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Austin-based UT Health Austin was named the most trusted healthcare brand in Monigle’s “2026 most trusted healthcare brands” section of its Humanizing Brand Experience Vol. 9 report.

Brand consultancy Monigle surveyed more than 3,000 nationally balanced U.S. healthcare consumers for the report, which examined trust, engagement, compassion and healthcare consumer sentiment.

Here are the 20 most trusted health system brands, according to the report:

1. UT Health Austin
2. Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn.)
3. Emory Healthcare (Atlanta)
4. Johns Hopkins Medicine (Baltimore)
5. BayCare (Clearwater, Fla.)
6. Penn Medicine (Philadelphia)
7. Mass General Brigham (Somerville, Mass.)
8. Duke Health (Durham, N.C.)
9. Mount Sinai Medical Center (Miami Beach, Fla.)
10. UCI Health (Orange, Calif.)
11. UT Health San Antonio
12. Bon Secours-St. Francis (Greenville, S.C.)
13. UVA Health (Charlottesville, Va.)
14. Virtua Health (Marlton, N.J.)
15. University of Maryland Medical System (Baltimore)
16. Hoag (Newport Beach, Calif.)
17. Vanderbilt Health (Nashville, Tenn.)
18. University of Iowa Health Care (Iowa City, Iowa)
19. Penn State Health (Hershey, Pa.)
20. UAB Medicine (Birmingham, Ala.)

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While hospitals and health systems work to recruit and retain the next generation of healthcare talent, another group is also top of mind: those nearing retirement age.

A recent study found that leaving the workforce before retirement age may accelerate cognitive decline, and working into older ages could help delay it. For employers, the case for retaining experienced employees is also pressing amid concerns of a wave of baby boomer retirements that could thin institutional knowledge across the workforce. 

To keep their most experienced team members engaged, health systems are building structured pathways that let them stay in the workforce longer, including flexible scheduling, phased transitions and mentorship programs.

At Annapolis, Md.-based Luminis Health, employee well-being is a top priority — including support for those approaching retirement, Chief Human Resources Officer Amy Beales told Becker’s. One area of focus has been encouraging earlier and more intentional retirement planning conversations between leaders and staff members.

“By discussing timing, scheduling flexibility, and phased transitions well in advance, we can adjust responsibilities or hours in ways that better support the employee while also helping the organization plan ahead,” Ms. Beales said. “In many cases, this approach has helped retain experienced employees longer, strengthen knowledge transfer and mentorship, and reduce operational gaps during leadership or staff transitions.”

Other systems are formalizing those transitions into structured programs. Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Cottage Health has made succession planning a key focus, CHRO Cara Williams told Becker’s in 2025, implementing a program that allows retiring employees to phase their retirement over two years while building a robust succession plan across all levels.

Nurses are a key focus. Morgantown, W.Va.-based WVU Medicine offers a work-life balance program that allows qualifying nurses near retirement to work part-time while receiving full-time benefits, a structure designed to boost retention, Assistant Vice President of System Nursing Services Jessica Huffman, DNP, RN, told Becker’s in September.

Physicians are also a top priority. They are leaving clinical practice earlier than ever as a result of stress and administrative burden, according to a May study conducted by American Medical Association researchers. The shift comes as the U.S. faces a projected physician shortage of between 13,500 and 86,000 by 2036 — a gap that could be reduced by about 40,000 simply by increasing the average retirement age by two years, the researchers found.

Physician CEOs have been especially focused on retaining later-career physicians, with many systems offering part-time roles and flexible schedules to meet their evolving needs.

At Duluth, Minn.-based Essentia Health, section leaders meet twice a year with the colleagues to discuss development, regardless of career stage, CEO David Herman, MD, told Becker’s in 2025. When one physician considering retirement said they would prefer to focus on inpatient work, and another at a similar stage wanted only outpatient work, Essentia restructured their duties to meet their needs.

“Suddenly they both said, ‘I think I have another five years left in me,’” Dr. Herman said. “The things that create energy are different for everyone.”

Beyond scheduling, systems are also opening up new paths for experienced physicians who want to stay involved in different ways. Richmond, Va.-based VCU Health, for instance, creates opportunities for physicians pursuing MBAs or transitioning into leadership roles. CEO Marlon Levy, MD, told Becker’s in 2025 that many physicians late in their careers are not looking to leave entirely.

“They want to continue to participate — often not either administratively or clinically, but both,” Dr. Levy said. “It’s incumbent upon administrative teams to understand that doctors feel like they may have more to contribute in the administrative or leadership space than they had in the past.”

The post How hospitals are fending off a retirement wave appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Larger states such as California and Texas employ the highest number of registered nurses nationwide. But when measured by concentration — the number of RNs employed per 1,000 jobs in a state’s economy — both states rank much lower, according to May 2025 data released May 15 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

West Virginia had the nation’s highest RN concentration at 33.4 nurses per 1,000 jobs, while Utah ranked last at 15.8.

Nationwide, general medical and surgical hospitals employed the largest share of registered nurses, accounting for about 56% of RN employment, or roughly 1.9 million jobs. Physicians’ offices and home healthcare services employed the next-largest shares of RNs.

Below are the employment-per-1,000-job figures for registered nurses in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to BLS data.

1. West Virginia — 33.391

2. South Dakota — 32.170

3. Delaware — 29.478

4. North Dakota — 26.403

5. Missouri — 25.992

6. Ohio — 25.897

7. Maine — 25.827

8. Alabama — 25.707

9. Louisiana — 25.311

10. Kentucky — 25.144

11. Mississippi — 24.988

12. Vermont — 24.392

13. Massachusetts — 24.247

14. Pennsylvania — 24.161

15. Nebraska — 24.136

16. Michigan — 23.831

17. Minnesota — 23.766

18. Connecticut — 23.648

19. Kansas — 23.514

20. Florida — 23.156

21. Wisconsin — 23.138

22. Alaska — 23.057

23. Illinois — 22.780

24. Arizona — 22.581

25. Arkansas — 22.554

26. New Hampshire — 22.517

27. North Carolina — 22.486

28. Oklahoma — 22.409

29. Iowa — 22.077

30. Tennessee — 22.021

31. New Jersey — 21.624

32. South Carolina — 21.583

33. Indiana — 21.550

34. Montana — 21.410

35. New York — 21.244

36. Georgia — 20.648

37. New Mexico — 20.648

38. Hawaii — 20.622

39. Oregon — 20.198

40. Rhode Island — 20.132

41. Idaho — 19.690

42. Washington — 19.506

43. Texas — 19.287

44. Maryland — 19.149

45. Wyoming — 19.000

46. Colorado — 18.959

47. Virginia — 18.856

48. California — 18.609

49. Nevada — 17.447

50. District of Columbia — 16.305

51. Utah — 15.797

The post Where RNs are most concentrated: Rankings by state appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Department of Veterans Affairs staff did not detect a prohibited weapon that undercover Government Accountability Office investigators brought into any of 30 tested VA medical facilities — including two with metal detectors — according to a GAO report publicly released May 13. 

Nine things to know:

1. The GAO was asked to review security at VA medical facilities. The report examines the nature of reported criminal activity at VA facilities, the extent to which the VA has implemented federal security requirements and detected vulnerabilities, and VA processes for incorporating security and threat information into infrastructure planning. GAO reviewed VA policies, crime data and risk assessment data; conducted covert tests at a non-generalizable sample of 30 facilities; and interviewed VA personnel and veterans in Arkansas and California.

2. VA staff also did not confront an investigator drinking in plain view from a bottle labeled vodka in 25 of 26 covert tests, which is generally prohibited at VA facilities.

3. The roughly 74,700 crimes reported at VA medical facilities in fiscal 2024 and 2025 were overwhelmingly nonviolent, including disorderly conduct, theft and drug offenses, according to the GAO’s analysis. The average crime rate over the two-year period was about twice as high at urban facilities (214 crimes per facility) than rural facilities (123 crimes per facility) — consistent with a Department of Justice report on overall criminal trends.

4. The Interagency Security Committee, of which the VA is a member, developed a risk management standard that federal agencies are required to follow. The GAO found the VA has not fully implemented all ISC requirements, including documenting decisions on the security strategies it will adopt or measuring the performance of those strategies.

5. The VA has a performance goal to address security gaps through capital planning, and while it has met its overall security-gap planning goal, two of 18 regions did not in fiscal years 2023 through 2025, the report said. GAO attributed this to VA headquarters not communicating to the regions that they were missing the goal.

6. GAO made three recommendations to the VA secretary: Develop a plan with milestones for fully implementing the ISC’s risk management standard; assess the resources needed to fully implement it; and develop a mechanism for VA headquarters to communicate with regional officials on their progress in meeting the 95% security gap closure planning goal. 

7. A VA spokesperson told Becker’s in a May 20 statement that the “second Trump administration inherited from the Biden Administration a fractured VA police force plagued with problems,” adding that the VA identified many of the issues highlighted in the GAO report independently in early 2025 and has been working to fix them.

8. The spokesperson said successful efforts include establishing the Office of Security and Preparedness — led by its own assistant secretary — and consolidating VA police operations under that office. All VA police now report to a law enforcement professional with a direct line to the VA secretary’s office, an improvement from when VA police reported to nearly 150 different medical center directors, the spokesperson said.

9. The spokesperson also said the Trump administration worked with the Office of Personnel Management to reclassify VA police officers to qualify for higher pay, which is expected to improve recruitment, retention and upward mobility.

The post VA security failed all 30 covert weapons tests: GAO  appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine reported an operating income of $238.5 million (2.4% margin) for the nine months ended March 31, up 46.3% from $163 million (1.9% margin) in the same period last year, according to financial documents filed May 20.

The results follow the April 1, 2025, acquisition of Doylestown (Pa.) Health. Doylestown Hospital, a 245-bed teaching hospital, became Penn Medicine’s seventh hospital and is now known as Penn Medicine Doylestown Health.

Six things to know:

1. Operating revenue climbed 15.2% year over year. Penn Medicine reported total operating revenue of $10.1 billion for the nine-month period, up from $8.8 billion during the same period in 2025. Net patient service revenue increased 13.5% year over year to $8.5 billion.

2. Expenses rose 14.9% year over year. Total operating expenses before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization increased 14.9% year over year to $9.5 billion. Salaries and wages rose to $4 billion, while supplies and service costs increased to $4.1 billion. Interest expenses ($68.5 million) and depreciation and amortization ($335.3 million) costs dragged down the health system’s overall performance for the nine-month period.

3. EBITDA topped $642 million. Penn Medicine posted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $642 million for the nine-month period, up from $540 million during the same period in 2025.

4. Net income rose sharply. Penn Medicine reported $748.2 million in net income, up from $431.2 million a year earlier. The increase was aided by $242.1 million in unrealized gains on alternative and equity investments and $183.1 million in net realized gains, contributions and other support.

5. The health system’s balance sheet expanded significantly. Total assets reached $17.2 billion as of March 31, 2026, compared with $15.4 billion a year earlier. Net assets grew to $10.7 billion from $9.7 billion. Long-term debt also increased, rising to $2.6 billion from $2.3 billion, reflecting capital investment activity during the period.

6. Volumes grew across several categories. Volume metrics reflect the Doylestown addition and underlying demand growth. Adult and neonatal admissions rose to 120,297 from 105,711 in the prior-year period. Emergency room visits increased to 370,992 from 332,307, and outpatient visits grew to 4.364 million from 3.938 million. Staffed adult and neonatal beds increased to 3,369 from 3,102, reflecting the addition of Doylestown Hospital’s 245-bed capacity. Occupancy held at 78%, up slightly from 77.5%.

The post Penn Medicine operating income grows to $238M after Doylestown Health acquisition: 6 things to know appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has removed the two vice-chairs of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an expert panel that provides clinical preventive health recommendations to Congress, an HHS official confirmed to Becker’s May 21.

John Wong, MD, and Esa Davis, MD, led the task force. The group assigns grades to preventive services, which private health insurance covers without cost-sharing under the ACA.

According to documents obtained by Becker’s, the leaders were subject to a review under revised governance procedures, and the terminations did not stem from performance issues. The change comes just ahead of a May 23 nomination deadline for new members, and both are still able to apply.

The task force has been effectively sidelined for the past year, with its most recent meeting in March 2025. Since then, meetings have been postponed, with one cancellation occurring during the government shutdown. Last month, Mr. Kennedy said the volunteer group had been “lackadaisical and negligent” for two decades, adding it will meet more often than the planned three times per year.

“We strongly urge HHS to restore the USPSTF’s long-standing, transparent process for selecting members, specifically clinicians with expertise in the fields of preventive medicine and primary care,” a May 20 American Medical Association statement said. “We also implore HHS to commit to once again holding regular task force meetings to ensure its important work can continue without further delay. Our patients’ lives depend on it.”

Last year, HHS tried to overhaul the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices. Subsequent changes to the U.S. childhood vaccine schedule were met with a legal challenge. In April, the Trump administration filed notice that it would appeal the federal court ruling.

The post RFK Jr. ousts 2 preventive services task force leads  appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Jacksonville-based Mayo Clinic in Florida has received a $75 million gift to support its expansion initiative.

Four things to know:

1. The donation from Paula and Randy Ringhaver will support the Lee Ringhaver Tower, a newly expanded hospital tower named in honor of the couple’s son, Randal “Lee” Ringhaver Jr., who died from leukemia in 1980 at 8 1/2 months old, according to a May 21 health system news release.

2. A five-story expansion of the tower began serving patients in 2025, adding 121 new rooms and digital technologies designed to support personalized care. The tower also includes shell space for future growth and capacity for three additional stories.

3. Including the Lee Ringhaver Tower expansion, Mayo Clinic’s “Bold. Forward. Unbound.” initiative encompasses more than 725,000 square feet of new clinical, research and education space. The initiative also includes the Duan Family Building, which contains the country’s’ first carbon ion therapy system, a biomanufacturing expansion and a future research and education building.

4. Across Mayo Clinic, “Bold. Forward. Unbound.” will add more than 4 million square feet of new space across campuses in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota.

The post Mayo Clinic in Florida receives $75M gift appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

John Dubis, who spent more than 36 years in healthcare leadership, including as president and CEO of Edgewood, Ky.-based St. Elizabeth Healthcare, died May 14. He was 71.

During his tenure at the six-hospital system, Mr. Dubis was known for his integrity, compassion and vision, guiding the organization through continued growth and a commitment to high-quality patient care, according to his obituary. 

Mr. Dubis joined St. Elizabeth Healthcare in 2007 as COO and was CEO from 2011 until his retirement in 2015 after a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease. 

St. Elizabeth Medical Center and St. Luke Hospitals merged to form St. Elizabeth Healthcare in late 2008, according to the system’s website. Mr. Dubis played a key role in the merger and, under his leadership, the system added 1,000 employees, improved operations and invested millions in facility improvements and new programs, The Enquirer reported Feb. 13, 2015.

Mr. Dubis discussed the merger in a 2012 interview with Smart Business, highlighting the need for clear communication, a patient-centered approach and adaptability amid a changing healthcare environment.

“It’s easy to get negative and pessimistic about what’s going to happen in the future. I frankly look at it as an opportunity to lead ourselves in a different way that could be even better than what we have today,” Mr. Dubis said. “This is a new world in which having a strong desire to embrace change and work within the abstract and uncomfortable zone of unfamiliarity is what it’s going to take to guide your organization to be successful down the road.”

Mr. Dubis also held executive leadership roles at several other hospitals and health systems, including SSM St. Mary’s Health Center in Jefferson City, Mo., SSM St. Francis Hospital and Health Center in Chicago, and SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis, according to his obituary.

He served on several boards and organizations, including the Kentucky Hospital Association and the Greater Cincinnati Health Council.

One comment on his obituary described him as a great mentor and friend during their years at St. Elizabeth. He will be remembered for his “steady presence, kind heart and deep dedication to helping others,” according to his obituary.

The post Former Kentucky system CEO dies appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

The Civica Foundation has received a $3.2 million grant to launch a program aimed at expanding access to generic medications for rural hospitals in nine states.

The Civica Rural Hospital Program will support rural and critical access hospitals in Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, according to a May 7 news release from the foundation. The initiative is designed to help hospitals secure access to generic medicines frequently affected by national drug shortages.

The three-year pilot program is expected to support approximately 225 rural hospitals representing an estimated 6,750 hospital beds. The Civica Foundation said grant funding will cover per-bed membership fees for eligible hospitals, allowing them to join Civica at no cost. Civica also said it will waive annual purchase commitments for participating hospitals.

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Mona Baset, vice president of digital engagement at Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Health, is stepping down from her role.

Ms. Baset announced her departure in a May 20 LinkedIn post.

She has served in the role since April 2022. Ms. Baset said she will take a career break.

The post Intermountain digital engagement VP steps down appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Cleveland-based MetroHealth System plans to deploy smart technology at 500 patient rooms across five hospitals.

The public, safety-net health system intends to bring Artisight’s virtual nursing, virtual sitting and AI-powered fall monitoring and voice-command capabilities to its new Glick Center in Cleveland, hospitals in Brecksville, Cleveland Heights and Parma, and rehabilitation institute in Old Brooklyn over the next two years.

“Hospital smart rooms represent a shift toward patient-centered, technology-driven healthcare,” said Jill Evans, MSN, RN, chief nursing informatics officer and executive director of virtual care at MetroHealth, in a May 21 news release. “By automating tasks, improving safety, and enhancing comfort, these rooms enable providers to deliver more attentive and personalized care.”

MetroHealth selected the platform based on factors including staffing efficiency and cost reduction, faster discharges, fall rate reductions, HCAHPS score improvements, and caregiver satisfaction.

The post MetroHealth to roll out 500 smart rooms appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

The National Council of State Boards of Nursing found the District of Columbia has the most licensed nurses per capita, while Utah is the state with the fewest for the second year in a row.

The organization created a course of nursing licensure statistics in the U.S. and its territories. The data was compiled using the NCSBN’s database and Nursys, an electronic information system where regulatory bodies enter licensure data. All of the council’s 58 members shared licensure data, which amounted to 6,903,665 registered and practical nurses — up from 6,870,362 last year.

According to the data, Wyoming and Vermont had the fewest licensed nurses in their states overall, at 9,620 and 13,528, respectively. Meanwhile, California and New York had the most licensed nurses at 708,141 and 610,207, respectively. 

Becker’s used 2025 Census data to calculate how many nurses are in each state per 100,000 population. Here are the five with the most and the five with the fewest nurses.

Most

State	Total Nurses	2025 population	Nurses per 100,000
District of Columbia	51,923	693,645	7,485
Alaska	23,138	737,270	3,139
New York	610,207	20,002,427	3,051
Minnesota	156,970	5,830,405	2,693
Massachusetts	191,320	7,154,084	2,674

Fewest

State	Total Nurses	2025 population	Nurses per 100,000
Utah	49,500	3,538,904	1,399
Washington	116,988	8,001,020	1,462
Georgia	177,673	11,302,748	1,572
Idaho	31,942	2,029,733	1,574
Texas	529,511	31,709,821	1,670

The post States with the most, fewest licensed nurses per capita appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

CMS’ latest proposal to cap certain state Medicaid payments has drawn immediate pushback from hospital groups, which argue the plan will further decrease access to care and destabilize hospitals that rely on supplemental Medicaid funding.

The agency proposed a rule May 20 that would create new limits for Medicaid state-directed payments and certain fee-for-service payments, aligning them more closely with Medicare rates. CMS said the proposed changes would reduce Medicaid spending by more than $775 billion over 10 years, including $510 billion in federal savings.

Under the proposal, CMS would cap certain state-directed payments for hospital, nursing facility and qualified practitioner services at academic medical centers at 100% of Medicare rates in Medicaid expansion states and 110% of Medicare rates in nonexpansion states for rating periods beginning on or after July 4, 2025. The agency also proposed extending the payment rate limit to all state-directed payments for all services in all states, the District of Columbia and territories for rating periods beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2029.

The American Hospital Association questioned how the policy would be implemented and how it could affect providers’ ability to rely on Medicaid payments.

“Healthcare-related taxes and Medicaid supplemental payment programs are longstanding tools that help address chronically inadequate base Medicaid payment rates, and the changes to these financing systems and related provider payments will have very real consequences for access to care in communities across the nation,” Ashley Thompson, senior vice president for public policy analysis and development at the AHA, said in a May 20 statement. “Projected reductions in funding for essential healthcare services will not only limit access to care for Medicaid patients. When hospitals and providers are forced to reduce services — or even close entirely — everyone in a community is impacted.”

America’s Essential Hospitals also criticized the proposal, arguing it would cut state-directed payments by hundreds of billions of dollars more than the Congressional Budget Office projected.

“CMS’ proposed cuts to state-directed payments go far beyond what Congress intended,” Jennifer DeCubellis, president and CEO of America’s Essential Hospitals, said. “By cutting SDPs by hundreds of billions of dollars more than the Congressional Budget Office projected, CMS will devastate essential hospitals’ ability to provide high quality care to the patients and communities they serve.”

Ms. DeCubellis added that Medicaid state-directed payments are a “financial lifeline” for essential hospitals and help states improve access to care for vulnerable patients.

The Federation of American Hospitals also urged CMS to work with hospitals as it advances the proposal.

“Patients rely on their local hospital to be there for them whenever they need care,” Charlene MacDonald, president and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, said in a statement. “A strong, sustainable Medicaid program is essential to maintaining that commitment, especially in rural areas where hospitals are often the largest employer and the only source of care for miles, and state directed payments are a critical part of that equation.”

The proposed rule includes a 60-day comment period. The AHA said it plans to issue a regulatory advisory to members detailing the proposal.

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At its heart, improving the patient experience is all about communication. Feedback from patients consistently and overwhelmingly points us to this focus. More than anything, patients and families want compassionate and clear communication with every person they interact with. They also want coordinated communication from the team so that they understand the plan of care. These communication needs and expectations are at the top of every patient experience data set and are a guiding priority for any patient experience improvement effort. Interventions to improve the experience are largely designed to facilitate communication, build bridges between caregivers, patients and families, and connect the dots for all. 

Solving this “communication puzzle” is as complicated now as it has ever been. New technology is constantly being introduced into the care setting. Production pressure on care teams raises the stakes for every interaction. Finally, a new workforce is emerging that adds to the complexity of this moment.

Articles in the media every week examine the impact of ever-present devices on the newest generations entering the workforce. Gen Z workers are the first generation to grow up with ubiquitous personal devices. Many of these articles also note that although we are more electronically connected than ever, we feel more isolated. Our devices bring us more information than ever, but they don’t meet our needs for real and meaningful connection.

This dynamic is also present in healthcare. Caregivers including nurses, physicians, transporters and housekeepers, all carry devices. We can see the task before us on our device — charting, room turnover or dispatches to pick up the next patient — but we can miss the person right in front of us. Studies of Gen Z nurses, for example, illustrate this dynamic. They show a generation that craves connection more than ever. ICombined with the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic drove the greatest period of workforce turnover healthcare has ever seen, the industry now faces a significant communication challenge. How do we enable our team members — who are more device-focused than ever and who have less training in the art of communicating with patients and families — to meet the needs and expectations of those we serve?

There are a couple of things to consider as we think about how to approach this “harder than ever” patient experience communication challenge. 

First, the distracting, enveloping blizzard of devices and sources of information that make it so easy to ignore the person in front of us is not just a challenge for Gen Z but for every healthcare worker. The problem is accelerating, but its roots have been planted over the last decade. In general, the effort to create truly integrated clinical and management information systems that support the front line is still very much a work in progress.

One hospital CEO noted publicly this month that his system was using more than 150 different patched together “products” and platforms to support its operations. Another large and prominent health system chief quality officer tracked seven different information and communication subsystems that did not talk to each other during a recent shift in the emergency department, consuming more than 50% of his time toggling between them. Thus, the primary task of rationalizing and integrating the “blizzard of electronic complexity and distraction” must continue, not only for Gen Z workers, but for all healthcare employees. 

There are some hopeful examples to look to. For example, Prisma Health, publishing in NEJM Catalyst, documented the gains from their commitment to a single electronically enabled Clinical Operating System, called “Pulse,” including a 59% improvement in top box patient experience scores and a 57% decline in serious safety events. These dramatic win-win-win results mirror what we are seeing among peers committed to establishing a single, aligned clinical operating system built to support the work of front-line team members and managers rather than piecemeal efforts developed over time. 

This technology infrastructure work should be accompanied by communication skill building and training for the newest members of our healthcare workforce. Many of these employees came to their jobs during the pandemic without some of the interpersonal communication training that previous generations received. In addition, many came to front-line roles with less practical, hands-on experience than previous generations. The response to COVID-19 created this crunch. Now is the time to address these gaps with training, support and mentoring. 

Finally, efforts to address the challenges being faced by the newer members of our workforce should leverage the strengths and perspectives they bring to the table. All of us with kids, friends or acquaintances in this cohort marvel at how quickly and easily they navigate electronic communication streams and make them “work for them” in organizing their lives. Conversely, Gen Z’s sense of isolation and desire for human connection mirrors the same desire from our patients. If we can bridge the gap with technology and skill building for our colleagues, we have the potential for an enormous win-win: a more engaged workforce and better served patients and families. 

We must work to both tame the blizzard of disparate communication sources and systems and strengthen skills and habits in our workforce to provide the communication that patients, families and caregivers all crave. Gen Z team members should not just be the “subject” but key members of the alignment effort at the unit, service line and enterprise-wide level. We need their talent for cutting through the electronic fog, and we need to tap into their heightened yearning for human connection for the good of all. 

The post Healthcare’s communication puzzle is getting more complex appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Fifty-nine percent of healthcare executives said in a recent survey that physician specialists are the most difficult clinical job to fill, but the specialty that is most difficult for systems varies by state.

Hospitals and health systems are grappling with a national physician shortage. Across all physician specialties in the U.S., there is a projected shortage of 141,160 full-time equivalent physicians in 2038, according to a December report from the Health Resources and Services Administration. Pay and financial incentives used to have the greatest impact on physician recruitment, but in recent years, physicians are making their decisions based on other factors, such as culture and work-life balance.

Becker’s spoke with three leaders about which specialties are the most difficult to recruit, and how they are confronting this challenge.

Adena Medical Group

Leaders at the Chillicothe, Ohio-based system are most concerned about any specialty with a lot of subspecialized fellowships.

“Take urology — we certainly have the volume for general urologic services, but a lot of urologists coming out of training are not general urologists willing to take hospital call,” Brooke Burns, president of Adena Medical Group, told Becker’s. “They’re subspecialized, and that makes recruitment really challenging.”

The system is having similar difficulties with recruiting noninvasive cardiology clinicians, especially electrophysiology, and psychiatrists.

As a medium-size health system, Adena finds it difficult to compete with larger systems that can offer a reduced call burden and greater work-life balance. This makes it difficult for the system to maintain inpatient coverage and call. 

To solve this, the system is using advanced practice providers when appropriate and bringing in locum physicians from other health systems to fill call gaps. It also established residency programs in family medicine, internal medicine and psychiatry, along with a sports medicine fellowship to improve its pipeline. 

Henry Ford Medical Group

Leaders at the Detroit-based system are most concerned about radiologists and anesthesiologists.

“It’s not that it’s particularly difficult to recruit someone into those roles,” John Deledda, MD, chief medical officer of Henry Ford Medical Group and chairperson for the department of emergency medicine, told Becker’s. “The challenge is that the economics around those specialties are starting to negatively impact our ability to recruit. It’s at what cost we can find them, and how we prevent that cost from ultimately landing on the patient.”

In radiology, for example, AI disruptions, geographic considerations and payer mix have compounded to make compensation escalate. 

“What ends up happening is organizations in the same geography start competing against each other, offering higher and higher rates, and physicians jump from system to system chasing compensation,” Dr. Deledda said. “Competing organizations are not sitting down locally and saying, ‘The cost of healthcare in our geography is getting out of hand — we need to do something about this together.’ Instead, we’re all sitting in rooms strategizing about how to pay someone else’s radiologist more to bring them into our workforce. That’s an unfortunate and unsustainable trend.”

A similar trend is playing out among anesthesiologists, with the added layer of complexity since there are multiple certified positions that can provide anesthesiology services, such as board-certified anesthesiologists, certified registered nurse anesthetists, and in some states, certified anesthesia associates. This has led to compensation compression.

Henry Ford Health System is tackling this by building clinically integrated networks, value-based contracts, shared savings plans and downside risk arrangements that benefit patients by controlling cost and elevating quality, Dr. Deledda said. About 60% of the system’s revenue comes from value-based contracts, a number well above average. 

MaineHealth

The Portland-based system has found primary care specialties such as family medicine and internal medicine the most difficult to recruit across the system. In hospitals specifically, anesthesiologists, particularly pediatric anesthesiologists, and radiologists are the most difficult to recruit, followed by oncologists and nephrology. As with other systems, the difficulty stems from physicians subspecializing and tough competition in pay.

System leaders are expanding residency programs, building relationships with external agencies and building pipelines to bring in new physicians. They are also reconsidering which services are needed at which hospitals.

“The days of having someone on site five days a week are largely gone,” Adrian Moran, MD, chief medical and transformation officer at MaineHealth, told Becker’s. “We try to tailor clinical needs realistically — not compromising patient care or quality, but being honest about workforce shortages and how people want to practice medicine. Meeting everyone somewhere in the middle requires constant conversation, and it’s fragile.”

These conversations include asking if an on-site radiologist is needed or if the same quality of service can be provided remotely. In anesthesiology, leaders are pushing physicians to be more flexible about supervision models, and challenging critical care and emergency medicine physicians to consider if they can take on services traditionally performed by anesthesia. 

“We have to think broadly and innovatively about who delivers care, because if we don’t, we’ll start closing hospitals,” Dr. Moran said. “And when smaller hospitals close, those patients flow to larger systems, which then face the same pressures at greater volume.”

The post The most difficult physician specialties to recruit appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Carl Cameron was promoted to executive vice president and COO of Holyoke, Mass.-based Holyoke Medical Center and Valley Health Systems, according to a May 20 news release shared with Becker’s.

Mr. Cameron joined Holyoke Medical Center in 2001 and has held roles including COO, vice president of operations, CIO and director of information systems, according to the release.

Holyoke Medical Center is a 219-bed independent community hospital with more than 1,800 employees.

The post Holyoke Medical Center, Valley Health Systems name COO appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

In 2026, the U.S. prescription drug market is predicted to exceed $1 trillion for the first time, and GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic, Zepbound and Wegovy are the primary drivers of this growth.  

GLP-1s accounted for 14% of U.S. drug spending last year, with these drugs costing $131.9 billion of the $915.2 billion spent on all prescriptions in 2025. In 2023, Goldman Sachs researchers projected the global obesity market alone could hit $100 billion by 2030.

A more recent analysis from Statista forecast three GLP-1 medications for obesity, including one awaiting FDA approval, will alone earn $58.8 billion in 2030. Sixteen additional GLP-1s could enter the U.S. market between 2026 and 2029, according to another report. 

The GLP-1 market is accelerating — and three developments in recent months could define its next chapter. Here is what hospital and health system leaders need to know.

1. GLP-1 weight loss pills

The FDA approved the first oral GLP-1 for weight loss, Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill, in late December. The Denmark-based drugmaker — which is the most profitable company in that country — debuted the daily pill in the U.S. market in early January. The drug quickly netted more than 170,000 patients in the first three weeks. 

Eli Lilly’s oral GLP-1 for weight loss, Foundayo, gained FDA approval April 1 and launched five days later. The company has not published prescription fill rate data, but if it follows predictions for other Eli Lilly-branded GLP-1s such as Mounjaro and Zepbound, Foundayo could outpace the Wegovy pill launch. 

Prior to these approvals, the only available GLP-1 medications indicated for weight loss were in injectable presentations. The two daily oral drugs could expand the treatment population. 

2. Expanded Medicare coverage

Medicare will begin covering weight loss drugs in July under a pricing agreement the federal government announced last fall. 

The agreements with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk apply most-favored-nation pricing to drugs treating obesity, diabetes and related conditions. The monthly Medicare price for Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound will be $245, with patients paying a $50 monthly copay. 

A bridge program will give eligible Medicare Part D beneficiaries access to weight-loss GLP-1s beginning July 1 and ending December 2027.

The longer-term coverage picture is murkier. CMS is holding off on its voluntary Balance model pilot for Medicare Part D, a program intended to move GLP-1 obesity coverage into Part D permanently. The program would have featured price negotiations and lifestyle-oriented initiatives, but it required Part D plan sponsors representing 80% of Part D enrollment to apply — a threshold that was not met. 

Adherence is an early concern. Sixty percent of patients over age 65 stopped taking semaglutide (Ozempic or Wegovy) within one year, with cost, side effects and muscle mass loss cited as contributing factors, according to a 2025 study. 

As Medicare eligibility expands, health systems may see downstream shifts in chronic disease management, cardiovascular service lines and bariatric volumes. 

3. Stricter compounding rules

The GLP-1 shortage era gave compounding pharmacies a legal — and lucrative — foothold. However, that window is closing. 

After supply stabilized, the FDA directed compounding pharmacies to stop selling compounded semaglutide by April 22, 2025. Outsourcing facilities had until May 22 to cease production and distribution. 

Enforcement escalated in early 2026. On March 3, the FDA issued 30 warning letters to telehealth companies, which the agency said are making false or misleading claims about compounded GLP-1 products. Over the past six months, the agency said it has sent thousands of letters to pharmaceutical and telehealth firms — more than over the last 10 years. 

The FDA has also proposed excluding semaglutide, tirzepatide and liraglutide from the 503B bulks list, saying it did not identify a clinical need for outsourcing facilities to compound the three drugs.

In February, Hims & Hers launched a compounded version of the Wegovy pill at $99 per month — $200 less than Novo Nordisk’s self-pay price. The telehealth firm reversed course two days later following legal threats from Novo Nordisk and a Justice Department referral. Hims & Hers is now partnering with Novo Nordisk, which dismissed the lawsuit. 

For patients who relied on compounded GLP-1s for affordability, the transition is abrupt. Whether the new lower-cost oral branded options can fill the access gap remains to be seen.

The post 3 big shifts for the GLP-1 market appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Cardiovascular service lines are growing fast—and so are the data streams they are expected to manage. The remote monitoring landscape—once confined to pacemakers and ICDs—has diversified to include Holter monitors, MCTs, loop recorders, and FDA-approved wearables. Yet, this proliferation of third-party vendors introduces a critical challenge: each new input demands its own login and workflow, exacerbating system fragmentation.

During a recent webinar hosted by Becker’s Healthcare and sponsored by Murj^®, cardiovascular leaders from across health systems and clinical practices explored how their organizations are evolving to adapt to the new reality of remote monitoring.

From subspecialty silos to a single platform

Five years ago, cardiovascular service line strategy was centered on electrophysiology (EP) lab utilization, catheterization lab volumes, and traditional cost-management. But the strategic landscape has evolved, shifting away from purely volume-driven goals toward managing continuous patient data and long-term care delivery.

“We have a lot of cats in the [cardiovascular] service line, so how do you really bring those together under one platform?” said Gordon Wesley, SVP, Chief Strategy and Clinical Integration Officer at University of Chicago Medicine AdventHealth. The service line, he said, has to be reframed as a broader operating platform, with heart failure (HF), EP, and other cardiovascular subspecialties connected within it.

At Atrium Health, a single platform already handles loop recorders, pacemakers, and ICDs. The team is also working to bring Apple Watch and AliveCor tracings into a similar workflow, creating the structure needed to support consistent review, documentation, and reimbursement when appropriate.

Routing the right data to the right team

Consolidating into one platform is only half the problem. Clinical workflows must be adept in routing data to multiple care teams, depending upon the information within the transmission.

“The information that comes in regarding heart failure is not really managed by EP, it’s managed by heart failure,” said Gopi Dandamudi, MD, MBA, Founding President of the Heart and Vascular Institute at Prisma Health. “Right now, we live in episodic value-based programs, but these have to move towards longitudinal value for the care of that patient. I think that’s where the biggest bang for the buck is.”

The path forward, panelists said, depends on EHR integration and workflow design—including the ability to build discrete fields in Epic for HF metrics, so relevant device data lands in the clinical workflow like is commonly done with laboratory test results.

Team-based care for continuous data

Episodic care models are not built for continuous data monitoring. The panelists pointed to team-based care, clear protocols, and defined escalation pathways as the operating model required to manage it.

“Physicians’ time is too valuable to manually process every transmission,” said Troy Leo, MD, MHCM, FACC, Service Line Leader for Heart and Vascular at Atrium Health. Atrium has assembled a multidisciplinary team of pharmacists, nurses, navigators, and advanced practice providers (APPs) who protocolize care or warm handoff patients to primary care or other partners.

Centralization can also protect against single points of failure. At Prisma, device monitoring operates as one systemwide clinic rather than a set of local device clinics, with real-time vendor metrics helping the team understand workload and redistribute work when needed.

Where the revenue leaks

Remote monitoring highlights a critical vulnerability where cardiovascular programs leave money on the table—and the leakage is rarely at the billing end. Instead, it stems from a gap in engagement. Dr. Leo emphasized that when organizations fail to actively pull data or ensure patient transmissions, they lose both clinical visibility and the ability to bill for services. In short, a patient with an undetected hardware issue, such as a faulty lead, represents a fundamental failure in program connectivity.

Shifting to proactive monitoring workflows allows organizations to secure the revenue necessary to fund and sustain their infrastructure. This operational discipline is even more vital under the 2026 CMS code updates, which expand billing eligibility for patients transmitting data between two and 15 days per month. However, the panel emphasized that unlocking this financial potential requires robust upstream infrastructure: seamless connectivity, standardized protocols, and tools that unify data into a single workflow.

The data avalanche

Asked what would matter most over the next five years, the panel converged on several fundamentals: infrastructure, system buy-in, governance, protocols, and a shift from episodic monitoring to longitudinal value.

As wearables and implantables reduce friction between patients and data, the cardiovascular service lines best positioned for the future will be those organized around continuous data, team-based protocols, and clear accountability for action.

“I’ve been an advocate for wearable technology because wearables or implantables remove the friction that’s involved,” said Kenneth Civello, MD, Louisiana Cardiology, FMOL Health. “Once you remove the friction, we’re going to get a data avalanche.”

Navigating this data avalanche and executing team-based care requires more than just a shift in mindset—it demands a robust operational backbone. The panel agreed that without the right systems in place to route, filter, and track this information, even the best protocols will fail.

“At the end of the day, infrastructure wins,” Dr. Leo said. “You may not be able to realize the gains right away, but the ones that invest in infrastructure now are going to be the winners.”

The post Cardiovascular growth at scale: Coordinating remote monitoring across the service line appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin has vetoed two bills that would have created a prescription drug pricing system in the state, arguing similar models in other states have failed to lower drug costs.

The legislation, House Bill 483 and Senate Bill 271, would have established a prescription drug affordability board in Virginia. In a veto statement issued May 19, Mr. Youngkin said such boards are “expensive undertakings” that some states have repealed or are considering repealing because of “costs and ineffectiveness.”

Mr. Youngkin said he supported other prescription drug affordability measures passed during the legislative session, including bills targeting pharmacy benefit manager practices and requiring insurers to offer plans that cap monthly out-of-pocket drug costs.

The governor said he proposed amendments that would have directed the state’s Prescription Drug Affordability Advisory Panel to study a reference-based pricing system before implementation. The amendments also would have expanded drug pricing transparency requirements and increased the attorney general’s authority to investigate anticompetitive behavior involving drugmakers and insurers.

The General Assembly rejected the amendments, according to the veto statement.

The veto comes as states across the country are taking varying approaches to prescription drug pricing reform. While Virginia declined to establish an affordability board, states including California, North Carolina and Illinois have moved aggressively to restrict PBM practices such as spread pricing and patient steering. 

The post Virginia governor vetoes prescription drug pricing bills appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

States are advancing legislation to restrict how pharmacy benefit managers operate. In doing so, they are targeting practices such as steering patients to PBM-owned pharmacies, spread pricing, and opaque rebate arrangements that critics say inflate drug costs while squeezing independent pharmacies. The push spans every region, and it is happening at the state and federal levels.

Notable recent moves by state

Arkansas has gone the furthest of any state. It passed House Bill 1150, the first state law to ban PBM ownership of pharmacies; it had been set to take effect Jan. 1, 2026. However, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on July 28, 2025 — citing potential violations of the Commerce Clause and conflicts with federal programs such as Tricare — after CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and OptumRx sued to block it. The case is now before the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals.

California’s law took effect Jan. 1, 2026; it prohibits PBMs from using spread pricing and requires them to use a pass-through pricing model. PBM compensation is limited to flat management fees not tied to drug prices, and PBMs may not discriminate against nonaffiliated pharmacies or require patients to use only affiliated pharmacies when nonaffiliated options are in-network. Patient cost-sharing is capped at no more than the actual rate paid by the plan.

Colorado passed a “delinking” law in 2025, House Bill 1094 that prohibits PBM compensation from being tied to drug prices and transitions PBMs to a flat-fee model. It is the only state to adopt this approach so far. The law takes effect in 2027.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Prescription Drug Affordability Act on July 1, 2025, prohibiting PBMs from directing patients to pharmacies they own, banning spread pricing, and creating a $25 million annual grant program to support independent pharmacies funded by a tax on PBMs. Florida served as an early model: Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Prescription Drug Reform Act in May 2023, banning clawbacks, mail-order rebates, spread pricing, patient steering, and pharmacy networks composed solely of affiliate pharmacies — applying to all employer-sponsored drug coverage in the state.

North Carolina passed the SCRIPT Act in 2025 and it took effect in February 2026. It requires PBMs to allow any pharmacy to participate in their networks, permit patients to use their pharmacy of choice, pass on most negotiated savings to patients, and reimburse independent pharmacies more fairly. The law also gives the state Department of Insurance stronger enforcement authority.

Iowa enacted Senate Bill 383 in 2025, requiring PBMs to reimburse pharmacies at the national or state average drug acquisition cost and prohibiting cost-sharing structures that favor large pharmacy chains over independents.

Alabama passed the Community Pharmacy Relief Act on April 15, 2025, banning PBM steering to affiliated pharmacies and spread pricing practices. The legislation followed a statewide pharmacist walkout organized by the Alabama Pharmacy Association to pressure lawmakers.

Tennessee lawmakers have approved legislation prohibiting a company from simultaneously owning a pharmacy and operating a PBM or health insurer in the state, with the bill now on Gov. Bill Lee’s desk for consideration. However, CVS warned the measure could close more than 130 pharmacies and eliminate more than 2,000 jobs, and said it may challenge the law in federal court. Supporters point to a 2024 audit from the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance finding CVS Caremark used spread pricing — charging some plans more for medications than pharmacies were reimbursed. Mr. Lee has not indicated whether he will sign the bill.

Kansas passed the Kansas Consumer Prescription Protection and Accountability Act in February; it establishes a comprehensive framework governing PBM practices, including bans on spread pricing and point-of-sale fees.

The legal complication states are watching

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a 10th Circuit decision that struck down portions of Oklahoma’s PBM law, ruling it conflicted with federal statutes regulating Medicare and employer-sponsored health plans. The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association warned similar laws in Iowa and Arkansas could face the same challenges — and Minnesota is already in court over it, with employers challenging two provisions of the state’s PBM law on ERISA preemption grounds, which remains the central legal battleground for any state trying to reach self-insured employer plans.

Despite that uncertainty, political will continues to build: 45 state attorneys general backed PBM transparency measures in April, a signal that the appetite for reform is not slowing regardless of courtroom outcomes.

Federal backdrop

All of this state activity accelerated partly because Congress was slow to act, but that changed in early 2026. Six national pharmacy organizations backed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2026 as the first major PBM reform in Medicare Part D in nearly 20 years. The legislation — signed by President Donald Trump on Feb. 3 — prohibits PBM compensation from being tied to drug list prices, requires PBMs to pass through 100% of rebates to employer health plans, mandates semiannual reporting on net drug spending and spread pricing arrangements. Beginning in 2029, it also requires any willing pharmacy to be able to participate in Part D networks. 

Pharmacist groups applauded the reforms while noting they represent one part of a broader effort still needed.

On the enforcement side, the FTC reached a settlement with Express Scripts in February, forcing an overhaul of its compensation, pricing and transparency policies tied to alleged insulin price inflation. The agency remains in litigation against CVS Caremark and OptumRx over similar allegations.

The post Where PBM reform stands across the US appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

CMS on May 20 proposed a rule that would cap certain state Medicaid payments and align them more closely with Medicare rates. 

The proposed rule would create new limits for Medicaid state-directed payments and certain fee-for-service payments to reduce Medicaid spending by more than $775 billion over 10 years, including $510 billion in federal savings, according to the agency. 

“Medicaid was never meant to be a blank check — it was meant to be a lifeline — and lifelines only work when they’re strong, reliable and built to last,” CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, MD, said in a news release. “Misaligned payment incentives and opaque financing arrangements are driving up costs without delivering better care. This rule restores balance by aligning Medicaid payments with Medicare standards, strengthening accountability and ensuring taxpayer dollars support patients, not payment schemes.”

Seven things to know:

1. The rule targets state-directed payments. State-directed payments are arrangements in which a state tells a managed care plan how to pay providers, rather than allowing the plan to negotiate rates on its own. CMS said states have used these arrangements to boost payments to a specific set of providers, typically those that can supply the non-federal share of Medicaid funding through provider taxes and intergovernmental transfers. The practice has allowed states to draw more federal dollars without equivalent state spending, according to the agency.

2. CMS wants to tie payment limits to Medicare rates. For rating periods beginning on or after July 4, 2025, CMS proposed capping certain state-directed payments for hospital, nursing facility and qualified practitioner services at academic medical centers at 100% of Medicare rates in expansion states and 110% of Medicare rates in nonexpansion states. If no comparable Medicare rate exists, payments would be capped at 100% of the Medicaid state plan-approved rate.

3. The limits would eventually apply more broadly. CMS proposed extending the payment rate limit to all state-directed payments for all services in all states, the District of Columbia and territories for rating periods beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2029. 

4. Some existing payments could be temporarily grandfathered. The proposed rule includes a temporary grandfathering period for certain state-directed payments that meet specific criteria. CMS also proposed that the total dollar amount of a grandfathered payment arrangement be phased down by 10 percentage points annually, beginning with the first rating period on or after Jan. 1, 2028, until the payment limit is reached.

5. The agency says state directed payments have grown rapidly. CMS said use of state-directed payments has expanded from two states in 2016 to 41 states in fiscal 2025and accounts for more than one-quarter of all Medicaid managed care spending in fiscal 2025. Annual spending on the payments is projected to grow from $107 billion in fiscal 2024 to $296 billion by fiscal 2034 if left unchecked, according to the agency.

6. CMS aims to impose limits on certain fee-for-service payments. The agency plans to cap certain targeted Medicaid practitioner payments in fee-for-service programs at 100% of Medicare rates in expansion states and 110% in nonexpansion states. States with approved payments above the proposed limits would need to submit a state plan amendment to remove or update them no later than the first state fiscal year beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2029.

7. The rule follows CMS’ final rule intended to curb provider tax arrangements. CMS issued a final rule April 2 that ended states’ ability to use certain provider taxes to generate additional federal Medicaid matching funds, a financing mechanism the agency characterized as a Medicaid funding “loophole.” The rule bans states from imposing higher tax rates on Medicaid business than on non-Medicaid business and blocks indirect tax structures designed to bypass those limits. CMS said provider taxes generate more than $24 billion annually for state budgets, with one state bringing in more than $13 billion. 

Click here to access the 192-page final rule.

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Clinicians across the U.S. are increasingly seeking union representation, arguing that organizing can help address staffing shortages, burnout and retention challenges that they say ultimately affect patient care.

At least 10 groups at hospitals and health systems nationwide have announced plans to unionize or voted to join unions so far in 2026, reflecting continued labor organizing across healthcare. 

At the same time, hospitals and health systems are grappling with rising labor costs and workforce shortages, prompting many leaders to emphasize collaboration and retention efforts amid growing labor activity. Workforce spending accounted for about 60% of hospitals’ total expenses in 2025 and increased 5.6% year over year, according to the American Hospital Association. 

Among the most recent efforts in May are the more than 73% of the 870 nurses at SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison, Wis., who signed cards supporting unionization. The group filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board on May 1 and is awaiting an election date.

Nurses involved in the effort said they want a stronger voice in decisions affecting staffing, retention and working conditions. Bailey Birenbaum, RN, said in a statement shared with Becker’s on behalf of St. Mary’s Nurses United of SEIU Wisconsin that nurses are seeking to address “extreme understaffing, uncompetitive pay and other policies that cause burnout and drive nurses away from the profession.”

A spokesperson for St. Louis-based SSM Health said the organization respects employees’ right to decide whether to unionize.

“At SSM Health, we work hard to cultivate a supportive and collaborative work environment where every employee is treated with respect and compassion,” the spokesperson said in a statement shared with Becker’s. “We value our high-quality patient-centered care and are focused on being a place of healing. We strive to ensure that our team thrives so that they can do their best work in realizing our Mission to provide exceptional patient care.”

The organizing effort at SSM Health St. Mary’s reflects broader concerns emerging across the healthcare workforce, particularly among nurses who say persistent staffing pressures and turnover are making it more difficult to deliver care safely and sustainably.

In Chicago, registered nurses at Rush University Medical Center voted May 14-16 to join National Nurses Organizing Committee. Nurses involved in the effort cited safe staffing, retention and patient care improvements as key priorities. 

“We deeply respect the right of our nurses to participate in the election and thank everyone who made their voices heard,” Deana Sievert, DNP, RN, senior vice president and chief nursing officer, said in a statement shared with Becker’s. “Our priority remains focused on providing exceptional care for our patients and supporting our staff. Rush will work to ensure the validation process moves forward promptly.”

While nurses make up the majority of recent organizing efforts, physicians and advanced practice providers are also increasingly pursuing union representation.

At Cleveland-based MetroHealth, primary care providers are working to form a union, citing what they described as unsustainable workloads. Membership would be extended to physicians, physician assistants, advance practice registered nurses and certified nurse practitioners.

In April, a supermajority of nearly 150 resident physicians at Visalia, Calif.-based Kaweah Delta Health Care District filed for union recognition. If successful, the group would become the first resident physician union in its county. Residents involved in the effort said they are seeking improvements related to physician well-being, support resources, work hours and compensation.

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Providence will shutter most of its insurance business beginning in 2027, ending more than 40 years as a regional payer with 440,000 members.

“We are doing this because changes in the healthcare environment, including state and federal regulation, have made it increasingly difficult for regional, not-for-profit health plans like PHP to thrive,” Providence President and CEO Erik Wexler said May 20. “And it has become harder to support both running a health plan and delivering care. Meanwhile, the larger insurance companies have consolidated significantly, giving them the size and resources to operate more efficiently. This has left us in an untenable situation.”

Providence will exit the ACA market, stop renewing employer group contracts, and transfer its Medicaid and Medicare supplement programs to other organizations. The Renton, Wash.-based health system said it is in discussions with an unnamed national insurer to “potentially operate” its Medicare Advantage business, which covers more than 64,000 members.

In addition, the move affects more than 260,000 commercial members and more than 58,000 Medicaid enrollees, predominantly in Oregon. The plan also partially administers Oregon’s state employee benefits program. More information about the future of the insurer’s Medicare supplement, D-SNP and employer group waiver plans is expected at a later date.

The exit follows months of uncertainty for the Portland-based insurer. In March, the health system disclosed it was exploring strategic options for the plan, including a potential sale. 

Providence Health Plan reported a $102 million net loss on $2.5 billion in revenue in 2025, driven by rising medical and pharmacy utilization and a drop to a 3.5 Medicare Advantage star rating. CEO Don Antonucci previously told Becker’s that the plan was working on a plan toward financial stability this year after implementing pricing adjustments, exiting underperforming markets and cutting administrative costs, including layoffs. The plan had rebounded to a four-star MA rating for both 2026 and 2027 revenue years.

“Like others in the payer industry, especially regionals, it was a difficult year for the health plan from a financial perspective,” Mr. Antonucci said at the time. “We saw the same headwinds and challenges on the payer side, with utilization up for medical costs and pharmacy costs.”

For current members, there will be no changes through the end of 2026. Providence said it will honor all existing contracts and help members and employers identify coverage options for 2027 that include Providence providers. The system said its facilities will remain available through other insurers’ networks and that it is working to be included in additional networks ahead of the transition. ASO employers will need to identify a new third-party administrator for 2027.

Providence is among a growing number of health systems stepping back from operating insurance plans as industry-wide financial pressures compound, with Mr. Wexler saying “it is disappointing to see this trend of provider plan closures across the country.”

“The direction we are taking is not a reflection of the quality of the plan or the dedication of the caregivers who support it,” he said. “Rather, it is about responding to the signs of the times and remaining steadfast and focused on our core work of delivering care and becoming the best place to give and receive care.”

Providence’s broader financial picture has weighed on its options. The system posted a $486 million operating loss on $29.5 billion in revenue in 2025, an improvement from a $546 million operating loss the prior year but still reflecting sustained pressure from labor, supply and regulatory demands. The system has been aggressively restructuring, selling its health IT consulting arm, its clinical decision support tool, and 10 skilled nursing facilities, among other divestitures.

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U.S. News & World Report said May 20 that it has made significant refinements to its Best Hospitals methodology to reflect changes in care delivery, data availability and measurement science.

Six things to know, per U.S. News:

1. Risk-adjusted outcome measures will carry more weight in determining adult specialty rankings and ratings, with the largest changes affecting the Cardiology, Heart & Vascular Surgery specialty.

2. Within Cardiology, Heart and Vascular Surgery, 41 outcome measures will collectively determine 80% of a hospital’s score, up from 45%. Expert opinion from cardiologists and heart surgeons will no longer factor into the specialty rankings.

3. Patient volume, trauma center designation and Magnet designation will no longer count in the Cardiology, Heart & Vascular Surgery scoring. U.S. News is also removing structure measures such as nurse staffing, intensivist staffing, patient services and advanced technologies across multiple adult specialty rankings.

4. U.S. News is adding regional specialty rankings in cancer, cardiology/heart and vascular surgery, orthopedics and rehabilitation. In cancer, cardiology/heart and vascular surgery and orthopedics, the top 100 hospitals will receive regional rankings. In rehabilitation, the top 300 inpatient rehabilitation facilities will receive regional rankings.

5. Outpatient care will play a larger role. U.S. News said outpatient outcome measures will receive increased weight, and certain orthopedic procedures performed in hospital outpatient departments will now factor into Orthopedics specialty volume calculations.

6. The methodology changes will be reflected in this year’s edition of the “Best Hospitals Procedures and Conditions” ratings and ’Best Hospitals Specialty Rankings”, which will be published Aug. 4.

The post US News revises Best Hospitals methodology: 6 things to know appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Fifty-two healthcare companies landed on Forbes’ ninth annual list of America’s Best Employers for New Grads.

The ranking, published May 19, was created in partnership with market research firm Statista. It is based on survey responses from more than 100,000 professionals with less than a decade of work experience who work for companies with at least 1,000 U.S. employees. 

Respondents were asked to rate their employers in areas such as salary, benefits, advancement opportunities, work-life balance and artificial intelligence adoption. Responses from the last three years were considered, with heavier weights placed on more recent data.

Here are the employers featured under Forbes’ healthcare and social services category, which includes health systems and other healthcare organizations, along with their rank out of 500 and headquarters city. Oracle, which was listed under the IT software and services industry, is also included.

10. UW Health (Madison, Wis.)

15. University of Michigan Health-Ann Arbor

20. Nationwide Children’s Hospital (Columbus, Ohio)

28. Texas Health Resources (Arlington)

31. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital (New York City)

33. St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (Memphis, Tenn.)

39. Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta 

53. University of Utah Health (Salt Lake City)

61. Sarasota (Fla.) Memorial Health Care System

64. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

68. Covenant Health (Knoxville, Tenn.)

74. Texas Children’s Hospital (Houston)

76. Cincinnati Children’s

78. Mayo Clinic Health System (Rochester, Minn.)

79. Tampa (Fla.) General Hospital 

82. UMass Memorial Health (Worcester, Mass.)

83. Cook Children’s Health Care System (Fort Worth, Texas)

85. Memorial Hermann Health System (Houston)

86. Methodist Health System (Dallas)

93. University of Chicago Medicine 

100. Oracle (Redwood Shores, Calif.)

102. HealthPartners (Bloomington, Minn.)

105. Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center and Clinics (Lebanon, N.H.)

107. Scripps Health (San Diego, Calif.)

115. Advanced Health Care (Fruitland, Idaho)

116. BAYADA Home Health Care (Pennsauken Township, N.J.)

122. BJC Healthcare (St. Louis)

124. Resources for Human Development (Philadelphia)

128. Houston Methodist

132. Capital Health (Trenton, N.J.)

136. Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital (Valencia, Calif.)

140. Henry Ford Health System (Detroit)

144. St. Luke’s University Health Network (Bethlehem, Pa.)

146. Duke University Health System (Durham, N.C.)

147. Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas (Beaumont)

152. NYU Langone Health (New York City)

156. Baptist Health South Florida (Coral Gables)

157. Cedars-Sinai Health System (Los Angeles)

164. Bronson Healthcare (Kalamazoo, Mich.)

169. Apple Rehab (Avon, Conn.)

177. The University of Kansas Health System (Kansas City, Kan.)

178. Baptist Health (Louisville, Ky.)

185. Nemours Children’s Health (Jacksonville, Fla.)

196. Baptist Health (Montgomery, Ala.)

198. Cleveland Clinic 

208. Essentia Health (Duluth, Minn.)

217. Parkland Health & Hospital System (Dallas)

231. University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (Dallas)

238. University of Missouri Health Care (Columbia)

260. Holzer Health System (Gallipolis, Ohio)

272. Johns Hopkins Medicine (Baltimore, Md.)

392. Dentsply Sirona (York, Pa.)

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Most of the top-paying states for nurses, adjusted for cost of living, are in the Midwest or the West, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Becker’s used the latest BLS data, released May 15 and up to date as of May 2025, to determine the hourly pay rate by state and adjusted it by cost of living in each state. The bureau collects only the annual wage for nursing instructors and teaching, so they are not included on this list.

West Virginia continues to be the top-paying state for nurse anesthetists, when adjusted for cost of living. Last year, the top-paying state for nurse midwives was Arizona, for nurse practitioners it was Iowa, for registered nurses it was California and for nursing assistants it was Wisconsin.

Here are the top-paying states for six nursing positions with their adjusted hourly wage.

Position	State	Hourly pay, adjusted by cost of living
Nurse anesthetists	West Virginia	$149.78
Nurse midwife	Arkansas	$85.80
Nurse practitioner	Oklahoma	$75.02
Registered nurse	Oregon	$52.95
Licenced practical and licenced vocational nurses	Illinois	$37.28
Nursing assistant	Minnesota	$23.39

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Twenty-three healthcare employers were featured on LinkedIn News’ city-specific top companies lists.

The lists use LinkedIn data to analyze key markers of career progression, including ability to advance, skills growth, company stability, external opportunity, company affinity, gender diversity, educational background and employee presence in the city, according to the May 19 LinkedIn News post.

To be eligible, companies must have had at least 250 global employees and at least 100 employees in the city as of Dec. 31. Attrition also could not exceed 10% during the methodology period from Jan. 1, 2025, to Dec. 31.

LinkedIn created lists for 10 major U.S. cities. Healthcare employers were not featured on the lists for Dallas or New York City.

Here are the healthcare employers featured on the city-specific lists, along with their rank and headquarters city:

Atlanta

2. Wellstar Health System (Marietta, Ga.)

3. Emory Healthcare (Atlanta)

Boston

1. CVS Health (Woonsocket, R.I.)

2. Mass General Brigham (Somerville, Mass.)

3. Vertex Pharmaceuticals (Boston)

5. Sanofi (Paris, France)

9. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Boston)

Chicago

1. AbbVie (North Chicago, Ill.)

4. Accenture (Dublin, Ireland)

7. Medline (Northfield, Ill.)

8. Abbott (Abbott Park, Ill.)

Houston

7. UTHealth Houston

Los Angeles

4. Amgen (Thousand Oaks, Calif.)

7. Edwards Lifesciences (Irvine, Calif.)

Philadelphia

3. Merck (Rahway, N.J.)

4. Incyte (Wilmington, Del.)

5. Cencora (Conshohocken, Pa.)

6. GSK (London, England)

9. Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine (New Brunswick, N.J.)

10. Madrigal Pharmaceuticals (Conshohocken, Pa.)

San Francisco

6. Gilead Sciences (Foster City, Calif.)

9. Abridge (San Francisco)

Washington, D.C.

2. AstraZeneca (Cambridge, England)

The post 23 best healthcare employers for career growth across 8 cities: LinkedIn appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Celina, Texas, was the fastest-growing U.S. city in the year ending July 1, 2025, with its population increasing 24.6%, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

Dallas-based Methodist Health System met that growth with the spring 2025 opening of the 51-bed Methodist Celina Medical Center — the city’s first hospital and third-largest employer. Celina also was the fastest-growing city in the U.S. in 2023, according to a May 14 bureau news release.

Health systems in Southern states are among those planning to expand. Of the 15 capital projects Becker’s has reported on so far in May, three are in Florida, two are in Tennessee and one is in Alabama. 

Here are five census trends to know from the bureau’s Vintage 2025 population estimates, published May 14:

1. The exurb surge. The five fastest-growing U.S. cities with populations of 20,000 or more were all in Texas, and four were in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area’s suburbs. After Celina, the next four were Fulshear (21%), Princeton (18.1%), Melissa (14.5%) and Anna (10.2%). Fulshear sits outside Houston; the other three are in the Dallas-Fort Worth exurbs. 

In 2025, the cities had populations of 64,427, 64,630, 43,524, 29,969 and 35,245, respectively.

2. Charlotte leads the nation in numeric growth. Charlotte, N.C., gained 20,731 residents, more than any U.S. city. But Charlotte was only the seventh fastest-growing city in its own metropolitan area by percentage. Fort Mill, S.C., about 20 miles from downtown Charlotte, grew 6.8% to 38,673. The bureau highlights this as a national pattern: Even where big cities grew, surrounding midsize cities outpaced them. 

3. The midsize “Goldilocks zone.” Large cities’ growth slowed significantly, but midsize cities — with populations of 5,000 to 249,999 — held closer to prior-year patterns through a mix of domestic and international migration and new housing. 

4. The South dominates — and Austin hits 1 million. The South claimed 10 of the 15 fastest-growing cities: eight in Texas (Celina, Fulshear, Princeton, Melissa, Anna, Forney, Hutto and Greenville), plus Haines City, Fla., and Foley, Ala. The Midwest contributed Waukee, Iowa, while the West added Eagle Mountain, Utah; Johnstown, Colo.; Kuna, Idaho; and Queen Creek, Ariz. 

Austin, Texas, became the 12th U.S. city to cross 1 million residents, and Raleigh, N.C. crossed 500,000, bringing the total at that threshold to 39 nationwide.

5. Big cities are struggling, especially in the Northeast. The largest U.S. cities — with populations of 250,000 or more — saw average growth drop from 0.9% to 0.3% year over year. New York City lost 12,196 residents, the largest numeric decline in the country. The bureau attributes the Northeast slowdown to a drop in net international migration and domestic migration toward warm-weather locations.

The post Where Americans are moving: 5 trends reshaping healthcare markets appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Flint, Mich., is the most affordable U.S. city to buy a home, according to a recent ranking from personal finance website WalletHub.

Median home sales prices jumped from $313,000 in the first quarter of 2019 to $403,200 in the first quarter of 2026, according to a May 19 WalletHub ranking. 

At hospitals and health systems, some employers in areas with high housing costs have taken a more direct role in supporting employees and boosting recruitment and retention through new housing projects.

To create the ranking, WalletHub analyzed 300 U.S. cities using 10 metrics, including home purchase and maintenance costs, tax rates and vacancy rates. Each metric was weighted on a 100-point scale, and each city’s weighted average determined its overall score. 

Here are the 10 most and least affordable cities to buy a home, per WalletHub:

Most affordable

1. Flint, Mich.

2. Detroit

3. Surprise, Ariz.

4. Yuma, Ariz.

5. Akron, Ohio

6. Pittsburgh

7. Memphis, Tenn.

8. Augusta, Ga.

9. Indianapolis

10. Cleveland 

Least affordable

291. Westminster, Calif.

292. San Francisco

293. New York City

294. Pasadena, Calif.

295. Los Angeles

296. Berkeley, Calif.

297. Glendale, Calif.

298. Costa Mesa, Calif.

299. Santa Monica, Calif.

300. Santa Barbara, Calif.

Read the full list and ranking by city size here.

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Ebola is making international headlines again after the World Health Organization declared a global public health emergency, but the CDC said the risk to the U.S. is low. 

Here are 10 things hospital leaders need to know about the current outbreak.

1. This is the third time the WHO has declared a global public health emergency due to an Ebola outbreak, Amesh Adalja, MD, senior scholar at the Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and spokesperson for the Infectious Disease Society of America, told Becker’s. There have been about 30 Ebola outbreaks since 1976, with the last one ending in November 2025, and this is the second outbreak of Bundibugyo virus. The last large Ebola outbreak was in West Africa between 2013 and 2014, and saw over 20,000 cases and 11,000 deaths.

“I don’t think this outbreak will come anywhere close to that scale,” Dr. Adalja said.

2. CDC leadership and physician-scientists activated the U.S.’ response to Ebola quickly, a silver lining amid an emerging outbreak, Trini Mathew, MD, medical director of antimicrobial stewardship program and infection prevention and control at Beaumont Hospital in Taylor, Mich., and professor of internal medicine at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine in Auburn Hills, Mich., told Becker’s. Their swift mobilization of resources and communication is an advantage for preparedness.

3. This outbreak is located in a “very remote province” of Democratic Republic of Congo, Dr. Adalja said, unlike the 2013-2014 outbreak which was located in major West Africa cities and had a larger geographic scope. However, when this outbreak started or how long it has been ongoing is still unclear, Dr. Mathew said.

4. After the 2014 Ebola outbreak, the U.S. developed a system of 13 biocontainment units across the nation, designed to care for patients with high-consequence infectious diseases like Ebola and hantavirus. The National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center, which oversees the biocontainment system, has resources on infectious disease preparedness, including a guide for the current Ebola outbreak. The U.S. also established communication channels and response processes among hospitals and state and local health departments to ensure clear communication. The CDC maintains a list of on-call epidemiology contacts for every state who can guide providers on when and how to report a potential case. 

5. Hospital leaders should continue to monitor the situation, and should move to actively prepare once alerted by the CDC or a health department. This could happen if a large number of Americans travel to the outbreak zone to provide aid and then return. During the 2014 outbreak, a large relief effort resulted in a few Ebola cases among Americans who returned to the U.S., Dr. Adalja said.

6. Although the risk to the U.S. remains low, the most important thing hospitals can do right now is reinforce the emergency preparedness infrastructure, Dr. Adalja said. Hospital executives should clearly communicate their robust emergency planning procedures and what protocols are in place to staff. Building strong partnerships with state and local health departments, regional coalitions with other facilities and emergency managers within their hospitals should also be a priority. 

“All of that is genuinely reassuring to clinical staff and to the communities these hospitals serve,” Dr. Adalja said. “The fact that Ebola is in the headlines is actually a good reason to surface this issue, because the disconnect between emergency management and executive leadership is a chronic deficiency in hospitals.”

7. When evaluating preparedness, hospital leaders should consider people, places and things. For people, this means how to support staff, patients and families through clinical care, managing logistics and the healthcare system’s resilience, Dr. Mathew said. Places means determining where care will be provided and how to ensure safety for patients and responders. And things cover personal protective equipment, testing requirements and waste management — all of which are critical for high-consequence pathogens like Ebola. 

“The most important thing hospital leaders can do is be transparent — acknowledging what is known, what is not known, and being clear that physicians and scientists are actively guiding recommendations to minimize risk to the public,” Dr. Mathew said. “Be open, be available, and use your media channels to communicate directly with the patients and communities you serve.”

8. There are six strains of Ebola and only the Zaire strain has approved vaccines and monoclonal antibodies, Dr. Adalja said. Although vaccines are a helpful tool in outbreaks, “they have not historically been the decisive factor in stopping an outbreak,” he said. Roughly two dozen Ebola outbreaks have been contained before any vaccine was created. The standard protocols for outbreak treatment and containment are IV fluids, electrolyte replacement, Ebola treatment units, personal protective equipment and safe burial practices.

9. Ebola is not transmitted before a person becomes symptomatic, Dr. Mathew said. This makes transmission monitoring and contamination more manageable than airborne pathogens. 

10. For infectious disease experts, “Ebola is not the only concern on our radar,” Dr. Mathew said. “Antimicrobial resistance and vaccine-preventable diseases represent what I would call hidden tsunamis — threats that are actually more likely to affect Americans in the near term. And with large gatherings coming up this summer amid the FIFA World Cup, Fan Fest, the 250th anniversary of the United States, [infectious disease experts] are actively monitoring, tracking and working to keep people safe across all of those settings.”

11. As of May 18, one American has tested positive for Ebola and six others with known exposures are being transported to a facility in Germany for treatment and monitoring. The CDC also implemented new travel restrictions on visitors from Uganda, Congo or South Sudan due to the Ebola outbreak. As of May 17, there have been 10 confirmed cases, 336 suspected cases and 88 deaths in the Congo tied to Ebola, according to the CDC.

The post The Ebola outbreak: 11 things hospital leaders need to know appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Leaving the workforce before retirement age could speed up cognitive decline, while working into older ages may help delay it, according to a recent study.

Six things to know:

1. Working near retirement age appears to lower the risk of cognitive decline, a precursor to dementia, based on correlational evidence cited in the study. The paper was published online by the National Bureau of Economic Research in April by three University of California, Irvine researchers: Noah Arman Kouchekinia, David Neumark, PhD, and Tim Bruckner, PhD. It comes as life expectancy continues to climb and a growing share of the population faces disability tied to cognitive decline and dementia. 

2. The researchers wanted to know whether leaving work earlier — not just at traditional retirement age — speeds cognitive decline. Signs of decline can show up as early as age 40, and more than 30% of men ages 51-64 are not working. The team analyzed 12 waves of Health and Retirement Study data from 1996 to 2018, focusing on adults ages 51-64.

3. To determine cause and effect, the researchers tracked how shifts in local job markets — driven by national industry trends rather than individual circumstances — affected cognitive scores over time. The approach helped rule out the possibility that declining cognition was itself pushing people out of work. They measured cognitive function using the Langa-Weir global cognitive score, which tests word recall, mental processing and working memory.

4. The clearest effect showed up in men ages 51-64. A 10 percentage-point drop in the local employment rate corresponded with a 0.11 standard deviation decline in cognitive scores for this group. The researchers did not find the same effect for women ages 51-64 or for adults ages 65-75. They suggested women in this age range tend to work in fields less exposed to local economic shocks, such as teaching, healthcare and the public sector.

5. The authors said the results could support policies aimed at keeping more people working before retirement age, such as encouraging employment among Social Security Disability Insurance recipients or expanding hiring incentives. Beyond cognitive benefits, they wrote, longer working lives could reduce SSDI reliance, delay Social Security claiming and boost retirement savings.

6. The researchers noted limits to their work, including that the data cannot identify which specific aspects of work or job loss drive the cognitive effect. They added that the relationship likely varies depending on the type of work and the characteristics of the people studied. 

The post A potential risk of early retirement: 6 study notes appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Several startups with a footprint in healthcare made CNBC’s annual Disruptor 50 rankings May 19, with one AI giant surpassing a rival in 2026.

Anthropic passed OpenAI to rank No. 1 on this year’s list, with both companies recently unveiling healthcare AI offerings. An advisory board weighs the criteria for the rankings, which are based on detailed quantitative and qualitative information submitted by nominated companies.

Here are the Disruptor 50 startups involved in healthcare.

1. Anthropic

2. OpenAI

3. Databricks

12. Transcarent

14. Oura

18. Thyme Care

23. Socure

25. Lila Sciences

30. Abridge

31. Perplexity

32. OpenEvidence

33. Iambic

44. Whoop

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Emory Decatur Hospital in Decatur, Ga., part of Emory Healthcare, has launched the health system’s first residency program for emergency department nurses.

The Emergency Nurses Association Nurse Residency Program is also the first of its kind in the Atlanta area, according to a May 18 Emory Healthcare news release.

The yearlong program combines clinical education, bedside training and mentorship for new emergency nurses. An inaugural cohort of eight recent nursing graduates joined the program in April, and Emory plans to accept additional participants later this year.

The program includes a 16-week ED orientation featuring classroom instruction, skills labs, case studies and ride-along experiences with emergency medical services teams, according to the release.

Emory Healthcare said the residency model is designed to support both newly graduated nurses and experienced nurses transitioning into emergency medicine.

“By providing structured support, specialized training and mentorship early in a nurse’s career, our residency program can strengthen professional confidence and clinical readiness while reinforcing our commitment to our team, our patients and the future of emergency nursing,” Jason Betts, DNP, RN, director of patient care emergency and behavioral health services at Emory Decatur Hospital, said in the release. 

Emory Healthcare is an 11-hospital system based in Atlanta. Emory Decatur Hospital is a 451-bed facility with more than 2,500 staff members.

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Private insurance prices grew 47% more quickly than Medicare rates over seven years, KFF reported May 18.

Healthcare costs are a top concern for systems, patients and lawmakers, and prices vary across regions and hospitals and payers within those regions. High prices can result in higher premiums and cost-sharing obligations, as well as reduced wages for employer-sponsored health coverage, according to the report. 

KFF used Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Producer Price Index data from April 2019 through April 2026 to analyze the changes in prices paid by private insurers and Medicare payment rates.

Here’s what to know:

1. Private insurance prices rose 30% from 2019 to 2026, compared to 21% in Medicare rates. 

2. Private insurance and Medicare grew at a similar pace from April 2019 to April 2020, then Medicare rates lagged behind from April 2020 to April 2025. In the last year, private insurance rates grew less quickly than Medicare rates. 

3. Increases in private prices over time often reflects changes in the cost of providing care and bargaining power of hospitals relative to insurers. The increased consolidation of hospitals means one or two health systems control at least 75% of the inpatient hospital care market in 83% of metropolitan areas. This, along with an increase in labor and supply expenses during the pandemic likely contributed to the quick rise in prices.

4. In contrast, Medicare hospital prices are updated annually by CMS and are updated based partially on estimates of increases in hospital services input costs. The slowed pay rate growth could be due to policies and underestimated inflation in recent periods, according to the report. 

5. National discussion on how to rein in hospital prices has often targeted hospital operations. Some policies aim to promote competition and reduce consolidation in the provider market, while others look to rein in prices directly by capping what a provider can charge.

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Mean annual wages for hospital workers range from $37,080 for maids and housekeeping cleaners to $454,940 for cardiologists, according to newly released federal data.

Registered nurses — the nation’s largest healthcare occupation — earned a mean annual wage of $101,420 nationwide, according to May 2025 occupational wage data released May 15 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Hospitals account for about 1.9 million registered nurse jobs nationwide, representing roughly 56% of RN employment.

Healthcare practitioners and technical occupations employed about 9.8 million workers nationwide and had a mean annual wage of $108,700, according to BLS.

Below are the mean annual wages for 37 occupations across the hospital workforce, listed in ascending order of compensation. The list is not exhaustive.

1. Maids and housekeeping cleaners: $37,080
2. Cooks: $38,810
3. Orderlies: $40,660
4. Security guards: $42,470
5. Nursing assistants: $42,700
6. Phlebotomists: $45,520
7. Pharmacy technicians: $46,620
8. Emergency medical technicians: $46,830
9. Medical records specialists: $56,790
10. Paramedics: $63,360
11. Clinical laboratory technologists and technicians: $67,350
12. Occupational health and safety technicians: $68,120
13. Surgical technologists: $68,710
14. Healthcare social workers: $71,790
15. Health information technologists and medical registrars: $74,970
16. Dietitians and nutritionists: $77,130
17. Radiologic technologists and technicians: $83,840
18. Public relations specialists: $84,120
19. Registered nurses: $101,420
20. Nuclear medicine technologists: $105,160
21. Physical therapists: $105,280
22. Nurse practitioners: $137,300
23. Pharmacists: $140,920
24. Medical and health services managers: $140,970
25. Physician assistants: $141,280
26. Pediatricians (general): $212,110
27. Nurse anesthetists: $248,320
28. Family medicine physicians: $255,820
29. General internal medicine physicians: $267,200
30. Psychiatrists: $269,940
31. OB-GYNs: $279,040
32. Physicians, pathologists: $285,420
33. Emergency medicine physicians: $317,480
34. Dermatologists: $323,530
35. Anesthesiologists: $360,570
36. Orthopedic surgeons (except pediatric): $373,570
37. Cardiologists: $454,940

The post 37 hospital jobs ranked by pay appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Updated May 2026 workforce data from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing show men accounted for a smaller share of registered nurses in 2024 than in 2022.

Five notes:

1. Men represented 10.4% of registered nurses in 2024, down from 11.2% in 2022, according to data from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing’s 2024 National Nursing Workforce Survey.

2. The survey said the proportion of male registered nurses increased from 8% in 2015 to 11.2% in 2022 before declining in 2024.

3. The workforce survey was conducted by NCSBN and the National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers, and included nurses across all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Data was collected between March and December 2024 through mail surveys, email surveys and Nursys workforce data.

4. Separate May 2025 Bureau of Labor Statistics data released May 15 estimates there were 3.38 million employed registered nurses nationwide. Hospitals accounted for roughly 1.9 million RN jobs, and the average annual wage for registered nurses was $101,420.

5. RegisteredNurse.jobs, a nursing job platform that reportedly lists about 70,000 active nursing openings nationwide, told Becker’s that fewer than 5% of RN candidate profiles created on the platform to date are men. The company also said about 22% of active RN job postings reference a sign-on bonus.

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California has the highest hourly mean wage for registered nurses in the U.S., while Oregon has the highest hourly mean wage for RNs when adjusted for cost of living, according to data released May 15 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Below are the mean annual and hourly wages for registered nurses in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., based on May 2025 salary data published by the bureau. Becker’s also calculated mean hourly wages adjusted for each state’s cost of living using 2025 cost-of-living index data from World Population Review.

Nationally, registered nurses — the largest healthcare practitioners and technical occupation in the U.S. workforce — earned an annual mean wage of $101,420, according to the BLS. Annual mean wages ranged from $77,020 in Alabama to $150,280 in California.

Most registered nurses were employed in general medical and surgical hospitals, which accounted for 56% of RN employment nationwide, or about 1.9 million jobs. After hospitals, the industries employing the most registered nurses were physicians’ offices and home healthcare services.

State	Annual wage	Hourly wage	Cost of living index (2025)	RN hourly mean wage, adjusted by cost of living
Alabama	$77,020	$37.03	88.6	$41.79
Alaska	$114,870	$55.23	124.9	$44.22
Arizona	$99,730	$47.95	110.7	$43.32
Arkansas	$81,520	$39.19	89.6	$43.74
California	$150,280	$72.25	142.3	$50.77
Colorado	$99,370	$47.78	102.7	$46.52
Connecticut	$105,250	$50.60	112.7	$44.90
Delaware	$99,460	$47.82	101.9	$46.93
District of Columbia	$106,980	$51.43	138.8	$37.05
Florida	$90,650	$43.58	102.2	$42.64
Georgia	$95,080	$45.71	92.5	$49.42
Hawaii	$124,340	$59.78	185	$32.31
Idaho	$92,710	$44.57	99.9	$44.61
Illinois	$94,360	$45.36	94.7	$47.90
Indiana	$89,150	$42.86	91	$47.10
Iowa	$80,540	$38.72	89.7	$43.17
Kansas	$82,360	$39.60	88.8	$44.59
Kentucky	$86,140	$41.41	92.5	$44.77
Louisiana	$84,190	$40.48	92.3	$43.86
Maine	$91,700	$44.09	113	$39.02
Maryland	$99,010	$47.60	115.4	$41.25
Massachusetts	$117,960	$56.71	141.2	$40.16
Michigan	$94,300	$45.34	90.1	$50.32
Minnesota	$103,420	$49.72	94.6	$52.56
Mississippi	$78,950	$37.96	87.3	$43.48
Missouri	$85,900	$41.30	89	$46.40
Montana	$91,510	$43.99	95.5	$46.06
Nebraska	$88,330	$42.47	92.6	$45.86
Nevada	$105,710	$50.82	100.2	$50.72
New Hampshire	$97,900	$47.07	111.4	$42.25
New Jersey	$110,100	$52.93	115.1	$45.99
New Mexico	$95,290	$45.81	93.7	$48.89
New York	$113,440	$54.54	125.1	$43.60
North Carolina	$90,470	$43.50	97.8	$44.48
North Dakota	$83,600	$40.19	91.4	$43.97
Ohio	$87,730	$42.18	94.3	$44.73
Oklahoma	$85,060	$40.90	86	$47.56
Oregon	$123,140	$59.20	111.8	$52.95
Pennsylvania	$94,020	$45.20	97.2	$46.50
Rhode Island	$101,260	$48.68	110.6	$44.01
South Carolina	$87,670	$42.15	94.7	$44.51
South Dakota	$77,140	$37.09	91.9	$40.36
Tennessee	$85,390	$41.05	90.3	$45.46
Texas	$95,380	$45.86	92.1	$49.79
Utah	$90,950	$43.72	102.2	$42.78
Vermont	$96,650	$46.47	113.6	$40.91
Virginia	$93,850	$45.12	100.8	$44.76
Washington	$121,540	$58.43	114.1	$51.21
West Virginia	$86,970	$41.81	88.3	$47.35
Wisconsin	$94,690	$45.53	97.7	$46.60
Wyoming	$88,600	$42.60	93.7	$45.46

The post RN pay by state, adjusted for cost of living appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Workforce spending remained hospitals’ top expense in 2025, representing 60% of total expenses, according to the American Hospital Association. 

Workforce costs rose 5.6% in 2025 as hospitals continued increasing wages and investing in recruitment and retention efforts for nurses, physicians and other staff, according to the AHA’s 2026 “Cost of Caring” report.

Here’s how 25 health systems’ labor costs grew year over year for the 12 months ended Dec. 31:

Adventist Health (Roseville, Calif.)
Employee compensation: $3.5 billion (+4.9% YOY)

Advocate Health (Charlotte, N.C.) 
Salaries, wages and benefits: $21 billion (+9.8% YOY)

Banner Health (Phoenix) 
Salaries, benefits and contract labor: $6.8 billion (+7.4% YOY) 

BayCare Health System (Clearwater, Fla.)
Salaries and benefits: $3.2 billion (+6.1% YOY) 

BJC Health System (St. Louis)
Salaries and benefits: $5.6 billion (+6.4% YOY)

Bon Secours Mercy Health (Cincinnati)
Employee compensation: $6.5 billion (+3% YOY) 

Cleveland Clinic
Salaries, wages and benefits: $9.5 billion (+5.3% YOY)

Corewell Health (Southfield, Mich.) 
Salaries, wages and employee benefits: $6.3 billion (+6.5% YOY)

Denver Health 
Salaries and benefits: $929.4 million (+4.6% YOY)

Indiana University Health (Indianapolis)
Salaries, wages and benefits: $5.2 billion (+3.4% YOY) 

Inova Health System (Falls Church, Va.)
Salaries and benefits: $3.6 billion (+8.1% YOY)

Intermountain Health (Salt Lake City)
Employee compensation and benefits: $7.7 billion (+6.1% YOY) 

Kaiser Permanente (Oakland, Calif.)
Salaries, wages and benefits: $29.1 billion (+11.8% YOY)

Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minn.)
Salaries and benefits: $11.2 billion (+6.5% YOY)

Montefiore Health System (New York City)
Salaries, wages and employee benefits: $5.5 billion (+7.8% YOY)  

Mount Sinai Health System (New York City)
Salaries, wages and benefits: $7.7 billion (+3.1% YOY) 

Novant Health (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
Salaries and employee benefits: $5.7 billion (+14.9% YOY)

Presbyterian Healthcare Services (Albuquerque, N.M.)
Salaries, wages and employee benefits: $1.8 billion (+10.7% YOY) 

Providence (Renton, Wash.)
Salaries and benefits: $15.6 billion (+0.9% YOY)

RWJBarnabas Health (West Orange, N.J.)
Salaries and employee benefits: $4.7 billion (+10.4% YOY)

SSM Health (St. Louis)
Salaries and benefits: $5.1 billion (+5.7% YOY)

Sutter Health (Sacramento, Calif.)
Salaries and employee benefits: $8.8 billion (+9.7% YOY)   

Texas Health Resources (Arlington)
Salaries, wages and employee benefits: $3.6 billion (+7.1% YOY) 

University Hospitals (Cleveland)
Salaries, wages and employee benefits: $3.8 billion (+5.7% YOY)

UPMC (Pittsburgh)
Salaries, professional fees and employee benefits: $10.4 billion (+4% YOY)

The post How 25 health systems’ labor costs trended in 2025  appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Becker’s has compiled a list of the hospitals with a CMS 5-star rating for cleanliness.

CMS’ Patient survey (HCAHPS)-Hospital database listed hospital ratings based on the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems surveys. This is a national, standardized survey of hospital patients about their experience during a recent inpatient hospital stay. The surveys were completed between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025. The data was updated May 13. 

In 2025, 374 hospitals had a five-star cleanliness rating and Wisconsin had the most highly rated hospitals for cleanliness at 30.

This year, 22 more hospitals made it to 5-star ratings, and Texas had the hospitals recognized for cleanliness with 36.

Here are the 396 hospitals by state with 5-star cleanliness ratings:

Alabama

Fayette Medical Center 

Highlands Medical Center (Scottsboro)

North Baldwin Infirmary (Bay Minette)

Alaska

Bassett Army Community Hospital (Fort Wainwright)

Arkansas

Arkansas Heart Hospital-Encore (Bryant)

Fayetteville Arkansas VA Medical Center 

Howard Memorial Hospital (Nashville)

Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas (Rogers)

California

Adventist Health Clearlake 

Adventist Health Delano 

Adventist Health Howard Memorial (Willits)

Adventist Health Mendocino Coast (Fort Bragg)

Adventist Health Simi Valley 

Adventist Health Tehachapi Valley 

Fresno Surgical Hospital 

Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital (Santa Barbara)

Hoag Orthopedic Institute (Irvine)

Mark Twain Medical Center (San Andreas)

Petaluma Valley Hospital 

Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center San Pedro 

Providence Redwood Memorial Hospital (Fortuna)

Sharp Coronado Hospital and Healthcare Center 

Sutter Amador Hospital (Jackson)

Sutter Maternity and Surgery Center of Santa Cruz 

Tahoe Forest Hospital (Truckee)

Watsonville Community Hospital

Colorado

Animas Surgical Hospital (Durango)

Banner North Colorado Medical Center-Loveland Campus 

Grand Junction VA Medical Center 

Montrose Regional Health 

Southwest Memorial Hospital (Cortez)

St. Elizabeth Hospital (Fort Morgan)

Vail Health Hospital 

Florida

AdventHealth Dade City 

BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel 

HCA Florida Fort Walton-Destin Hospital (Fort Walton Beach)

HCA Florida Twin Cities Hospital (Niceville)

Jackson Hospital (Marianna)

Larkin Community Hospital Palm Springs Campus (Hialeah)

Mease Dunedin Hospital 

Oviedo Medical Center 

South Florida Baptist Hospital (Plant City)

Georgia

AdventHealth Murray (Chatsworth)

Emanuel Medical Center (Swainsboro)

Higgins General Hospital (Bremen)

Martin Army Community Hospital (Fort Benning)

Memorial Health Meadows Hospital (Vidalia)

Morgan Medical Center (Madison)

Northside Hospital Cherokee (Canton)

Northside Hospital Duluth 

Northside Hospital Forsyth (Cumming)

Southeastern Regional Medical Center (Newnan)

St. Mary’s Good Samaritan Hospital (Greensboro)

Ty Cobb Regional Medical Center (Lavonia)

Winn Army Community Hospital (Fort Stewart)

Hawaii

Adventist Health Castle (Kailua)

Idaho

Boise VA Medical Center 

Clearwater Valley Hospital & Clinics (Orofino)

St. Luke’s Elmore Medical Center (Mountain Home)

Illinois

Carle Hoopeston Regional Health Center 

Hammond Henry Hospital (Geneseo)

Memorial Hospital (Carthage)

Midwest Medical Center (Galena)

Midwestern Region Med Center (Zion)

OSF Saint Clare Medical Center (Princeton)

OSF Saint Katharine Medical Center (Dixon)

Red Bud Regional Hospital 

St. Joseph Memorial Hospital (Murphysboro)

Taylorville Memorial Hospital 

Valley West Community Hospital (Sandwich)

Wabash General Hospital (Mount Carmel)

Indiana

Cameron Memorial Community Hospital (Angola)

Franciscan Health Crawfordsville

Hancock Regional Hospital (Greenfield)

Hendricks Regional Health (Danville)

Monroe Hospital (Bloomington)

OrthoIndy Hospital (Indianapolis)

Parkview DeKalb Hospital (Auburn)

Parkview LaGrange Hospital 

Parkview Wabash Hospital

Parkview Whitley Hospital (Columbia City)

St. Elizabeth Dearborn Hospital (Lawrenceburg)

The Women’s Hospital (Newburgh)

VA Northern Indiana Healthcare System (Marion)

Iowa

Buena Vista Regional Medical Center (Storm Lake)

Burgess Health Center (Onawa)

Compass Memorial Healthcare (Marengo)

Greater Regional Medical Center (Creston)

Iowa Specialty Hospital-Clarion 

Jefferson County Health Center (Fairfield)

Myrtue Medical Center (Harlan)

Orange City Area Health System (Orange City)

St. Anthony Regional Hospital & Nursing Home (Carroll)

UnityPoint Health-Marshalltown 

VA Central Iowa Healthcare System (Des Moines)

Van Diest Medical Center (Webster City)

Veterans Memorial Hospital (Waukon)

Waverly Health Center 

WinnMed (Decorah)

Kansas

AdventHealth South Overland Park

Community Memorial Healthcare (Marysville)

Kansas City Orthopaedic Institute (Leawood)

Kansas Heart Hospital (Wichita)

Kansas Surgery & Recovery Center (Wichita)

Lawrence Memorial Hospital 

Mercy Hospital Pittsburg

Mitchell County Hospital Health Systems (Beloit)

Republic County Hospital (Belleville)

Smith County Memorial Hospital (Smith Center)

Stormont Vail Health Flint Hills (Junction City)

VA Eastern Kansas Healthcare System (Topeka)

Kentucky

CHI Saint Joseph Berea 

Ephraim McDowell Fort Logan Hospital (Stanford)

Harrison Memorial Hospital (Cynthiana)

Jackson Purchase Medical Center (Mayfield)

Monroe County Medical Center (Tompkinsville)

Owensboro Health Twin Lakes Medical Center (Leitchfield)

Saint Joseph Mount Sterling 

Three Rivers Medical Center (Louisa)

Louisiana

Abbeville General Hospital 

Citizens Medical Center (Columbia)

Cypress Pointe Surgical Hospital (Hammond)

Iberia Medical Center (New Iberia)

Lafayette Surgical Specialty Hospital 

Ochsner American Legion Hospital (Jennings)

Ochsner St. Anne General Hospital (Raceland)

Ochsner St. Martin Hospital (Breaux Bridge)

Ochsner University Hospital and Clinics (Lafayette)

Maine

MaineHealth Stephens Hospital (Norway)

Redington Fairview General Hospital (Skowhegan)

Togus VA Medical Center (Augusta)

Maryland

Garrett Regional Medical Center (Oakland)

Suburban Hospital (Bethesda)

University of Maryland Charles Regional Medical Center (La Plata)

Massachusetts

North Adams Regional Hospital 

Saint Anne’s Hospital (Fall River)

Michigan

Bell Hospital (Ishpeming)

Bronson Lakeview Hospital (Paw Paw)

Corewell Health Gerber Hospital (Fremont)

Holland Community Hospital 

MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena 

Oaklawn Hospital (Marshall)

Sparrow Ionia Hospital 

University of Michigan Health-Sparrow Eaton (Charlotte)

University of Michigan Health-Sparrow Clinton (Saint Johns)

UP Health System Portage (Hancock)

VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System 

Minnesota

Community Memorial Hospital (Cloquet)

Glacial Ridge Hospital (Glenwood)

Glencoe Regional Health 

Mayo Clinic Health System-Fairmont 

Mayo Clinic Health System-Lake City

Mayo Clinic Health System-Waseca 

Mayo Clinic Health System St. James 

Olmsted Medical Center (Rochester)

Range Regional Health Services (Hibbing)

River’s Edge Hospital & Clinic (Saint Peter)

St. Gabriels Hospital (Little Falls)

St. Joseph’s Area Health Services (Park Rapids)

Welia Health (Mora)

Mississippi

81st Medical Group (Biloxi)

Clay County Medical Corporation (West Point)

George Regional Health System (Lucedale)

Tishomingo Health Services (Iuka)

University of Mississippi Medical Center-Grenada 

Missouri

Cox Barton County Hospital (Lamar)

Cox Monett Hospital (Monett)

General Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital (Fort Leonard Wood)

Hedrick Medical Center (Chillicothe)

Lafayette Regional Health Center (Lexington)

Mercy Hospital Carthage 

Missouri Baptist Sullivan Hospital 

Texas County Memorial Hospital (Houston)

Montana

Cabinet Peaks Medical Center (Libby)

Nebraska

Avera St. Anthony’s Hospital (O’Neill)

Boone County Health Center (Albion)

Brodstone Healthcare (Superior)

CHI Health Nebraska Heart (Lincoln)

Columbus Community Hospital

Community Medical Center (Falls City)

Memorial Community Hospital & Health System (Blair)

Midwest Surgical Hospital (Omaha)

Nebraska Orthopaedic Hospital (Omaha)

Phelps Memorial Health Center (Holdrege)

Thayer County Health Services (Hebron)

Nevada

Banner Churchill Community Hospital (Fallon)

Carson Valley Health (Gardnerville)

New Hampshire

Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital (Lebanon)

Androscoggin Valley Hospital (Berlin)

Frisbie Memorial Hospital (Rochester)

Littleton Regional Healthcare 

New London Hospital 

Speare Memorial Hospital (Plymouth)

New Jersey

Valley Hospital (Paramus)

New Mexico

Lincoln County Medical Center (Ruidoso)

Presbyterian Espanola Hospital 

Three Crosses Regional Hospital (Las Cruces)

New York

Adirondack Medical Center-Saranac Lake 

Aurelia Osborn Fox Memorial Hospital (Oneonta)

Chenango Memorial Hospital (Norwich)

Cobleskill Regional Hospital 

Community Memorial Hospital (Hamilton)

Delaware Valley Hospital (Walton)

John T Mather Memorial Hospital of Port Jefferson 

North Carolina

Atrium Health Lincoln (Lincolnton)

Erlanger Murphy Medical Center 

Highlands Cashiers Hospital 

Novant Health Medical Park Hospital (Winston-Salem)

Novant Health Mint Hill Medical Center (Charlotte)

Stanly Regional Medical Center (Albemarle)

W.G. Hefner Salisbury VA Medical Center (Salisbury)

Womack Army Medical Center (Fort Bragg)

North Dakota

Fargo VA Medical Center 

Ohio

Ashtabula County Medical Center 

Fulton County Health Center (Wauseon)

Grady Memorial Hospital (Delaware)

Highland District Hospital (Hillsboro)

Institute for Orthopaedic Surgery (Lima)

Kettering Health Troy 

Lodi Community Hospital 

Madison Health (London)

Mary Rutan Hospital (Bellefontaine)

McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital (Oxford)

Mercy Health-Defiance Hospital 

Mercy Health Kings Mills Hospital (Mason)

Salem Regional Medical Center 

Selby General Hospital (Marietta)

Surgical Hospital at Southwoods (Youngstown)

UHHS Memorial Hospital of Geneva 

University Hospitals Conneaut Medical Center 

University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center (Ashland)

Van Wert County Hospital 

Wood County Hospital (Bowling Green)

Wyandot Memorial Hospital (Upper Sandusky)

Oklahoma

Ascension St. John Jane Phillips (Bartlesville)

Oklahoma Heart Hospital South (Oklahoma City)

Oklahoma Heart Hospital (Oklahoma City)

Saint Francis Hospital South (Tulsa)

SSM Health St Anthony Hospital-Shawnee 

Summit Medical Center (Edmond)

Tulsa Spine & Specialty Hospital 

Oregon

Peace Harbor Medical Center (Florence)

Saint Alphonsus Medical Center Ontario 

St. Charles Medical Center Prineville

Pennsylvania

Advanced Surgical Hospital (Washington)

AHN Wexford Hospital 

Conemaugh Miners Medical Center (Hastings)

Geisinger Jersey Shore Hospital 

Geisinger Medical Center Muncy (Muncy)

Geisinger St. Luke’s Hospital (Orwigsburg)

Geisinger-Bloomsburg Hospital 

Grove City Medical Center 

James E. Van Zandt VA Medical Center (Altoona)

OSS Orthopaedic Hospital (York)

Penn Highlands Elk (Saint Marys)

Physicians Care Surgical Hospital (Royersford)

St Luke’s Hospital-Carbon Campus (Lehighton)

St Luke’s Hospital-Easton Campus 

St Luke’s Hospital-Upper Bucks Campus (Quakertown)

St Luke’s Miners Memorial Hospital (Coaldale)

UPMC Hanover 

UPMC Muncy

UPMC Somerset 

UPMC Wellsboro

WellSpan Waynesboro Hospital 

Rhode Island

Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island (Providence)

South Carolina

Newberry County Memorial Hospital

Pelham Medical Center (Greer)

South Dakota

Avera Heart Hospital of South Dakota (Sioux Falls)

Avera Sacred Heart Hospital (Yankton)

Black Hills Surgical Hospital (Rapid City)

Sioux Falls Specialty Hospital 

Sioux Falls VA Medical Center 

VA Black Hills Healthcare System (Fort Meade)

Tennessee

Baptist Memorial Hospital Union City 

Claiborne Medical Center (Tazewell)

Henderson County Community Hospital (Lexington)

Unity Medical Center (Manchester)

Vanderbilt Bedford Hospital (Shelbyville)

Vanderbilt Tullahoma-Harton Hospital 

West Tennessee Healthcare Henry County Hospital (Paris)

West Tennessee Healthcare Milan Hospital

Texas

Baylor Scott & White Heart & Vascular Hospital-Dallas 

Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-Frisco 

Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-Marble Falls

Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Pflugerville

Baylor Scott and White Orthopedic and Spine Hospital (Arlington)

Christus Mother Frances Hospital Sulphur Springs 

Christus Mother Frances Hospital-Jacksonville

Christus Spohn Hospital Kleberg (Kingsville)

Darnall Army Medical Center (Fort Cavazos)

Guadalupe Regional Medical Center (Seguin)

Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital 

Houston Methodist Sugarland Hospital 

Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital

Houston Methodist West Hospital 

Legent Orthopedic + Spine (San Antonio)

Memorial Hermann Houston Physicians Hospital (Webster)

Methodist Hospital Atascosa (Jourdanton)

Methodist Midlothian Medical Center (Midlothian)

Methodist Richardson Medical Center 

Palo Pinto General Hospital (Mineral Wells)

Quail Creek Surgical Hospital (Amarillo)

Rolling Plains Memorial Hospital (Sweetwater)

Texas Health Center for Diagnostics & Surgery Plano 

Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Southlake 

Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Stephenville 

Texas Health Hospital Mansfield 

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Flower Mound 

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Kaufman 

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Rockwall 

Texas Institute for Surgery at Presbyterian Hospital (Dallas)

Texas Orthopedic Hospital (Houston)

The Heart Hospital Baylor Denton

UT Health East Texas Pittsburg Hospital

UT Health East Texas Quitman Hospital

Uvalde Memorial Hospital 

William Beaumont Army Medical Group (El Paso)

Utah

Brigham City Community Hospital 

Cache Valley Hospital (North Logan)

Cedar City Hospital 

Central Valley Medical Center (Nephi)

Intermountain Health Sevier Valley Hospital (Richfield)

Mountain View Hospital (Payson)

Vermont

Copley Hospital (Morrisville)

Gifford Medical Center (Randolph)

Mount Ascutney Hospital (Windsor)

North Country Hospital and Health Center (Newport)

Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital (Saint Johnsbury)

Virginia

Bon Secours Southampton Memorial Hospital (Franklin)

Buchanan General Hospital (Grundy)

Carilion Giles Community Hospital (Pearisburg)

Carilion Tazewell Community Hospital 

Johnston Memorial Hospital (Abingdon)

Lee County Community Hospital (Pennington Gap)

LewisGale Hospital Alleghany (Low Moor)

LewisGale Hospital Montgomery (Blacksburg)

LewisGale Hospital Pulaski 

Page Memorial Hospital (Luray)

UVA Health Haymarket Medical Center

Warren Memorial Hospital (Front Royal)

Washington

Confluence Health Hospital (Wenatchee)

Mason General Hospital & Family of Clinics (Shelton)

Prosser Memorial Hospital 

Providence St. Mary Medical Center (Walla Walla)

Pullman Regional Hospital

St. Anthony Hospital (Gig Harbor)

Tri-State Memorial Hospital (Clarkston)

West Virginia

Boone Memorial Hospital (Madison)

CAMC Plateau Medical Center (Oak Hill)

Grant Memorial Hospital (Petersburg)

Hampshire Memorial Hospital (Romney)

Jackson General Hospital (Ripley)

Jefferson Medical Center (Ranson)

St Joseph’s Hospital of Buckhannon 

Summersville Regional Medical Center 

Valley Health War Memorial Hospital (Berkeley Springs)

Welch Community Hospital 

Wetzel County Hospital (New Martinsville)

Wisconsin

Amery Hospital & Clinic 

Aspirus Riverview Hospital & Clinics (Wisconsin Rapids)

Aurora Medical Center Sheboygan County 

Aurora Medical Center Manitowoc County (Two Rivers)

Aurora Medical Center Washington County (Hartford)

Black River Memorial Hospital (Black River Falls)

Crossing Rivers Health Medical Center (Prairie du Chien)

Door County Medical Center (Sturgeon Bay)

Flambeau Hospital (Park Falls)

Howard Young Medical Center (Woodruff)

Ladd Memorial Hospital (Osceola)

Madison VA Medical Center 

Marshfield Medical Center-Minocqua 

Marshfield Medical Center-Rice Lake 

Marshfield Medical Center-Weston

Mayo Clinic Health System Chippewa Valley (Bloomer)

Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Medical Center (La Crosse)

Mayo Clinic Health System-Northland (Barron)

Mayo Clinic Health System-Red Cedar (Menomonie)

Orthopaedic Hospital of Wisconsin (Glendale)

Reedsburg Area Medical Center

Richland Hospital (Richland Center)

Ripon Medical Center

Southwest Health Center (Platteville)

Stoughton Hospital 

Tamarack Health Ashland Medical Center 

Tamarack Health Hayward Medical Center

ThedaCare Medical Center-New London 

Tomah Memorial Hospital 

Upland Hills Health (Dodgeville)

Vernon Memorial Hospital (Viroqua)

Waupun Memorial Hospital 

Westfields Hospital and Clinic (New Richmond)

Wyoming

Cheyenne Regional Medical Center

Community Hospital (Torrington)

Powell Valley Hospital 

St. John’s Medical Center (Jackson)

The post 396 cleanest hospitals appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

On the surface, the conventional rural health story is one marked by rising financial pressures, dwindling care access and closure risks. But those constraints don’t define rural healthcare, and the idea that rural systems are always playing “catch up” to their urban counterparts isn’t always true.

Dr. Prathibha Varkey, president of Mayo Clinic Health System, Mayo Clinic’s community arm, argued that rural healthcare can be a valuable testing ground for new innovations to solve some of healthcare’s largest challenges during an April 13 fireside chat at Becker’s 16th Annual Meeting.

“If you can solve it in a rural community, you can absolutely solve it in a destination practice,” she said. “You can absolutely solve it in an academic health system.”

The need to rethink care delivery for the 1 in 5 Americans living in rural areas has never been greater, Dr. Varkey said, citing a stack of pressures that rural healthcare leaders know all too well. More than 200 hospitals have closed or converted to facilities that exclude inpatient care since 2010, according to Chartis. 

Meanwhile, an aging population is driving demand for more complex care just as physician shortages — particularly in specialty care — are widening. Many communities still lack reliable 5G coverage., while maternity deserts and transport gaps cut access further. And in many of those communities, the local hospital is the area’s largest employer, meaning financial pressure on the institution flows downstream onto the entire local economy.

For Dr. Varkey, that stack of constraints is exactly why rural systems are positioned to lead, not follow.

“It’s the perfect space to innovate because you’ve got all these constraints, and the way you’re going to solve it cannot be incremental. It has to be completely disruptive,” she said.

Dr. Varkey leads more than 17,000 employees across 16 community hospitals and more than 50 multi-specialty clinics in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. Five years ago, the system launched an integration journey to transform from a network of community hospitals into a single integrated system. Colloquially, staff members think of the concept as “one hospital with 16 doors” — or 17 if you count the system’s Advanced Care at Home program.

This foundation has enabled a steady stream of innovations that often touch Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic Health System first. 

Mayo’s hospital-at-home program launched in 2020 with twin pilots at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire, Wis., and Mayo Jacksonville, Fla. At Mayo Clinic Health System alone, the program has saved more than 7,700 hospital days with patient satisfaction above 90%, Dr. Varkey said. 

Several years later, the health system implemented AI-driven dynamic capacity management into its hospital-at-home program. The technology now decides in real time where a patient is admitted across the network, based on staffing, surgical schedules and acuity. Once AI was integrated into this process, the system identified four times more appropriate hospital-at-home patients than the manual process had.

In another example, a Mayo Clinic Health System gastroenterologist and an AI medical director built an evidence-based anesthesia protocol backed by AI to identify which patients could safely receive conscious sedation instead of complex anesthesia during colonoscopy procedures. The change significantly expanded screening capacity, allowing for 150 additional colonoscopies per month in that rural community within 30 days. The protocol has since spread across the Mayo Clinic enterprise and is one of more than 300 projects related to AI algorithms in various stages of implementation across the system, according to Dr. Varkey. 

In Albert Lea, Minn., where Mayo Clinic Health System is essentially the sole primary care provider, leaders realized traditional capacity expansion wasn’t going to meet community care demands. About two years ago, the system instead launched a vendor-partnered digital primary care on-demand model and has conducted more than 22,000 virtual visits. About 33% occur in the evenings, at night or on weekends, suggesting the virtual care is displacing what would have likely been emergency department visits for many patients. 

Mayo Clinic Health System is also using AI for risk stratification. An algorithm runs overnight against the system’s elderly chronic disease population and produces, by 7 a.m., a list of the 20 patients most likely to require an emergency room visit or be admitted to the hospital. The list goes to a care coordinator or nurse for proactive outreach. Dr. Varkey said the program has reduced readmissions and cut total cost of care for the cohort by more than 50%.

In April, Mayo Clinic Health System launched an “AI agent-thon” initiative to teach staff how to design and deploy their own AI agents. It is a clean illustration of a theme Dr. Varkey returned to throughout the conversation: The most durable innovation in healthcare is bottom-up, not top-down. 

Dr. Varkey said the cultural shift in a transformation effort typically takes about two years to manifest. The clearest sign that it’s working, she said, is when front-line staff start bringing new ideas to leadership and asking why the system isn’t moving faster.

“I think that is the biggest reward any leader can hope for,” Dr. Varkey said. “Because then the people are taking the helm of the transformation.”

The post Why rural is the perfect setting for innovation: Mayo Clinic Health System CEO appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

In 2025, the average U.S. hospital lost $5.19 million from registered nurse turnover. Financially and operationally, a persistently high turnover rate among early-career nurses presents a growing risk for the industry, according to Press Ganey’s “State of Nursing 2026” report.

The report, published May 11, analyzed data from 422,761 registered nurses and 41,279 advanced practice providers across the U.S. While Press Ganey found increased engagement and resilience among RNs, it also found few improvements in retention. 

At 17%, the nation’s overall nursing turnover rate has remained about the same as past years, the report said — a concerning data point despite signs of stabilization, according to a Press Ganey news release. The organization said RN retention “demands urgent, targeted attention.”

Demographically, Generation X registered nurses have the lowest turnover rate at 14%, while millennials are 21% and, Generation Z and baby boomers are each 22%. 

“One in five early-career nurses are departing their organizations, creating an ongoing threat to long-term workforce stability as millennials and Gen Z represent an increasing share of the workforce,” Press Ganey said. 

This lower retention rate for early-career nurses could be attributed to engagement, as engagement perceptions begin to dip after the first six months and reach the lowest average at the one- to two-year mark. 

Press Ganey’s report recommends supporting early-career nurses through a balanced workload, “robust onboarding and intentional social integration” and “consistent access to coaching and mentorship.” 

Access the report here.

The post Turnover runs high at 22% for early-career nurses: Press Ganey appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Forty-one percent of nurses report using AI regularly, compared to 57% of physicians, and of those who use AI, only 30% regularly use clinician-specific tools, a May 12 Elsevier report found. 

Elsevier’s “Clinician of the Future 2026” report gathered responses from 2,757 clinicians, including physicians and nurses, across 118 countries. 

Here are six key findings:

1. Among nurses, 41% said their views are rarely or never reflected in AI decision-making; however, only 19% of physicians said they felt that nurses’ views were not reflected by the technology.

2. Forty-nine percent of nurses use AI at work — up 23 percentage points from 2024 — but only a third of nurses regularly use clinical-specific tools. Clinicians reported relying on publicly available, general AI tools when clinical-specific tools are not available. 

3. Most respondents (80%) said AI will become a critical assistant in the next decade, and 79% believe AI skills will be essential for clinician training.

4. Sixty-eight percent of respondents reported insufficient AI training, and 60% said they lack confidence in AI governance and oversight. 

5. Despite using AI less than physicians, nurses expressed stronger belief that AI will improve care quality (61%), patient outcomes (59%) and enhance their autonomy (46%).

6. Among nurses, 55% said they believe AI will save them time, compared to 70% of physicians.

The post Nurses believe AI will improve patient care, but only 41% use it: Report appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Healthgrades recognized 373 hospitals with its 2026 Outstanding Patient Experience Award.

The organization evaluated 3,020 hospitals that submitted at least 100 patient experience surveys to CMS’ Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems between January and December 2024. Hospitals in the bottom 20% of overall clinical quality were excluded from consideration. Hospitals were evaluated on patient survey data on 10 patient experience measures. Recipients of the outstanding patient experience award earned the highest overall experience scores.

This year, 373 hospitals in 46 states were honored for patient experience, representing the top 15% of hospitals. Among 2026 recipients, 80 hospitals received both the Outstanding Patient Experience Award and the Patient Safety Excellence Award; and only 16 hospitals earned Healthgrade’s triple crown for Outstanding Patient Experience, Patient Safety Excellence and America’s Best Hospitals distinctions for 2026.

Healthgrades also found three aspects of patient experience that best predict if a patient will recommend a hospital: physician communication, nurse communication and clear communication about care when discharged.

Here are the top hospitals for patient experience:

Alabama

Baptist Medical Center East (Montgomery)

Arkansas

Baptist Health Medical Center-Conway 

Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas (Rogers)

Arizona

Honorhealth Scottsdale Thompson Peak Medical Center 

Mayo Clinic Hospital (Phoenix)

California

Casa Colina Hospital (Pomona)

Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula 

Community Memorial Hospital San Buenaventura (Ventura)

Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital (Santa Barbara)

Hoag Hospital Newport Beach 

Kaiser Permanente Orange County-Anaheim Medical Center 

Kaiser Permanente Redwood City Medical Center 

Kaiser Permanente Zion Medical Center (San Diego)

Keck Hospital of USC (Los Angeles)

Mammoth Hospital (Mammoth Lakes)

Mills-Peninsula Medical Center (Burlingame)

PIH Health Whittier Hospital 

Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital 

Scripps Green Hospital (San Diego)

Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla (San Diego)

Sequoia Hospital (Redwood City)

Sharp Coronado Hospital 

Sonoma Valley Hospital 

Stanford Hospital 

Sutter Amador Hospital (Jackson)

Sutter Roseville Medical Center 

Torrance Memorial Medical Center 

UCSF Helen Diller Medical Center at Parnassus Heights (San Francisco)

Colorado

Animas Surgical Hospital (Durango)

CommonSpirit Mercy Hospital (Durango)

CommonSpirit St. Mary-Corwin Hospital (Pueblo)

Foothills Hospital (Boulder)

Medical Center of the Rockies (Loveland)

Rose Women’s Hospital (Denver)

Saint Joseph Hospital (Denver)

UCHealth Highlands Ranch Hospital 

Connecticut

UConn John Dempsey Hospital (Farmington)

Florida

AdventHealth Wesley Chapel 

Baptist Medical Center Beaches (Jacksonville Beach)

BayCare Hospital Wesley Chapel 

HCA Florida Twin Cities Hospital (Niceville)

Mayo Clinic in Florida (Jacksonville)

Mease Dunedin Hospital 

Morton Plant North Bay Hospital (New Port Richey)

Sarasota Memorial Hospital Venice (North Venice)

Georgia

Fairview Park Hospital (Dublin)

Higgins General Hospital (Bremen)

Memorial Health Meadows Hospital (Vidalia)

Northside Hospital Cherokee (Canton)

Northside Hospital Forsyth (Cumming)

Piedmont Columbus Regional Northside

Southeastern Regional Medical Center (Newnan)

Wellstar West Georgia Medical Center (Lagrange)

Hawaii

Adventist Health Castle (Kailua)

Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center (Honolulu)

Pali Momi Medical Center (Aiea)

Iowa

Iowa Specialty Hospital Belmond 

Mary Greeley Medical Center (Ames)

Mercy Medical Center Cedar Rapids 

MercyOne Dubuque Medical Center 

Methodist Jennie Edmundson (Council Bluffs)

Orange City Area Health System 

Spencer Municipal Hospital 

UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s Hospital-Cedar Rapids

Van Diest Medical Center (Webster City)

Idaho

Idaho Falls Community Hospital 

St. Luke’s Boise Medical Center 

St. Luke’s Nampa Medical Center

West Valley Medical Center (Caldwell)

Illinois

Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital (Barrington)

Alton Memorial Hospital 

HSHS St. Elizabeth’s Hospital (O’Fallon)

HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital Breese 

Memorial Hospital Belleville 

Midwest Medical Center (Galena)

Midwestern Region Medical Center (Zion)

Morris Hospital & Healthcare Centers 

Northwestern Medicine Central Dupage Hospital (Winfield)

Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital (Geneva)

Northwestern Medicine McHenry Hospital 

Northwestern Memorial Hospital (Chicago)

SIH St. Joseph Memorial Hospital (Murphysboro)

Indiana

Ascension St. Vincent Heart Center (Carmel)

Community Hospital East (Indianapolis)

Franciscan Health Lafayette East 

Franciscan Health Mooresville 

Franciscan Health Orthopedic Hospital Carmel 

Hendricks Regional Health (Danville)

Henry Community Health (New Castle)

Lutheran Downtown Hospital (Fort Wayne)

OrthoIndy Hospital (Indianapolis)

Unity Physicians Hospital (Mishawaka)

Kansas

AdventHealth South Overland Park 

Ascension Via Christi Hospital Pittsburg 

Kansas City Orthopaedic Institute (Leawood)

Kansas Heart Hospital (Wichita)

Kansas Surgery and Recovery Center (Wichita)

Labette Health (Parsons)

Manhattan Surgical Hospital 

Salina Surgical Hospital 

Summit Surgical (Hutchinson)

University of Kansas Hospital (Kansas City)

Kentucky

Baptist Health La Grange 

Baptist Health Lexington 

Baptist Health Richmond 

Logan Memorial Hospital (Russellville)

Owensboro Health Muhlenberg Community Hospital (Greenville)

Saint Joseph Berea 

Saint Joseph London 

Louisiana

AVALA Hospital (Covington)

Christus Central Louisiana Surgical Hospital (Alexandria)

Citizens Medical Center (Columbia)

Cypress Pointe Surgical Hospital (Hammond)

Lafayette Surgical Specialty Hospital 

Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center (Houma)

Ochsner Saint Anne General Hospital (Raceland)

Ochsner University Hospital and Clinics (Lafayette)

Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center (Lafayette)

Saint Tammany Parish Hospital (Covington)

The Spine Hospital of Louisiana at the NeuroMedical Center (Baton Rouge)

West Calcasieu Cameron Hospital (Sulphur)

Massachusetts

Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston)

Fairview Hospital (Great Barrington)

Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston)

Tufts Medical Center (Boston)

Maryland

Garrett Regional Medical Center (Oakland)

The Johns Hopkins Hospital (Baltimore)

University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center (Towson)

Maine

Maine General Medical Center (Augusta)

Northern Light Mercy Hospital (Portland)

York Hospital

Michigan

Chelsea Hospital 

Corewell Health Ludington Hospital 

Holland Hospital 

MyMichigan Medical Center Alpena 

MyMichigan Medical Center Gladwin 

MyMichigan Medical Center West Branch 

Sparrow Carson Hospital (Carson City)

Trinity Health Grand Rapids Hospital 

Trinity Health Shelby Hospital 

University Hospital-University of Michigan (Ann Arbor)

Minnesota

Allina Health Faribault Medical Center 

Fairview Range Medical Center (Hibbing)

Glacial Ridge Hospital (Glenwood)

Lake Region Healthcare Corp. (Fergus Falls)

Lakeview Hospital (Stillwater)

Mayo Clinic Hospital, Saint Marys Campus (Rochester)

Mora Hospital 

North Memorial Health-Maple Grove Hospital 

Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital (Saint Louis Park)

Ridgeview Medical Center (Waconia)

River’s Edge Hospital and Clinic (Saint Peter)

Riverwood Healthcare Center (Aitkin)

Missouri

Barnes Jewish Hospital (St. Louis)

Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital (Creve Coeur)

Cox Barton County Hospital (Lamar)

Cox Monett Hospital (Monett)

Mercy Hospital Jefferson (Festus)

Missouri Baptist Medical Center (St. Louis)

Parkland Health Center (Farmington)

Saint Luke’s East Hospital (Lee’s Summit)

Saint Luke’s Hospital of Kansas City 

St. Luke’s Des Peres Hospital (St. Louis)

St. Luke’s Hospital (Chesterfield)

Mississippi

Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi (Oxford)

Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union County (New Albany)

Montana

Bozeman Health Deaconess Regional Medical Center 

Intermountain Health St. Vincent Regional Hospital (Billings)

Saint Patrick Hospital (Missoula)

North Carolina

AdventHealth Hendersonville 

Atrium Health Lincoln 

Duke University Hospital (Durham)

FirstHealth Moore Regional Hospital (Pinehurst)

Johnston Health (Smithfield)

Northern Regional Hospital (Mount Airy)

Novant Health Medical Park Hospital (Winston-Salem)

Novant Health Mint Hill Medical Center (Charlotte)

Pardee Hospital (Hendersonville)

Rex Hospital (Raleigh)

University of North Carolina Hospital (Chapel Hill)

Vidant Duplin Hospital (Kenansville)

Vidant Edgecombe Hospital (Tarboro)

Watauga Medical Center (Boone)

Nebraska

Boone County Health Center (Albion)

Brodstone Healthcare (Superior)

Bryan East Campus (Lincoln)

CHI Health Nebraska Heart (Lincoln)

Community Medical Center (Falls City)

Faith Regional Health Services (Norfolk)

Methodist Fremont Health 

Methodist Hospital (Omaha)

Midwest Surgical Hospital (Omaha)

Nebraska Spine Hospital (Omaha)

Orthonebraska Hospital (Omaha)

Phelps Memorial Health Center (Holdrege)

New Hampshire

Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital (Lebanon)

Frisbie Memorial Hospital (Rochester)

Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital (Lebanon)

Memorial Hospital (North Conway)

Wentworth-Douglass Hospital (Dover)

New Jersey

Deborah Heart and Lung Center (Browns Mills)

New Mexico

Three Crosses Regional Hospital (Las Cruces)

Nevada

Saint Rose Dominican Hospitals San Martin (Las Vegas)

New York

Adirondack Medical Center Saranac Lake 

Clifton Springs Hospital and Clinic (Clifton Springs)

Glen Cove Hospital 

Hospital for Special Surgery (New York City)

Mather Hospital (Port Jefferson)

St. Francis Hospital & Heart Center (Roslyn)

UHS Delaware Valley Hospital (Walton)

Ohio

Avon Hospital at Richard E. Jacobs Campus 

Berger Hospital (Circleville)

Christ Hospital (Cincinnati)

Crystal Clinic Orthopaedic Center (Akron)

Dublin Methodist Hospital 

Grady Memorial Hospital (Delaware)

Holzer Gallipolis 

Kettering Health Troy 

Madison Health (London)

Mary Rutan Health (Bellefontaine)

McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital (Oxford)

Memorial Hospital (Marysville)

Mercer County Community Hospital (Coldwater)

Mercy Health Tiffin Hospital 

Mercy Health-Allen Hospital (Oberlin)

ProMedica Defiance Regional Hospital 

Soin Medical Center (Beavercreek)

Surgical Hospital at Southwoods (Youngstown)

UH Regional Hospitals (Chardon)

University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center (Ashland)

Van Wert County Hospital 

Wood County Hospital (Bowling Green)

Wooster Community Hospital 

Oklahoma

Oklahoma Heart Hospital South (Oklahoma City)

Saint Francis Hospital (Tulsa)

Saint Francis Hospital South (Tulsa)

SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital-Shawnee 

Talihina Health Care Center 

Tulsa Spine & Specialty Hospital 

Oregon

Grande Ronde Hospital (La Grande)

Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center (Hillsboro)

Providence Portland Medical Center 

St. Charles Bend

Pennsylvania

Advanced Surgical Hospital (Washington)

AHN Wexford Hospital 

Bryn Mawr Hospital

Canonsburg General Hospital 

Chester County Hospital (West Chester)

Doylestown Hospital 

Evangelical Community Hospital (Lewisburg)

Geisinger Medical Center Muncy 

Geisinger St. Luke’s Hospital (Orwigsburg)

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia)

Jefferson Hospital (Jefferson Hills)

Mount Nittany Medical Center (State College)

OSS Orthopaedic Hospital (York)

Penn State Health Hampden Medical Center (Enola)

Physician’s Care Surgical Hospital (Royersford)

Rothman Orthopaedic Specialty Hospital (Bensalem)

St. Luke’s Hospital-Carbon Campus (Lehighton)

St. Luke’s Hospital-Easton Campus 

St. Luke’s Hospital-Upper Bucks Campus (Quakertown)

Surgical Institute of Reading (Wyomissing)

UPMC Harrisburg 

UPMC Muncy 

UPMC Passavant-McCandless (Pittsburgh)

UPMC Somerset 

West Penn Hospital (Pittsburgh)

Rhode Island

South County Hospital (Wakefield)

Westerly Hospital 

South Carolina

Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital (Charleston)

McLeod Health Clarendon (Manning)

McLeod Health Dillon 

McLeod Loris Hospital

Newberry County Memorial Hospital 

Pelham Medical Center (Greer)

Prisma Health Greer Memorial Hospital 

Roper Hospital (Charleston)

Roper St. Francis Berkeley Hospital (Summerville)

Roper St. Francis Mount Pleasant Hospital

South Dakota

Avera Heart Hospital of South Dakota (Sioux Falls)

Avera Sacred Heart Hospital (Yankton)

Black Hills Surgical Hospital (Rapid City)

Sioux Falls Specialty Hospital 

Tennessee

Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union City 

Henry County Medical Center (Paris)

Roane Medical Center (Harriman)

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (Nashville)

Texas

Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-College Station 

Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-Hillcrest (Waco)

Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-Plano 

Baylor Scott and White Medical Center-Waxahachie 

Baylor Scott and White the Heart Hospital Plano

Christus Mother Frances Hospital Sulphur Springs

Citizens Medical Center (Victoria)

Hill Country Memorial Hospital (Fredericksburg)

Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital 

Houston Methodist Clear Lake Hospital 

Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital

Houston Methodist the Woodlands Hospital 

Houston Methodist West Hospital 

Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital 

Houston Physicians’ Hospital (Webster)

Methodist Mansfield Medical Center 

Palo Pinto General Hospital (Mineral Wells)

Peterson Regional Medical Center (Kerrville)

Quail Creek Surgical Hospital (Amarillo)

South Texas Spine and Surgical Hospital (San Antonio)

St. Luke’s Health-The Vintage Hospital (Houston)

Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Cleburne 

Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Stephenville 

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Denton 

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Flower Mound 

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Kaufman 

Texas Institute for Surgery at Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas 

The Physicians Centre Hospital (Bryan)

UT Health North Campus Tyler

UT Health Pittsburg

William P. Clements Jr. University Hospital (Dallas)

Utah

American Fork Hospital 

Heber Valley Hospital (Heber City)

LDS Hospital (Salt Lake City)

Logan Regional Hospital 

Mountain View Hospital (Payson)

Saint George Regional Hospital 

University of Utah Hospitals and Clinics (Salt Lake City)

Utah Valley Hospital (Provo)

Virginia

Buchanan General Hospital (Grundy)

Centra Bedford Memorial Hospital 

Inova Fair Oaks Hospital (Fairfax)

Inova Fairfax Hospital (Falls Church)

Lewisgale Hospital Montgomery (Blacksburg)

Lewisgale Hospital Pulaski 

Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital (Charlottesville)

Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center 

UVA Health Sciences Center (Charlottesville)

Washington

Evergreenhealth Medical Center-Kirkland 

Island Hospital (Anacortes)

Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center (Vancouver)

Tri-State Memorial Hospital (Clarkston)

UW Medical Center-Montlake (Seattle)

Wisconsin

Aurora Baycare Medical Center (Green Bay)

Aurora Lakeland Medical Center (Elkhorn)

Aurora Medical Center-Bay Area (Marinette)

Aurora Medical Center-Grafton 

Aurora Medical Center-Oshkosh 

Bellin Memorial Hospital (Green Bay)

Door County Medical Center (Sturgeon Bay)

Froedtert Holy Family Memorial Hospital (Manitowoc)

Grant Regional Health Center (Lancaster)

Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center (La Crosse)

Howard Young Medical Center (Woodruff)

HSHS St. Nicholas Hospital (Sheboygan)

Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire 

Mayo Clinic Health System-Franciscan Healthcare La Crosse

Midwest Orthopedic Specialty Hospital (Franklin)

Oakleaf Surgical Hospital (Altoona)

Orthopaedic Hospital of Wisconsin (Glendale)

ProHealth Waukesha Memorial Hospital 

River Falls Area Hospital 

Sauk Prairie Hospital (Prairie du Sac)

Southwest Health Center (Platteville)

SSM Health Monroe Hospital (Monroe)

SSM Health St. Clare Hospital-Baraboo 

ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Appleton 

Tomah Health 

UnityPoint Health-Meriter (Madison)

University Hospital (Madison)

Westfields Hospital & Clinic (New Richmond)

West Virginia

Valley Health War Memorial Hospital (Berkeley Springs)

Welch Community Hospital 

Wyoming

Cheyenne Regional Medical Center-West Campus

Ivinson Memorial Hospital (Laramie)

The post 373 top hospitals for patient experience: Healthgrades appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Healthgrades recognized 80 hospitals with its 2026 Outstanding Patient Experience Award and the Patient Safety Excellence Award.

The organization evaluated 3,020 hospitals that submitted at least 100 patient experience surveys to CMS’ Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems between January and December 2024. Hospitals were evaluated on patient survey data on 10 patient experience measures. Recipients of the outstanding patient experience award earned the highest overall experience scores.

This year, 373 hospitals in 46 states were honored for patient experience, representing the top 15% of hospitals. 

Here are the 80 hospitals for patient experience and safety, by state:

Arizona

Mayo Clinic Hospital (Phoenix)

Arkansas

Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas (Rogers)

California

Kaiser Permanente Redwood City Medical Center

Mills-Peninsula Medical Center (Burlingame)

Sequoia Hospital (Redwood City)

Sutter Roseville Medical Center

Florida

Baptist Medical Center Beaches (Jacksonville Beach)

HCA Florida Twin Cities Hospital (Niceville)

Mease Dunedin Hospital

Morton Plant North Bay Hospital (New Port Richey)

Sarasota Memorial Hospital Venice (North Venice)

Georgia

Fairview Park Hospital (Dublin)

Piedmont Columbus Regional Northside

Hawaii

Adventist Health Castle (Kailua)

Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center (Honolulu)

Idaho

West Valley Medical Center (Caldwell)

Illinois

Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital (Barrington)

Memorial Hospital Belleville

Northwestern Medicine Central Dupage Hospital (Winfield)

Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital (Geneva)

Indiana

Franciscan Health Mooresville

Henry Community Health (New Castle)

Kansas

Kansas City Orthopaedic Institute (Leawood)

Salina Surgical Hospital

Louisiana

AVALA Hospital (Covington)

Cypress Pointe Surgical Hospital (Hammond)

The Spine Hospital of Louisiana at the NeuroMedical Center (Baton Rouge)

Massachusetts

Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston)

Minnesota

River’s Edge Hospital and Clinic (St. Peter)

Mississippi

Baptist Memorial Hospital-Union County (New Albany)

Missouri

Barnes-Jewish Hospital (St. Louis)

Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital (Creve Coeur)

Missouri Baptist Medical Center (St. Louis)

Parkland Health Center (Farmington)

Montana

Intermountain Health St. Vincent Regional Hospital (Billings)

Nebraska

Midwest Surgical Hospital (Omaha)

New York

Glen Cove Hospital

Mather Hospital (Port Jefferson)

North Carolina

Novant Health Medical Park Hospital (Winston-Salem)

Ohio

Avon Hospital at Richard E. Jacobs Campus
Berger Hospital (Circleville)

Crystal Clinic Orthopaedic Center (Akron)

Dublin Methodist Hospital

University Hospitals Samaritan Medical Center (Ashland)

Oklahoma

Saint Francis Hospital South (Tulsa)

Pennsylvania

Chester County Hospital (West Chester)

Doylestown Hospital

Geisinger St. Luke’s Hospital (Orwigsburg)

OSS Orthopaedic Hospital (York)

Physician’s Care Surgical Hospital (Royersford)

Rothman Orthopaedic Specialty Hospital (Bensalem)

St. Luke’s Hospital-Carbon Campus (Lehighton)

St. Luke’s Hospital-Easton Campus

Surgical Institute of Reading (Wyomissing)

Rhode Island

Westerly Hospital

South Carolina

Bon Secours St. Francis Hospital (Charleston)

McLeod Loris Hospital

Prisma Health Greer Memorial Hospital

Roper Hospital (Charleston)

Roper St. Francis Berkeley Hospital (Summerville)

South Dakota

Black Hills Surgical Hospital (Rapid City)

Sioux Falls Specialty Hospital

Tennessee

Roane Medical Center (Harriman)

Texas

Baylor Scott & White Medical Center-Hillcrest (Waco)

Hill Country Memorial Hospital (Fredericksburg)

Houston Methodist Baytown Hospital

Houston Methodist Clear Lake Hospital

Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital

Houston Methodist The Woodlands Hospital

Houston Methodist West Hospital

Quail Creek Surgical Hospital (Amarillo)

South Texas Spine and Surgical Hospital (San Antonio)

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Denton

Texas Institute for Surgery at Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas

Virginia

Centra Bedford Memorial Hospital

Inova Fair Oaks Hospital (Fairfax)

Lewisgale Hospital Montgomery (Blacksburg)

Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center

Wisconsin

Froedtert Holy Family Memorial Hospital (Manitowoc)

Orthopaedic Hospital of Wisconsin (Glendale)

The post 80 top hospitals for patient experience, safety: Healthgrades appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Only 20 states are prepared for a public health emergency, a new Trust for America’s Health report found.

The “Ready or Not 2026: Protecting the Public’s Health from Diseases, Disasters, and Bioterrorism” report groups states into three performance tiers: high, middle and low. States were grouped based on their performance across 10 indicators: adoption of the nurse licensure compact; accreditation by the Public Health Accreditation Board and the Emergency Management Accreditation Program; state public health funding trends; community water system compliance; access to paid sick leave; seasonal influenza vaccination coverage; Leapfrog hospital safety grade; public health laboratory surge planning; and avoidable mortality. Read more about the methodology here.

In 2025, the U.S. faced a test of its public health emergency preparedness infrastructure after multiple disease outbreaks, natural disasters and changes to federal funding and policy. HHS eliminated thousands of positions across the CDC and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, and terminated more than $12 billion in pandemic-era public health grants. This combination put the nation’s remaining preparedness system at risk, according to the report. 

The report found a number of improvement areas for public health preparedness, including:

• Varying access to paid sick leave, especially among low-wage, part-time and service-sector workers. Paid sick leave reduced disease transmission and increases recognition by employees of important preparedness infrastructure
• Flu vaccination rates remain low in many states.
• Stronger patient safety performance in hospitals, which can help maintain care quality and manage surge capacity during emergencies.
• Significant disparities in avoidable mortality persist across states and population groups.
• Aging infrastructure and increased weather-related threats harbor growing challenges to preparedness.

Here are the states, and the District of Columbia, that are the most and least prepared for a public health emergency:

High tier

• California
• Colorado
• Connecticut
• Delaware
• Florida
• Illinois
• Kansas
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Maine
• Montana
• New Hampshire
• New Jersey
• North Carolina
• Pennsylvania
• Rhode Island
• Utah
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Wisconsin

Middle tier 

• Arkansas
• Arizona
• District of Columbia
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Indiana
• Louisiana
• Missouri
• Nevada
• New York
• North Dakota
• Nebraska
• Ohio
• Oregon
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Washington

Low tier

• Alabama
• Alaska
• Iowa
• Kentucky
• Michigan
• Minnesota
• Mississippi
• New Mexico
• Oklahoma
• South Dakota
• Texas
• West Virginia
• Wyoming

The post Only 20 states are prepared for a public health emergency: What to know appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Atlanta topped WalletHub’s 2026 ranking of the best and worst places to start a career, while New York City ranked worst.

For the ranking, released May 11, the personal finance company compared 182 cities — including the 150 most-populated U.S. cities, plus at least two of the most populated cities in each state — across two dimensions: professional opportunities and quality of life.

WalletHub evaluated the dimensions using 25 metrics ranging from availability of entry-level jobs to housing affordability.

Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with 100 representing the best conditions for job-market entrants. WalletHub used each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and rank the cities. More information about the methodology is available here.

The best cities to start a career, according to the analysis:

1. Atlanta — 71.33
2. Orlando, Fla. — 70.28
3. Austin, Texas — 67.37
4. Tampa, Fla. — 67.10
5. Miami — 65.92
6. Charleston, S.C. — 64.12
7. Pittsburgh — 62.73
8. Knoxville, Tenn. — 61.82
9. Salt Lake City — 61.66
10. Columbia, S.C. — 61.16

The worst cities to start a career, according to the analysis:

1. New York City — 34.67
2. Bridgeport, Conn. — 35.79
3. Detroit — 37.17
4. Port St. Lucie, Fla. — 37.23
5. Chula Vista, Calif. — 37.86
6. Oxnard, Calif. — 37.88
7. Pearl City, Hawaii — 38.02
8. Shreveport, La. — 38.05
9. Jackson, Miss. — 38.12
10. Anaheim, Calif. — 38.66

The post 10 best, worst cities to start a career appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Hospital margins are under pressure and the latest data shows the strain is not evenly distributed.

According to Kaufman Hall’s April 2026 National Hospital Flash Report, which draws on data from more than 1,300 hospitals nationwide, hospital finances are being squeezed from multiple directions at once. Expenses are running higher in early 2026 than they were a year ago. Revenues remain below sustainable levels, weighed down by an eroding payer mix. And patient volumes, while showing resilience in some service lines, have softened overall. Inpatient days are declining even as average length of stay holds steady.

Hospital performance is bifurcating sharply by size, geography, and market position. Large academic medical centers and health systems with 500 or more beds are holding up considerably better than smaller community and critical access hospitals, which are absorbing some of the steepest year-over-year margin declines on record. Regionally, the West is facing the most acute short-term pressure, while the South and Northeast show more stability in multi-year comparisons.

How margins are trending in early 2026

1. The median calendar year-to-date operating margin including allocations was 1.9% in February 2026, up from 1% in January — the lowest reading of the trailing 12-month period. Without allocations, the CYTD median came in at 5.5% in February, also up from 4.6% in January.

2. Looking at the monthly index, the single-month operating margin including allocations was 2.1% in February and 5.7% without allocations. That compares to a low of 1.0% in January and a peak of 6.4% in December 2025, the strongest single-month reading of the trailing year.

3. November 2025 was the weakest individual month in all of 2025, with a monthly operating margin of just 0.7% including allocations. The lowest CYTD operating margin of 2025 was 2.6%, recorded in April.

4. The peak CYTD operating margin in the trailing 12 months was 3.7%, recorded in December 2025 including allocations, and 7.3% without allocations.

5. Health system operating margins turned positive after two months in negative territory, according to Strata’s May Monthly Healthcare Industry Financial Benchmarks report. Health system margins increased from -0.3% in February to 0.4% in March. Strata’s report noted the slowly improving hospital margins indicate a “fragile recovery.”

Year-over-year and long-term national picture

6. The year-over-year comparisons tell a challenging story. National operating margin fell 13% comparing February 2026 to February 2025, while operating EBITDA margin dropped 12% over the same period.

7. Year-to-date, operating margin in early 2026 is essentially flat versus the same period in 2025. But zoom out and a recovery is visible: YTD operating margin is up 14% compared to the same period in 2023, and operating EBITDA margin is up 7% over that same three-year span.

Regional breakdown: where margins are and aren’t holding

8. Every region posted year-over-year operating margin declines in February 2026, but the depth of those declines, and the longer-term trajectory, varies considerably.

9. The West saw operating margin fall 21% year-over-year, the sharpest short-term decline of any region, and operating EBITDA margin fell 14%. Despite that, the region’s longer-term story is among the strongest: comparing YTD 2026 to YTD 2023, West operating margin is up 59% — the largest three-year gain of any region.

10. Midwest operating margin fell 9% year-over-year in February 2026, and fell 12% comparing YTD 2026 to YTD 2025. On a three-year basis, Midwest margins are up just 4% against YTD 2023, the smallest long-term recovery of any region.

11. The South posted a 16% year-over-year operating margin decline in February 2026, with operating EBITDA margin down 10%. The three-year view is more favorable: South operating margin is up 29% compared to YTD 2023.

12. The Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region reported the shallowest year-over-year decline, with operating margin down just 2%, though operating EBITDA margin fell a steeper 8%. On a three-year basis, the region’s operating margin is up 8% versus YTD 2023.

13. Great Plains operating margin fell 12% year-over-year and operating EBITDA margin fell 11%. The three-year comparison shows a 19% improvement in operating margin versus YTD 2023.

Performance by hospital bed size: a widening divide

14. The bifurcation of hospital performance is most stark when broken down by bed size. Smaller hospitals, particularly those in the 26–99-bed range, are absorbing the largest year-over-year margin hits, while the largest systems are the only category posting positive year-over-year growth.

15. Hospitals in the 0–25-bed category saw operating margin fall 22.8% year-over-year in February 2026, and decline of 17.3% comparing YTD 2026 to YTD 2025. Against YTD 2023, however, operating margin is up 17.2%, suggesting some recovery from the post-pandemic trough.

16. This size category is under the most acute pressure in the dataset. Hospitals with 26–99 beds posted a 23.9% year-over-year operating margin decline, the steepest of any bed size category. Operating EBITDA margin fell 21% over the same period. The three-year comparison offers some relief: operating margin is up 14.3% versus YTD 2023.

17. Hospitals with 100–199 beds saw a more moderate year-over-year operating margin decline of 2.9%, and a 3.8% decline comparing YTD 2026 to YTD 2025. 41. The three-year view shows operating margin up 6.7% versus YTD 2023.

18. Hospitals in the 200–299-bed range were one of only two size categories to post positive year-over-year operating margin growth, up nearly 1% in February 2026. Their three-year trajectory is also strong, with operating margin up 16% versus YTD 2023.

19. Hospitals with 300–499 beds saw a 5.3% year-over-year operating margin decline, and a significant 16.6% drop comparing YTD 2026 to YTD 2025. One bright spot: this group posted the strongest month-over-month swing of any bed size, with operating margin rising 13.6% from January to February 2026. The three-year comparison shows a 4.4% improvement versus YTD 2023.

20. The largest hospitals are clearly the strongest performers in this environment. Hospitals with 500 or more beds were the only other category, alongside the 200–299 group, to post positive year-over-year operating margin growth, up 3.1% in February 2026. Their three-year operating margin improvement of 23.9% versus YTD 2023 is the highest of any bed size, and 50. operating EBITDA margin is up 24.5% over that same span.

The post Hospital profitability: 20 things to know in 2026 appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Healthcare continues to face tight margins, patient expectations keep climbing and clinical and operational leaders are being asked to do more with the teams and tools they already have. The organizations making a difference despite these challenges are the ones turning data, education, and coordination into measurable results.

Below are five resources from Becker’s Healthcare partners worth a closer look this week. Each tackles a different corner of the healthcare operating model but focuses on practical, tested approaches that leaders can learn from now.

1. From coverage to control: Rebalancing physician staffing for stability and growth

Physician staffing strategies built for short-term coverage often create long-term instability, eroding margins, straining permanent staff and limiting growth. This webinar explores how health systems are shifting from reactive coverage models to a more deliberate, strategic approach that supports both workforce stability and service line growth.

A useful watch for CMOs, workforce leaders and operations executives rethinking how their physician staffing model supports the organization’s broader strategic goals.

Watch the webinar

2. AI-embedded EHR: A practical path to outpatient efficiency

Outpatient settings are where many health systems feel the squeeze most acutely.This session looks at how AI embedded directly into the EHR is helping outpatient teams reclaim time, streamline workflows and improve the clinician experience without disrupting how care gets delivered.

Recommended for CMIOs, ambulatory leaders and IT executives evaluating how to operationalize AI inside the systems clinicians already use.

Watch the webinar 

3. Reimbursement at risk: Rethinking water safety in the OBBBA era

Water safety has long been a regulatory and clinical concern, but evolving requirements are putting reimbursement on the line in new ways. This webinar examines what the OBBBA era means for hospital water management programs and how leaders can protect both patient safety and financial performance through a more proactive approach.

A timely resource for CEOs, facilities, infection prevention and quality leaders navigating an increasingly complex regulatory and reimbursement landscape.

Watch the webinar

4. Why hospital energy strategy is now a C-suite priority

Energy costs, resilience and sustainability have moved from the facilities department to the boardroom. This whitepaper details why hospital energy strategy now sits squarely on the C-suite agenda and how executive teams are linking energy decisions to financial performance, operational continuity and long-term organizational strategy.

Worth reading for CFOs, COOs and operations leaders looking to understand how energy strategy connects to enterprise priorities.

Read the whitepaper

5. How to unlock smarter, more cost-effective care with stewardship

Stewardship programs, whether antimicrobial, supply or clinical, are one of the most underused levers for delivering smarter, more cost-effective care. This whitepaper outlines how leading organizations are using stewardship to drive both quality and financial outcomes, with practical guidance on building programs that scale.

Particularly relevant for CMOs, pharmacy leaders and quality executives looking to translate stewardship into measurable performance gains.

Read the whitepaper

The post Staffing, stewardship and AI: 5 resources for healthcare leaders appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Healthcare employment rose by 37,300 in April, in line with the 12-month average of 32,000 monthly job gains, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

The bureau released the March jobs report May 8.

Here are three more takeaways:

1. Ambulatory healthcare services employment rose by 18,200 in April, including a 2,300 increase in physician offices and a 10,800 increase in home health services. 

2. Hospitals added 4,300 jobs in April, while employment in nursing and residential care facilities jobs climbed by 14,800.

4. Overall, the U.S. added 115,000 jobs in April, including gains in healthcare, transportation and warehousing, and retail trade. The bureau also said federal government employment continued to decline in April.

The post Healthcare adds 37,300 jobs in April: 4 things to know appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Five U.S. hospitals have received an “F” safety grade from The Leapfrog Group for spring 2026. 

Leapfrog calculates hospital safety grades using up to 22 CMS patient safety measures, data from the Leapfrog Hospital Survey and supplemental imputation. Read more about Leapfrog’s methodology here.

For spring 2026, safety grades were not assigned to the 450 hospitals that did not participate in the Leapfrog Hospital Survey in 2024 or 2025. 

The move comes after five Palm Beach (Fla.) Health Network hospitals — part of Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare — filed a lawsuit against Leapfrog after receiving “F” and “D” safety grades. In March, a federal judge ruled the hospitals were deliberately punished with artificially low scores for not participating in the voluntary Leapfrog Hospital Survey. Under the ruling, Leapfrog was required to withdraw the five hospitals’ safety grades for fall 2024, spring 2025 and fall 2025 from its websites and send corrective disclosures to all entities that paid to license those grades. 

“Although the court ruling only applied to five hospitals, Leapfrog does not apply programmatic changes to individual hospitals because the hospital safety grade is a national program. We expect to resume full grading in fall 2026,” Leapfrog said in a May 6 news release.

Hospitals have pushed back on Leapfrog’s safety grades for years, arguing the methodology is flawed and unfairly penalizes hospitals that do not participate. Two hospitals filed similar lawsuits in 2017 and 2019, though the cases were eventually dismissed.

In previous years, the “F” list has included more than a dozen hospitals.

Here is the most recent list:

Illinois 

Roseland Community Hospital (Chicago)

Mississippi 

South Central Regional Medical Center (Laurel)

West Virginia

CAMC Teays Valley Hospital (Hurricane)

Weirton Medical Center 

WVU Fairmont Medical Center 

See the list of Leapfrog’s 11 “A” hospitals here. 

The post Where are Leapfrog’s 5 ‘F’ hospitals?  appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

As U.S. nurses increasingly employ AI in their day-to-day tasks, the American Nurses Association is advocating for more nurse-led guardrails amid concerns of bias, unclear accountability and a decline in professional judgement. 

On April 22, the ANA hosted an invitation-only “AI in Nursing Practice Think Tank” for nursing leaders to discuss how AI is affecting the profession and what safety protocols should be implemented. 

According to a consensus summary, nursing leaders identified five areas of concern:

1. Erosion of professional judgement and critical thinking: “Poorly designed or rapidly deployed tools may diminish nurses’ ability to see the whole patient, question outputs and exercise professional reasoning.” They also voiced worries about overreliance and automation bias.
2. Unclear accountability and liability: Nursing leaders are concerned about responsibility when AI tools influence care decisions. A common concern was fear of licensure exposure.
3. Bias that worsens equity and trust: Patient safety could be at risk if AI tools have algorithmic bias or incorrect data, leaders said. 
4. Cognitive burden and workflow harm: Even if an AI is designed to alleviate workload, a poor rollout can negatively affect cognitive burden.
5. Lack of nursing-specific governance and standards: Most AI frameworks do not specify nursing and are not applicable to practices at the bedside, in education or decision-making. 

In its May 5 report, the ANA — which represents more than 5 million U.S. nurses — recommended five action items to address these concerns: 

• Issuing clear, nurse-led guardrails

• Curating a nursing AI playbook

• Advancing AI literacy and competence

• Strengthening policy and regulatory advocacy

• Sustaining robust cross-sector collaboration

Access the report here.

The post Nurses fret AI overreliance could erode care, call for more guardrails appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

For every additional patient assigned to a medical-surgical nurse in Pennsylvania, there is an associated 8% increase in fatality risk within 30 days, according to a study published April 30 in Medical Care. 

The study analyzed outcomes of nearly 550,000 medical and surgical patients who received care at a Pennsylvania hospital in 2022 or 2023. More than 2,700 direct care nurses were included in the study, which compared patient outcomes to med-surg nurse staffing ratios. 

Researchers at the Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania’s nursing department conducted the study, as well as several others focused on nurse-to-patient ratios. In Pennsylvania hospitals, unit-specific plans govern staffing rather than mandated ratios.

Across 132 Pennsylvania hospitals, each additional patient assigned to a nurse was associated with 8% higher odds of patient death within 30 days, 4% higher odds of hospital readmission and 2% increase in length of stay, the study found. 

Hospital nurse staffing varies from three to nine patients per nurse in Pennsylvania, according to a May 5 news release from Penn Nursing. The study found an average of 5.9 patients per med-surg nurse, which researchers said is a high workload that can worsen outcomes and employee well-being. 

Each additional patient per nurse was associated with 33% higher odds of increased nurse burnout, 43% higher odds of job dissatisfaction and 27% higher odds of intent to leave, according to the study. 

If hospitals imposed a 4-to-1 nurse-to-patient ratio in med-surg units, the researchers estimate Pennsylvania hospitals could annually save $66 million due to lower turnover. They also predicted 70,000 fewer hospital days — aka, lower length of stay — resulting in more than $239 million in savings per year. 

“[H]ospital variation in nurse staffing is quite consequential for whether patients survive their hospital stay,” the researchers concluded. “Our study and others suggest that nurse understaffing is associated with turnover and setting minimum safe nurse staffing is a direct intervention to reduce understaffing.”

The post Fatality risk grows 8% per added med-surg nurse patient: Study appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Birmingham-Hoover, Ala., is the top U.S. metropolitan area for college degree holders in their 20s, according to a study from payroll provider ADP.

ADP analyzed anonymized payroll data from more than 209,000 Americans ages 20-29 at more than 20,000 U.S. employers from January 2025 to January 2026, according to the analysis, which was published May 3. The study ranked 53 U.S. metropolitan areas with at least 1 million residents, grading them on wages, hiring and cost of living.

The metropolitan areas were ranked based on their combined percentile across annual wage estimates, nation-to-metro cost of living ratio, affordability-adjusted annual wage and hiring rates.

Below are the 10 top-ranked metropolitan areas, along with their combined percentile rank:

1. Birmingham-Hoover, Ala. — 100

2. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla. — 98

3. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif. — 96

4. Columbus, Ohio — 94

5. Raleigh, N.C. — 92

6. Tulsa, Okla. — 90

7. San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, Calif. — 88

8. Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, Tenn. — 87

9. Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, N.C. — 85

10. New York City-Newark-Jersey City, N.J. — 83

The post 10 hiring ‘hot spots’ for new graduates appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Thomas “Tog” Goss, MSN, RN, was appointed CEO of Putnam General Hospital in Eatonton, Ga., effective June 1.

Mr. Goss will join Putnam General from Atrium Health Navicent Baldwin, a 140-bed acute care hospital in Milledgeville, Ga., where he serves as COO, according to a hospital news release. Atrium Health Navicent, based in Macon, Ga., is part of Charlotte, N.C.-based Advocate Health, which operates a network of hospitals and affiliates across central Georgia, including Navicent Baldwin. Putnam General is affiliated with the Navicent network.

He will succeed Alan Horton, who is retiring after 12 years as CEO and nearly 50 years in hospital leadership.

Mr. Goss has a clinical and operational background, with experience as an emergency medical technician, registered nurse and nursing director.

The post Georgia hospital names Atrium Health Navicent Baldwin COO as CEO appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.