Whitepapers & E-Books
The following whitepapers and e-books have been made available to readers of Becker's Hospital Review. Click on a category below to see the whitepapers and e-books available on that topic.
- Process Improvement - click here to download all.
- Health IT - click here to download all.
- Finance - click here to download all.
- Clinical - click here to download all.
- Dental - click here to download all.

Download the guide for a closer look at:
- The effect of capturing and keeping data granularity at the patient and population levels
- The implications of “specifically specific” standardized codes
- How clinical interface terminology solutions can bolster a wide range of data-driven initiatives



Think phone calls are the way to go? The response rate for text messages is 209 percent higher for text messages than phone calls.
That's just one reason to consider texting your patients.

Read the guide to learn:
- How you can improve attrition in the healthcare industry
- The true cost of turnover and staffing gaps
- An overview of a payment tool designed to fight turnover

In this report you'll learn how to:
- Enable touchless patient intake through a virtual waiting room
- Automate telehealth appointment coordination
- Reach chronic care patients to reduce gaps in care and improve outcomes

Key learning points:
- Recent changes to drugmakers’ participation in 340B Drug Pricing Program
- The role of contract pharmacies in 340B
- The consequences of cutting out contract pharmacies

This case study looks at how some organizations are containing costs, impacting staff engagement and positively impacting patient care, by taking an enterprise-wide approach to workforce management.
- An enterprise-wide approach to Workforce Management
- Increases visibility to key data
- Impacts the ability to optimize resources
- Improves efficiencies

Elective services and nonurgent surgical procedures have since resumed at most hospitals and surgery centers. This is good news for patients and hospitals, but it's not indicative of a return to normal. Surgical care has been transformed by new safety concerns as hospitals work to offer extra layers of protection amid the pandemic.
How health systems were navigating the surgical backlog and the industry's new normal was the topic of a Becker's advisory call conducted in conjunction with Intuitive in August. The following e-book is based on a conversation of seven hospital and health system leaders.
Organizations represented on the call were:
- HSHS Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Claire, Wis.
- Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health System
- Hartford (Conn.) HealthCare
- Houston Methodist
- Hackensack (N.J.) University Medical Center
- M Health Fairview in Minneapolis
- Milwaukee-based Advocate Aurora Health

Organizations represented on the call included Akron, Ohio-based Summa Health System, The HSC Health Care System in Washington, D.C., and University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System, among others.
Read the E-book to learn about:
- 3 pivots made by health systems during the early months of the pandemic
- 3 2020 healthcare transformations likely to last into the future
- 3 unanswered questions related to the use of technology solutions in a post-pandemic future

Learn how professionalized anesthesia management adds value to both the internal anesthesia team and to the surgery center as a whole through:
- Recruiting expertise
- Clinical strength & alignment
- Physician control
- Financial metrics
- And much more

As COVID-19 cases continue to surge in most parts of the country, health systems are faced with dual short- and long-term threats related to their supply chains, operational resiliency, remote work and infrastructure. Their reality is the ultimate juggling act: Meeting the virus' demands on the system and keeping employees and patients safe, while also assessing whether they have the critical information, assets and processes in place to best respond to current and future crises.
This e-book explores the critical role of information in health systems' pandemic response: Is it accurate and trustworthy? Is it secure? Is it easily accessible? Does it provide insight to inform decisions? Successful organizations can answer "yes" to all of these questions. If yours cannot, this e-book just became a must-read.

In this whitepaper, decedent management experts from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville VA Medical Center, and more, share how hospitals can quickly and easily optimize their decedent management processes and reduce their risks.
Key takeaways include how to:
- Eliminate errors in processing patients after death
- Improve relations with deceased patients’ families
- Increase organ and tissue donations and autopsies
- Easily create more efficient, optimized workflows
- Enhance compliance with city, state, federal, and Joint Commission requirements

Operating rooms have long been a major source of revenue for healthcare providers. Yet, as the economics of healthcare shift, health systems have experienced shrinking margins.
This whitepaper explores key benefits of partnering with vendors by identifying four key trends affecting hospital performance and by analyzing how third-party service providers can help hospitals adapt to those trends. The findings reflect the experience at two health systems, Erlanger Health System and Baystate Health, where healthcare teams benefited from implementing contract service solutions, the results of which are profiled as case studies in this whitepaper.

Key takeaways:
- The danger of incorrect medication and dosing decisions
- Why half of patients in ICUs need medication dose adjustments
- How care teams can safely adjust drug doses
- What the Lexicomp editorial team is doing close the gap in dosing recommendations

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

In this executive summary, you'll learn:
- The striking mortality results of recent COVID-19 research about patient outcomes related to hyperglycemia
- How hyperglycemia in COVID-19 patients impacted length of stay
- Best practice for inpatient glycemic management and what you can do now to improve glycemic management for your patients

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

The second quarter of 2019 continued to have exciting healthcare executive moves, including more than 50 CEOs and presidents who stepped into new roles, retired, or resigned during the quarter. Altogether, at least 122 hospital and health system C-suite executives were on the move during this time of the year.
Keep track of all the 2019 second quarter C-suite executive moves with this report.


Download the case study to learn how the two health systems:
- Mobilized virtual visits at an unprecedented scale
- Introduced new tools and additional support to its care teams
- Are leveraging key features of Amwell Now to deploy telehealth across the enterprise to deliver high-quality care

Download this whitepaper to gain insight from five of these leaders from leading hospitals and health systems about their organization’s responses to initial surges of COVID-19.

- Proactive security in action: How health systems demonstrate the ROI in risk prevention
- Pragmatic innovation: CIO Dr. Andrew Rosenberg's approach to new tech investment
- The modern CIO's challenge: More tech spending without adding to overall organizational costs
- During the coronavirus pandemic, 'innovation isn't optional, it's required': Key insights from UPMC Enterprise President Tal Heppenstall
- HBR: Relying on data will improve decision-making — 10 steps to foster a data-driven culture
- Healthcare CIOs in 2020: 3 key priorities & how the role is evolving
- Keck Medicine of USC's IT investment strategy: Key thoughts on taking risks and big opportunities in 2020
- The IT roles health systems added in 2020 and the focus for next year
- Health IT one year from today: 8 CIO predictions

Download this comprehensive eBook to learn:
- The most common ways hackers use third-party access, like VPNs, phishing, ransomware, and privileged credential use.
- The top breaches that stemmed from a vendor or third party, like Target, Hancock Health, and the auto industry.
- About the top 5 phases: Investigation, attacking the vendor, spreading the attack, movement of the attack, and the finale.
- How to lower the risk from cyberattacks that stem from a third-party.
- Strategies to reduce impacts from those attacks.

- Key learnings include:
- The three pillars of surgical excellence
- Insights on measuring clinical and economic performance
- A breakdown of a cohesive surgical ecosystem
- Looking at the total cost of care

This white paper examines digital engagement at Cincinnati-based Bon Secours Mercy Health and Birmingham-based Pack Health, a digital health coaching company focused on chronic care support. This white paper contains best practices for creating a digital engagement strategy and deploying the technology backbone necessary to support this type of transformation.
Download this white paper to learn:
- Best practices for digital engagement
- How to evolve a fully integrated patient access and engagement platform
- How COVID-19 has altered the digital engagement landscape

The latest data from the Change Healthcare 2020 Revenue Cycle Denials Index shows denial rates are climbing, up 23% over Change Healthcare’s 2016 Denial Index. The report analyzed over 102 million hospital transactions across more than 1,500 U.S. hospitals from July 2019 - June 2020 and found that while denials continue to climb, the majority are avoidable and revenue loss that is occurring is preventable.
Read the 2020 Denials Index eBook to learn about:
- Denial rates in each region of the country
- Trends during the pandemic
- Denial root causes and where in the revenue cycle most denials are occurring
- Which denials are potentially avoidable and not recoverable
- Strategies to help you better prevent and manage denials in your organization

Leading hospitals and health systems have been working to crack the code on consumerism and chronic disease management by delivering a holistic experience for patients, and interconnected technology is essential to these efforts.
Key Learning Points:
- Interconnected care technology
- The rise of ransomware
- Business email compromise
- The IoT ecosystem
- The mobile threat landscape
- Supporting a cyber secure home
- Focusing on the fundamentals


This white paper comprises an overview of emerging virtual care solutions and telehealth use cases. Key learning points include:
- Insights into telehealth usage for hospital-based care and post hospital-based care
- The benefits of cloud-based communications for telehealth services
- An overview of telehealth market drivers

This whitepaper’s learning objectives:
- Understand how best-of-breed technology is helping labs respond quickly and efficiently when faced with challenges
- Examine the benefits and value gained from a best-of-breed laboratory technology solution as opposed to the hidden costs and challenges associated with an enterprise-wide vendor solution
- Review five key areas of laboratory workflow for which IT support has been critical in the management of COVID-19

This white paper debunks three common myths with these truths and insights.
- Legacy system failure is a major threat for data breaches, exposure and expense.
- Archiving legacy systems can be done with greater cost efficiencies, little disruption and shorter transitions. Aging legacy systems are a significant compliance and security risk.

Read the whitepaper to learn:
- Existing safety vulnerabilities across different specialties
- Where proactive steps can be taken to prevent adverse outcomes
- How to examine similar occurrences in your own organization and use data to drive change

Key learnings include:
- Tips for selecting telehealth technology
- Details for the effective promotion of telehealth services
- Tips for evaluating the success of telehealth services

Read this report for insights on how telehealth is becoming:
- More effective by connecting providers to patients via remote access, helping ensure more convenient care with better outcomes
- More efficient with mobile solutions for home healthcare workers, which helps with HIPAA compliance and streamlines data collection
- Technology-driven with cellular-enabled tablets, mobile hotspots and electronic visit verification to help staff provide better care

These 11 articles contain real-world insights from healthcare leaders on the future of healthcare and the most effective ways to get the best results from technology investments.
Topics include:
- EHR burnout prevention
- 20 bold predictions for health IT in the next five years
- CommonSpirit and SSM Health execs on the next frontier in healthcare innovation

Read the findings from Amwell’s 2020 Physician and Consumer Telehealth Survey for a deeper look into the changes brought about by the pandemic, including insights on interest in leveraging technology for primary care and a range of other routine care.
Download the eBook to learn more about these findings, including:
- The proportion of members interested in different types of virtual care
- Member preference for seeing their existing providers virtually
- Varied openness to virtual primary care, broken down by age and payer type
- Expected telehealth usage among members moving forward

Amwell’s 2020 Physician & Consumer Telehealth Survey provides a deeper look into the quickly evolving role telehealth will play in healthcare, including insights on how consumer and physician experiences, behaviors and expectations have shifted.
The ebook includes insights on:
- How COVID-19 has accelerated hybrid care models that combine in-person and virtual care
- The importance of usability in adoption of telehealth technology
- How consumer telehealth access and the know-how to leverage it remain highly uneven
- How, when and how much consumers and providers plan to use telehealth in the future
- Strategic questions organizations should consider to influence telehealth’s future trajectory

Heading into 2021, will you implement a robust digital care strategy that puts you in a leadership position?
In this white paper, you will learn:
- The three fundamental steps of every patient encounter, and how digital tools can streamline them
- How to scale your most important (and expensive) resource: physicians
- The importance of engaging patients online, or risk losing them to DTC apps or retail health

Learn how the deployment of APIs can help providers integrate common healthcare workflows into their applications to support each stage of the virtual care visit. Find out how APIs can be used to save time and expenses as developers work to improve existing solutions and create innovative new ones.
Key learning points:
- View recent telehealth claims information
- Learn a model for applying APIs throughout the virtual care journey
- Discover how you can explore APIs that suit your needs

Read this paper to learn how once in force, electronic alerts admissions, discharges and transfers should result in:
• Up to an 18 percent reduction in preventable hospital readmissions
• A concerted effort to prevent relapses after discharge
• Quicker and more effective care coordination between medical teams and healthcare providers

By switching to an electronic informed consent solution, the medical center’s clinicians aren’t interrupted in their workflows, patients are more satisfied, compliance becomes almost guaranteed, and procedures aren’t delayed due to lost paperwork.
This report sheds light on:
- How a paper-based informed consent process can negatively affect patients and staff, and put your system at legal and financial risk
- The cost and productivity benefits of a mobile informed consent process
- The ways in which a mobile informed consent solution enhanced interoperability and streamlined clinician workflows at the health system
- How the university medical center utilized their database of procedures to implement one standardized form for electronic consent, with the ability to quickly and easily customize the form per procedure to include associated information, risks and benefits


Key points:
- Macro economic trends are allowing physicians to consider a coordinated transaction strategy among their most valuable assets.
- Coordinating transaction messaging and strategy across assets (real estate, practice, surgery center, etc.) is ideal for long-term success and maximizing value.
- A sale-leaseback allows physician partners to monetize all or a portion of their real estate while securing long-term sustainability for the practice.

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

Amid the transformation of 2020, it's worth remembering that change has always been one of the few constants in healthcare. The events of not just the last year, but the previous decade, are evidence of the adaptability and innovation of those who work in the healthcare industry.
As 2021 approaches, forward-looking healthcare leaders are doing what they do best — preparing their teams for what could come next. In October, Becker's Hospital Review and global consulting firm Guidehouse convened an advisory call with several leaders to discuss the lasting effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare. This e-book is based on their conversation.
Organizations represented on the call include:
- Tacoma, Wash.-based CHI Franciscan
- Scottsdale, Ariz.-based HonorHealth
- Sarasota (Fla.) Memorial Health Care System
- Flemington, N.J.-based Hunterdon HealthCare Partners

In this whitepaper, you will learn:
- How patients approach and interpret their medical bills
- What’s on the minds of patients regarding service estimates, out of pocket costs and shopping for healthcare
- How hospitals can create a better patient payment and consumer-centric healthcare experience

You will learn:
- Why patients are facing an impossible decision
- The rising demand for billing transparency and digital solutions
- The seven patient audiences to address

Highlights of the report:
- MDVIP uses proprietary tools to perform a comprehensive physician and capacity analysis that eliminates any upfront cost and risk for the system and gets them to market faster than if the system was to try to create a new offering on their own.
- Partnering with MDVIP to launch a successful membership-based practice model has worked for more than 1,100 practices for over 20 years.

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

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

Learning Points:
- Sustain/grow market share through improved patient satisfaction, reviews, ratings, and reputation scores.
- Improve cashflow by offering pre-procedure pricing to help reduce post-procedure self-pay, which can help lower the risk of bad debt.
- Optimize revenue through improved acquisition/retention, e.g., scheduling, referrals, etc.
- Increase patient satisfaction by creating a retail-like shopping experience for tests and procedures.
Comply with CMS price transparency rules

In this white paper, expert Kandi Helminiak, RN, BSN, explores:
- Leading factors contributing to new nurse turnover and burnout
- Core barriers impeding new nurse readiness and satisfaction
- Strategies to advance new graduate nurses’ performance and progression


As pediatric hospitals begin operations in 2021, it is essential that they implement technology that aligns with their mission and goals, allows them to reach more patients and frees up clinical staff’s time so they can spend more of it caring for patients.
In this whitepaper, you’ll learn how to:
- Resume regular care while supporting both your clinical mission and their bottom line
- Take advantage of CMS’ increased reimbursement rates by expanding telehealth offerings
- Implement technology that allows clinical staff to spend more time with patients

Key Takeaways:
- Learn why traditional investment yardsticks, like net present value (NPV), have limited utility in today’s dynamic healthcare landscape
- Discover why organizations that view capital allocation and operational execution as an integrated process drive increased value
- Learn how to integrate the five phases of the Clinical Asset Value Chain into your capital investment planning

Report highlights:
- 72 percent of consumers prefer to recover at home versus a medical facility following a major medical event.
- 69 percent of consumers interested in regular, at-home check-ins with physicians.
- 97 percent of payer respondents agree the trend toward moving healthcare to the home is in the best interest of insurers and members alike.

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
Among the key takeaways:
- Digital tools are transforming patient interactions, such as scheduling appointments and notifying patients when to enter the office.
- Organizational culture plays a significant role in determining whether a dental practice is receptive to digital tools.
- Culture change starts with buy-in at the top.
- Despite widespread acceptance of digital tools, some practices resist adopting new technology.
- Organizations that have adopted the use of digital capabilities attest to the positive responses from their patients.

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