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Hospitals are increasingly seeking out new financial arrangements for energy management, transitioning capital expenditures into operating expenses, according to a report from Moody’s Investor Services. “Hospitals and health systems are embracing [Energy as a Service] models to address aging utility infrastructure, enhance energy efficiency and support sustainability initiatives,” the report…

Readmission penalties for hospitals with greater Medicare Advantage penetration are distorted, possibly due to unobserved severity, according to a University of Michigan of Ann Arbor study published Jan. 22 in JAMA Network Open. CMS’s Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program is a value-based initiative designed to deter readmissions and promote patient and…

A common acute care discharge order, “follow up in one week with primary care,” is a virtually impossible task amid ever-growing waitlists at primary care clinics across the U.S. So what if healthcare facilities stopped defaulting to this order?  That is a question Craig Cheifetz, MD, president of Inova Health…

A number of hospitals and health systems are reducing their workforces amid ongoing financial strain. Executives have cited a mix of factors — including lower reimbursement, rising labor and supply costs, and the need to realign operations — as drivers of these decisions. For many organizations, the moves are part…

Hospitals and healthcare facilities are rescheduling appointments, stocking up on medical supplies and coordinating with maintenance crews before a brutal winter storm sweeps across two-thirds of the U.S. The National Weather Service expects a “significant, long-duration winter storm” to travel across the country, starting in the Southwest on Jan. 23…

Bainbridge, Ga.-based Memorial Hospital and Manor hopes to leverage the $50 billion federal Rural Health Transformation Program to make technology improvements, the Post-Searchlight reported. The organization, which includes an 80-bed hospital and long-term and personal care facilities, is eligible for the $219 million that Georgia received as part of the…

Goshen (Ind.) Hospital made a bold commitment in November: implementing a maximum 1-to-4 nurse-to-patient staffing ratio across all inpatient units. The move reflects a strategic shift to reinvest funds traditionally spent on overtime and incentive pay into sustainable nurse staffing — a decision aimed at strengthening retention, improving care, and…

In 2024, private industry employers in the U.S. reported 2.5 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses, down 3.1% from the previous year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Jan. 22.  Nonfatal recordable workplace injuries and illnesses include cases with days away from work, job restriction or transfer, along with other…

Emory Healthcare refurbished its brand identity Jan. 21 across Atlanta and Central Georgia, according to a health system news release shared with Becker’s. Seven things to know: 1. Emory Healthcare is an academic health system with 11 hospitals and provider locations across Georgia. Its network is the largest academically based,…

Boston tops WalletHub’s 2026 ranking of the best cities for science, technology, engineering and math jobs. The personal finance website compared 100 of the most populated U.S. metropolitan statistical areas across three dimensions: professional opportunities, STEM-friendliness and quality of life. WalletHub evaluated those dimensions using 21 metrics, ranging from job…

Clinicians should take on a more proactive role during post-acute care transitions, according to a review published Jan. 20 in JAMA Internal Medicine.  Researchers from University of California at San Francisco and Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania analyzed the post-acute care landscape for the review and highlighted potential opportunities for clinician…

Clinical fellows are among the fastest-growing healthcare roles in major U.S. cities, according to a Jan. 21 LinkedIn News post. The post outlines the 10 fastest-growing jobs in 10 major metropolitan areas, five of which include a healthcare position. LinkedIn also compiled a national list of the 25 fastest-growing jobs,…

About a year after West Texas reported a large measles outbreak, South Carolina has the most measles cases of any U.S. state so far in 2026.  The state’s health department is counting 646 cases as of Jan. 20. Most cases are in Spartanburg County, a county in northwest South Carolina…

Increased telehealth use since the pandemic has not been associated with a rise in overall healthcare utilization, according to a study at Ann Arbor-based Michigan Medicine. The researchers analyzed 538.8 million Medicare fee-for-service outpatient office visits from January 2019 to June 2024, finding that the total number of visits stabilized…

A renewed focus on core nursing practices at Ascension St. Vincent’s Clay County in Middleburg, Fla., led to significant gains in patient experience. Patient feedback highlighted opportunities to improve nurse response times, communication and care team coordination, according to Chief Nursing Officer Sadie Durham, DNP, RN. In late 2024, the…

As rural hospitals across the nation continue to face mounting financial challenges and closures, East Adams Rural Healthcare’s Ritzville (Wash.) Hospital is emerging as a success story through aggressive operational and financial changes, with hopes to become the state’s first rural emergency hospital by April 1. “We just don’t have…

New Mexico has seen the biggest increase in ACA enrollment from 2025 to 2026, while North Carolina has seen the largest decrease, according to KFF. The ranking below uses preliminary CMS data comparing similar periods during the 2025 and 2026 open enrollment periods. The figures do not include final enrollment…

When clinical systems fail, nurses do not stop delivering care — they work around the technology. But those workarounds can yield medication delays, incomplete information and legal exposure that can follow a health system long after the screens come back on. That shift is reshaping the chief nursing informatics officer…

To remain competitive in 2026 and beyond, healthcare leaders must improve performance, embrace technology and rethink traditional care models, according to a Jan. 12 report from McKinsey. Here are five key takeaways for hospital leaders: 1. Healthcare EBITDA as a percentage of national health expenditures fell from 11.2% in 2019…

The typical working family in the U.S. spent $3,960 on healthcare-related costs in 2024, including premiums and out-of-pocket expenses, according to a Jan. 13 report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research. The report analyzed 2024 data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey and found a high cost…

As states finalize plans to administer billions of dollars through the federal Rural Health Transformation Program, rural hospital leaders are beginning to articulate what they hope the funds will enable, from shoring up fragile service lines to building long-term infrastructure that could determine whether their organizations remain viable. CMS awarded…

U.S. healthcare spending reached $5.3 trillion in 2024, a 7.2% increase from $4.9 trillion the previous year, and similar to 7.4% growth in 2023, according to a CMS analysis published Jan. 14 by Health Affairs. Eight things to know, per the analysis: 1. Healthcare spending accounted for 18% of GDP…

For the first time in the 21st century, the U.S. recorded an isolated decrease in deceased kidney donations, according to a Jan. 14 report from the Kidney Transplant Collaborative.  The report, “Losing Transplants for All the Wrong Reasons: A Statistical Analysis of the Reduction in Kidney Transplants in Response to…

As health systems continue to navigate prolonged financial strain, workforce fatigue and growing regulatory pressure, Airica Powell-Steed, EdD, RN, says sustainable turnarounds depend less on quick fixes and more on values-driven leadership and long-term value creation. But there are some mistakes executive teams often make. Dr. Powell-Steed, interim executive vice…