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Nursing emerges as top pathway to middle-class income
Plentiful job openings and potential six-figure incomes are drawing young Americans to nursing, while prospects in other fields are declining, The Wall Street Journal reported April 1. While factory work and office jobs were once the most reliable path to the middle class in the U.S., automation, globalized manufacturing and,…
10 trends in healthcare tech investments and ROI
The return on investment conversation for health technology and AI-powered applications has evolved over the years. Initially a sticky subject without a true answer, IT leaders in many organizations have been able to prove the value of soft ROI and lean into the discomfort of making big investments that indirectly…
Fortune’s 17 best healthcare companies to work for
Seventeen healthcare organizations landed on Fortune’s 2026 list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For.” Fortune partnered with Great Place to Work, a people analytics firm, to create the list. The firm surveyed employees at various organizations, gathering qualitative and quantitative feedback about workplace culture by asking them to…
What health questions are people asking Microsoft Copilot?
Nearly 1 in 5 people who turn to Microsoft Copilot for health information discuss personal symptoms or conditions, the tech giant found. Microsoft analyzed more than 500,000 deidentified health-related conversations to reveal what people are aiming to find out. Nationwide, consumers are increasingly seeking medical advice from AI chatbots, while…
What it takes to sustain engagement among Gen Z nurses: 6 things to know
Generation Z nurses require more frequent one-on-one interaction with managers and leaders than prior generations to maintain similar levels of engagement and retention, according to a March 25 report from Laudio and the American Organization for Nursing Leadership. “Engaging and Retaining Gen Z Nurses: Trends and Strategies” draws on data…
AI Won’t Improve Care Quality Until Your Workforce Is Ready
In conversations with healthcare executives nationwide, I’m hearing a consistent theme: their organizations are investing heavily in AI to address capacity constraints and improve care quality, but getting clinical teams to use these tools effectively remains one of their biggest hurdles. Not the technology itself—the workforce’s readiness to leverage it. We wanted to understand if this was systemic. So, we developed the Covista Care…
Most health systems lack tools for vendor-agnostic interoperability: Survey
Health IT leaders increasingly see vendor consolidation as central to achieving interoperability, but most organizations lack the tools to fully realize it, a March 24 survey from CliniComp found. The findings are based on a survey of CIOs conducted by the CHIME Foundation and released by CliniComp. The survey examined…
AI is coming for admin jobs, CFOs say
Artificial intelligence is expected to disproportionately affect routine, clerical and administrative roles, while having a limited near-term impact on overall employment, The Wall Street Journal reported March 24. The Journal cited findings from a working paper recently published on the National Bureau of Economic Research website. The study, produced with…
‘We don’t think of it as just a service line’: How 5 health systems integrate behavioral health into core finances
Across five health systems, behavioral health leaders are seeing a fundamental shift in how integration is financed: moving from siloed service lines and short-term funding toward enterprisewide cost strategies. Rather than treating behavioral health as a standalone service, leaders said systems are embedding it across care settings and budgets, reflecting…
20 best small cities for careers
Alpharetta, Ga., is the best small U.S. city for careers, according to a Jan. 13 ranking from CoworkingCafe. The ranking was developed by analyzing 298 U.S. cities with populations below 250,000. CoworkingCafe evaluated several key metrics on a 100-point scale, including salary, income, cost of living, job market strength, access…
‘Game-changers for their communities’: UAB plans 3rd freestanding ED
Birmingham, Ala.-based UAB Health System is planning a third freestanding emergency department, this time in Oxford, Ala. UAB St. Vincent’s St. Clair has filed a letter of intent with the Alabama State Health Planning and Development Agency to seek a certificate of need for the project. The proposed freestanding ED…
10 most, least stressed states
South Dakota was found to be the least stressed state, while Louisiana was the most stressed, according to WalletHub’s annual ranking. WalletHub compared all 50 states across 4 key dimensions — work-related stress, money-related stress, family-related stress, and health- and safety-related stress — which were evaluated using 40 metrics, ranging…
Viewpoint: US nursing workforce faces several risks
Federal budget policies could put the nation’s nursing faculty workforce under great strain, according to a March 20 JAMA Health Forum viewpoint by two leaders at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Proposed changes to the U.S. federal budget emphasize short-term recruitment of clinical nursing staff “without thoughtful…
‘The 1980s called’: CMS to phase out fax, mail
CMS has finalized a rule to phase out faxing and mailing for healthcare claims documentation. Four things to know: 1. The Administrative Simplification; Adoption of Standards for Health Care Claims Attachments Transactions and Electronic Signatures Final Rule is projected to save the healthcare industry roughly $781 million annually by establishing…
How rural hospital CEOs are navigating new healthcare laws in 2026
As rural hospital leaders guide their organizations through 2026, they are juggling the financial pressure of federal Medicaid changes while looking to state legislatures for tools to stabilize their organizations. From Nebraska’s Medicaid work requirements to New Mexico’s updated physician loan forgiveness initiative, the policy landscape is reshaping how rural…
10 most, least innovative states
Of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital is the most innovative, according to a ranking from personal finance website WalletHub. The March 18 list evaluated all 50 states and Washington, D.C., using 25 indicators of “innovation friendliness,” including share of STEM professionals and concentration of technology companies.…
Judge’s ruling on HHS’ vaccine overhaul spurs questions about RSV shot availability
A federal judge’s March 16 ruling blocking much of HHS’ recent vaccine policy overhaul is raising new questions about access to respiratory syncytial virus preventive shots for infants. In the decision, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts invalidated actions taken by members appointed to the CDC’s Advisory…
An issue with hospital executive pay
Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare’s executive compensation structure underscores a clear industry reality: financial performance — particularly EBITDA — remains the dominant driver of leadership pay. According to HCA’s 2025 proxy report, published March 13, 80% of executive incentive compensation is tied to EBITDA performance, with the remaining 20% linked to…
How 3 hospitals are bringing nurses back to the bedside
A rising demand for adequate nurse staffing is pushing some hospitals to expand their recruitment strategies to nurses who had left the bedside. Adequate staffing made national headlines during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has been a core issue for many hospitals ever since. But in the last year, its importance…
Better hospital quality linked to stronger margins: Vizient study
Hospitals in Vizient’s top tier for quality performance reported an average operating margin of 6.3% in late 2025, while hospitals with the lowest quality posted a -3.6% operating margin, according to a Vizient study published March 16. To examine how quality rankings correlate with financial performance, Vizient analyzed data from…
15 best, worst states for physicians in 2026
Montana is the best state for physicians to practice in 2026, a recognition it has retained for several consecutive years as part of WalletHub’s annual ranking. New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island were deemed the worst states to practice, according to the 2026 ranking, published March 17. The personal…
Top 20 hospitals ranked by community benefit spending: Lown Institute
The Lown Institute, a nonpartisan healthcare think tank, has named eight New York hospitals and four in Texas in its annual ranking of top 20 U.S. hospitals for community benefit. To evaluate an organization’s community benefit spending, the institute equally weighed available metrics on financial assistance, Medicaid patient revenue and…
The healthcare roles least, most vulnerable to AI: Washington Post
Healthcare support workers and physician assistants are projected to have the lowest vulnerability to artificial intelligence among roles in the field, while medical secretaries and administrative assistants may face higher vulnerability, The Washington Post reported March 16. The predictions come from researchers at GovAI, which studies technology policy, and Brookings…
What health systems learned from the Stryker cyberattack
The recent cyberattack on medtech company Stryker must serve as a “wake-up call” about hackers’ evolving tactics, even as it illustrates a “new normal” in healthcare, health system leaders told Becker’s. Hackers disrupted the firm’s internal Microsoft environment March 11, causing health systems to evaluate their exposure and, in some…


