracking the spend of the health care dollar

Operating health systems and physician practices has always been hard, but COVID-19 has created extraordinary profitability challenges in 2020. Lower volumes, changing case and payer mixes and greater operating margin anxiety make revenue optimization more essential than ever.

We asked physician management and healthcare organization leaders to share their strategies for overcoming the considerable challenges of this altered landscape. They offer 10 strategies for using data and analytics to better manage capacity, coordinate care and optimize revenues, including:

• Tracking real-time practice COVID-19 volumes
• Managing productivity and modifying physician incentive compensation
• Capturing charges efficiently and accurately at the point of care
• Improving throughput across the continuum

The white paper features expert views from:

• Dennis Deruelle, MD – Executive Director of Hospital Medicine, American Physician Partners
• Andrea Funk, RN, MEd, CPHQ – Vice President of Integrated Acute Care Operations, US Acute Care Solutions
• Derick D. Perkins – Founder and Managing Partner, Metis Advisors LLC

COVID-19 has pushed healthcare delivery beyond its breaking point, heightening the urgent need for accelerated patient care, improved clinical efficiencies and secure clinical communication with real-time critical patient updates.

Before the arrival of COVID-19, specific environmental trends were challenging the healthcare industry, such as acquisitions of smaller health systems by larger health systems, clinician shortages and burnout. These trends had already created an urgent demand for clinical communication platforms (CCP) that would work securely across growing networks of diverse care provider organizations. The arrival of COVID-19 has applied untold new pressures to already strained systems.

In this white paper, you will learn about:

• The impact and cost of COVID-19 on healthcare
• How clinical collaboration platforms improved communication during COVID-19
• Where you will see cost savings from leveraging clinical collaboration platforms
• What to look for in a clinical collaboration platform in order to achieve savings
• How clinical collaboration platforms can help your organization increase efficiency and achieve return on investment

With tuberculosis diagnoses falling significantly during the first two years of the pandemic, it's more important than ever that reliable TB testing is in place. Despite the availability of newer blood testing options that are easy to perform and deliver accurate results, the 100-year old TB skin test is still widely used.

In this whitepaper, Quest Diagnostics outlines the benefits of TB blood tests, including cost-savings, patient experience and more.

Key learning points:

• How TB blood tests reduce patient visits
• The objective, accurate results provided by blood tests
• How blood tests yield cost savings for both patients and providers

Manual flushing can be time-consuming for overburdened healthcare staff, but hospitals can safely minimize the amount of time spent on this critical task with automated flush delivery technology. 

This whitepaper summarizes five clinical studies that reveal how the KangarooTM feed/flush pumps with automatic flushing technology from Cardinal HealthTM are benefiting patients and hospitals. 

Key learning points:

• Potential cost-savings from automated flushing 
• The benefits of automated flushing vs. manual syringe flushing
• Solving for dehydration with automated flushing

Gundersen Health System receives hundreds of prescription refill requests daily — a time-consuming, manual process with redundant tasks and errors.

Now, Gundersen is using an AI solution to automatically transcribe data in its renewal requests. This solution cuts down on manual clicks and keystrokes that can lead to medication errors and contribute to clinician burnout.
 
Download to learn how Gundersen has used this AI solution to: 

• Improve "clean sigs" by 202 percent
• Automatically import 84 percent of prescription renewal data
• Save 100 hours of clinician data entry time  
• Improve safety and decrease risk of errors

Healthcare is complex, but that doesn't change the fact that patients expect simplicity, convenience and personalization in their healthcare experiences.

To get to a place where patients feel the level of convenience in their healthcare experience is on par with what they're used to from other industries, organizations need to craft a strategy that offers digital front doors, digital practices and personalized experiences.

This whitepaper features insights from Springfield, Mass.-based Baystate Health and Oracle Cerner on:

• Overcoming barriers in implementing digital solutions
• The features of a strong digital front door
• The difference between digital front doors and digital practices
• Building organizational culture into digital transformation

Tuberculosis(TB) remains a leading cause of infectious disease morbidity and mortality worldwide, but during the pandemic, there was a 20 percent decline in reported TB diagnoses.

Is your hospital and health system’s TB screening strategy up-to-date?

Learn how leading health systems are using TB blood tests for pre-employment screens in the hiring process and to prevent post-exposure contagion. 

In this new white paper, discover how new testing provide hospitals and health systems with shorter test times and lower false-positivity rates.

Key takeaways:

 

• Latest CDC guidance on workplace TB testing
• Benefits of IGRAs vs. traditional TSTs
• Best practices for pre-employment TB screening & post-exposure testing

Mobile technology plays an important role in daily life. And in healthcare, the demand for mobile options is rising. Fortunately, mobile technology can streamline check-in, facilitate payments and support efficient communication.

This white paper discusses seven ways that mobile technology improves the intake experience for patients, providers and staff, and demonstrates why healthcare organizations that employ a mobile-first intake strategy are well-positioned to succeed in a rapidly changing healthcare system.

Read the white paper to learn:

• How embracing mobile communication helps healthcare organizations improve patient satisfaction
• Why embracing a mobile-first patient intake strategy helps providers save time and boost staff efficiency
• Tips about how to use mobile technologies to deliver the convenience and flexibility patients expect

Is your digital transformation going as planned? We hear from many providers that their systems aren’t generating hoped-for levels of patient engagement.

Unfortunately, outdated interfaces turn customers away, which means more work for providers and administrators.

Health systems must look beyond basic EHR forms and cookie-cutter processes to get patients on board. The user experience is what matters. Winning organizations are using consumer-grade tech solutions that patients can navigate easily. As a result, they’re seeing fewer no-shows and higher patient satisfaction.

How do health systems with limited resources create user-friendly experiences?

In a new whitepaper, we look at how three health systems leverage intelligent automation to save time and increase revenue. Discover ways to reduce workloads by building intelligent automation into your existing EHR system.

We share how intelligent automation is helping health systems achieve:

• 8 percent reduction in no-shows
• 74 percent digital conversion rate
• 51 percent increase in co-payment
• 96 percent patient satisfaction rating

Early identification of sepsis and consistent evidence-based sepsis care must be a priority for hospital administrators and clinical leaders. Sepsis is the most expensive condition for US hospitals driven by lengthy stays, is a major driver for readmissions and a top reason for in-hospital patient mortality.

Conway (Ark.) Regional Medical Center gained more visibility into patients' status and timely, accurate alerts by partnering with Wolters Kluwer. This led to big improvements in the hospital's SEP-1 compliance rates and cost savings.

Read this Sentri7® Sepsis Monitor case study to learn how Conway Regional is:

•  Identifying patients with sepsis earlier with real-time alerts and reminders that guide care
• Improving SEP-1 bundle compliance by more than 20 percent over four months
• Achieved cumulative savings of $384,000 in the four months since adopting Sentri7® Sepsis Monitor

Addressing health inequities has vaulted to the top of healthcare organizations’ agendas, as COVID-19 has created urgency to take meaningful actions to address health disparities and inequities.

However, despite a collective commitment to do better, organizations have lacked the technological infrastructure to enable detecting and addressing these inequities.

To shine a light on the technological infrastructure that is needed, Becker's Hospital Review spoke with David Feinberg, MD, chairman of Oracle Health, and two Indiana University Health leaders — Brownsyne Tucker Edmonds, MD, vice president and chief equity officer, and Nichole Wilson, vice president for community health operations — about the technology solutions required to addressing health inequities.

This white paper examines the:

• Foundational technological infrastructure needed to make progress on inequities – including data platforms and frameworks
• Datasets and analytics capabilities organizations need
• Talent and human capabilities required to turn data into insights and action

Achieving health equity will take more than good intentions – it requires data and a technological underpinning. Discover the technology infrastructure needed to move the needle on health inequities.

More than 6 million Americans suffer from chronic wounds and the problem isn't going away. Pain can become a vicious cycle for patients, leading to stress and anxiety, which can stall healing.

 Becker's Hospital Review spoke with two wound care experts about advances in negative pressure wound therapy and how these innovations may help dramatically improve both clinical outcomes and the patient experience:

• Amanda Loney, BScN, RN, wound, ostomy and continence consultant, Bayshore Home Care Solutions, in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada 
• Abbé Benoit, BSN, RN, clinical resource specialist, Smith+Nephew

  Key learnings:

• How pain has a direct effect on the healing process
• How to determine when negative pressure wound therapy is appropriate
• How negative pressure wound therapy solutions can help to improve the patient experience
• How best practices can include use of both traditional and single use negative pressure wound therapy

Hospitals are fighting an ongoing battle against unrecognized patient deterioration, alarm fatigue, opioid-induced respiratory depression, sepsis, unplanned extubation and other preventable conditions. In this whitepaper, we will review the scope of these patient safety matters, inadequacies of current practices, the emergence of clinical surveillance and a strategy to implement continuous clinical surveillance that helps enhance patient safety and outcomes.

Key points that readers will learn include:

• The clinical and financial impact of alarm fatigue and these adverse patient conditions
• How continuous clinical surveillance is different from patient monitoring and alarm management and focuses on mitigating non-clinically actionable alerts and notifications
• Published results that hospitals have achieved with continuous clinical surveillance

Not every aligner emergency requires an immediate trip to the orthodontist.

Through remote monitoring, orthodontists can detect and manage patient aligner emergencies and decrease the need for an in-person visit.

In this study, you will learn how remote monitoring can be used to benefit both patients and staff by cutting down on in-person appointments and getting patients the care they need in a timely manner.

Key learnings:

• How DentalMonitoring can help improve the remote detection and management of emergencies related to complex aligner treatments
• Understand potential impacts on practice efficiency regarding treatment control and appointment saving

To be successful, every DSO must strive for a strong and dynamic procurement strategy. Large rapidly growing specialty DSOs are no exception.

One multispecialty DSO with more than 180 locations was able to save about $3 million annually by executing a strategic procurement initiative that drove savings towards their bottom line and increased ordering efficiencies among their practices in the process. This was all done while maintaining physicians' and clinicians' autonomy regarding clinically sensitive items they have access to.

Download the case study below to learn how SourceClub helped this multispecialty DSO save millions and achieve success

Today's most significant business operation problem in dental offices is repetitive, consistent, and boring manual processes and tasks. DentalRobot solves this problem with its proprietary automation platform specially designed for dental practices, and its unique approach of Pre-Built Robots and Automated Workflows.

Regardless of how you built the processes in your DSO, MSO, or Group, DentalRobot provides a custom-fit automation solution that matches your current context and vision for operations and growth. We understand each specialty and its journey. We impact your organization's outcomes by rapidly automating every process from insurance verification or EOB posting to Accelerated Patient Scheduling or Customized Treatment Plan Follow-Ups.