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Georgia system to add 100 residency positions
Savannah, Ga.-based St. Joseph’s/Candler plans to launch a residency program with 103 positions across four specialties, hospital leaders confirmed to Becker’s March 10. The two-hospital system received nearly $17 million in state funding to support the program, which legislators approved as part of an amended state budget for 2026, according…
Hospital expenses grew twice as fast as prices in 2025: 4 AHA findings
American hospitals saw expenses grow 7.5% in 2025, more than twice the rate of growth in hospital prices that year, according to the American Hospital Association’s annual “Costs of Caring” report. The findings, which were drawn from industry benchmark data compiled by Strata Decision Technology, point to a system under…
3 forces reshaping organizations in 2026: McKinsey
McKinsey’s “State of Organizations 2026” report highlights several disruptions affecting organizations globally, including challenges hospital and health system leaders are grappling with. The report is based on survey responses collected from June to September from more than 10,000 senior executives across 15 countries and 17 industries. More than 3,000 respondents…
Private equity invested $1 trillion in healthcare in 10 years: Report
Private equity firms have become a major force in healthcare, investing more than $1 trillion over the last ten years, according to a recent report from New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights. The report, published March 10 and authored by Michael Goldhaber, examines how private equity’s…
10 happiest US cities
Fremont, Calif., topped WalletHub’s 2026 ranking of happiest cities in the U.S. for another year, while Detroit ranked at the bottom. For the ranking, the personal finance website compared 182 of the largest U.S. cities — including the 150 most populous nationwide, plus at least two of the most populous…
442 top hospitals for patient safety: Healthgrades
Healthgrades has recognized 442 hospitals in 40 states for being the top 10% in the nation for patient safety. Texas had the most recognized facilities at 77. The 2025 Patient Safety Excellence Award recognizes hospitals that excel in quality care while preventing serious safety events during hospital stays. The award…
Judge orders Leapfrog to remove grades for 5 Florida hospitals
A federal judge ruled March 6 in favor of five Florida hospitals that filed a lawsuit against The Leapfrog Group nearly a year ago, which claimed the organization’s “D” and “F” safety scores unfairly damaged the hospitals’ reputations. Leapfrog has faced these allegations in two separate cases — one in…
10 drugs poised to be global best-sellers in 2030
Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro is projected to be the best-selling drug in the world in 2030, according to Statista data shared March 9 with Becker’s. Statista is a global data company that provides market insights for 170 industries, including pharmaceuticals. The company projects these 10 drugs will be the best-selling pharmaceutical…
50 states ranked by hospital concentration
The newly launched Health Care Affordability Lab within New Haven, Conn.-based Yale University’s Tobin Center for Economic Policy released a tool March 9 that allows users to explore hospital mergers, closures, ownership changes and market concentration across all 50 states. Using the dataset behind the lab’s new Hospital Markets data…
10 top patient safety concerns in 2026: ECRI
The use of artificial intelligence in diagnosis, rural healthcare access and federal funding cuts are among the most pressing patient safety concerns facing healthcare organizations in 2026, according to a new report from ECRI and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices. Topping the list of patient safety threats this year…
The cardiology physician shortage by state by 2036
By 2036, the U.S. is projected to have 39,600 cardiology physicians available to meet a demand of 46,600, leaving a shortfall of about 7,000 physicians nationwide, according to projections from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration. Most states are projected to fall below full…
10 best, worst states for women in 2026
Massachusetts is the best U.S. state for women for the second consecutive year, according to a March 2 WalletHub ranking. The personal finance website’s 2026 list of the “Best & Worst States for Women” was compiled by comparing the 50 states and Washington, D.C., across 25 key metrics. Each metric…
Four Proven Approaches to Stabilizing Clinical Operations
Across the country, health systems are showing that staffing stability is achievable even in a constrained physician market. While workforce pressures are now a daily reality, leading organizations are responding differently: aligning service lines, redesigning care delivery, and building stability into their operating models rather than relying on reactive fixes.…
5 Ways Healthcare Facilities Can Optimize Space and Efficiency
Long wait times, crowded waiting rooms, and frustrated staff are often symptoms of inefficient workflows driven by physical space constraints. Poorly designed layouts can create bottlenecks, limit privacy, and negatively impact both staff and patient experience. Yet for many hospitals, clinics, and outpatient settings, expanding or relocating simply isn’t feasible.…
66 hospitals with the most ED visits in 2025
According to data gathered by Becker’s, Parkland Health and Hospital System saw the highest number of emergency department visits in 2025. The figures below represent the number of ED visits at individual hospital facilities, rather than the total visits across entire health systems. These self-reported totals were provided directly by…
How health system leaders combat ‘meeting overload’
Two-thirds of workplace leaders cite meetings as the No. 1 thing they spend too much time on, according to a Feb. 10 Korn Ferry article. The figure stems from surveys of executives from Fortune and Korn Ferry’s 28th annual list of the World’s Most Admired Companies — on which six…
The next phase of patient experience
Nearly half of hospital executives said patient experience is their top priority for the next two years, according to a recent survey. However, scores have steadily declined since 2019. In 2020, 14% of executives said patient experience was their top strategic initiative. In 2025, that rose to 49%. However, patients’…
6 health systems land on Fortune’s most-admired companies list
Six health systems were featured on Fortune and Korn Ferry’s 28th annual list of the World’s Most Admired Companies. The list, published Jan. 21, is based on surveys of executives, directors and financial analysts who rated companies on nine criteria, including talent attraction, management quality, product quality and social responsibility.…
What’s next for hospital wages?
Hospitals are reaching a breaking point as demand and competition for healthcare workers pushes wages ever higher. Labor and expenses per calendar day grew 5% from 2024 to 2025, and 12% from 2022, according to Kaufman Hall’s “National Hospital Flash Report” and the growth may not be done. Fitch forecasts…
EHR strategy becomes a recruitment lever for health systems
For many chief medical information officers, technology investments are no longer framed solely as operational upgrades. Increasingly, they are being discussed in the context of clinician recruitment, retention and burnout mitigation. Becker’s asked CMIOs whether EHR platforms and newer AI tools are influencing their ability to attract and retain clinicians…
Child obesity rates hit record high: 5 notes
One in 5 children aged 2 to 19 in the U.S. are living with obesity, marking the highest rate ever recorded, according to newly published data from the CDC. The agency published two reports Feb. 25 examining obesity prevalence in the U.S. — one focused on children and adolescents and…
Limiting loans for nurses will make our country’s health care crisis even worse
Proposed changes to federal student loans threaten to shrink the nursing workforce when we can least afford it. Our nation is in the throes of a health care crisis, and we should be doing everything possible to support nurses and attract new ones to the profession. Yet, the Department of…
Radiologist turnover doubled in recent years, study finds
Job-switching rates among U.S. radiologists increased by 61% between 2013 and 2022. After adjusting for radiologist and practice characteristics, researchers found odds of practice turnover, or the phenomenon of leaving one organization to join another, were about twice as high in 2020-2022 compared to 2013, according to a Feb. 24…
The workforce investments health system execs refuse to cut
As hospitals nationwide contend with margin pressure and persistent workforce shortages, 56 health systems were named to Forbes‘ annual list of America’s Best Large Employers. Leaders from several of those organizations told Becker’s they have deliberately protected — and in some cases expanded — investments in leadership development, career pathways,…


