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Nearly 1 in 5 people who turn to Microsoft Copilot for health information discuss personal symptoms or conditions, the tech giant found.

Microsoft analyzed more than 500,000 deidentified health-related conversations to reveal what people are aiming to find out.

Nationwide, consumers are increasingly seeking medical advice from AI chatbots, while some researchers are calling for a “humble” AI framework that isn’t so authoritative (the technology still often gets things wrong):

Here are seven key findings from the March 10 Microsoft Copilot report:

1. Nearly 20% of conversations involve personal symptom or condition discussions, indicating strong demand for individualized health guidance

2. The largest category — general health information (40%) — is heavily focused on specific treatments and conditions, suggesting true personal health intent may be higher.

3. About 1 in 7 personal health queries are about someone else (e.g., child, parent, partner), highlighting AI’s emerging role as a caregiving support tool.

4. Personal symptom and emotional health queries spike during evening and nighttime hours, when access to traditional care is limited.

5. Device usage differs significantly: Mobile is dominated by personal health concerns, while desktop skews toward professional and academic use.

6. A notable share of queries centers on healthcare navigation, including finding providers and understanding insurance, underscoring persistent system friction.

7. The findings point to implications for platform design, safety and responsible development of health AI tools.

The post What health questions are people asking Microsoft Copilot? appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Generation Z nurses require more frequent one-on-one interaction with managers and leaders than prior generations to maintain similar levels of engagement and retention, according to a March 25 report from Laudio and the American Organization for Nursing Leadership. 

“Engaging and Retaining Gen Z Nurses: Trends and Strategies” draws on data from Laudio’s workforce analytics platform, spanning nearly 100,000 registered nurses and their managers across more than 150 hospitals and health systems, along with interviews with nurse leaders. It examines how the fastest-growing segment of the nursing workforce is reshaping expectations around leadership, scheduling and career development.

Six key findings:

1. Gen Z now represents the second-largest cohort of nurses in health systems and is the only generation increasing its share, signaling a continued shift in workforce dynamics as older cohorts retire or exit.

2. Compared with other generations, Gen Z nurses require about 2.5 times more meaningful interactions with frontline leaders each month to achieve similar engagement and retention outcomes. These interactions typically included one-on-one check-ins, recognition and feedback. 

3. Retention is strongest in the first two years of employment, a period typically supported by residency programs and structured onboarding. After roughly 30 months, turnover among Gen Z nurses rises above that of other generations, suggesting the necessity of reinforced engagement once formal support programs taper off.

4. Gen Z nurses are more likely to cluster shifts to create longer stretches of time off and are more consistent about taking meal breaks. While these patterns may support work-life balance, the report also notes they could contribute to fatigue and burnout over time.

5. Early-career movement into certain specialties, such as critical care, is occurring alongside slower entry into others, including rehab and therapy roles. At the same time, Gen Z nurses are stepping into charge nurse and assistant manager roles at rates comparable to prior generations, indicating a stable early leadership pipeline.

6. Interviews with nurse leaders at high-performing organizations identified five priorities for engaging and retaining Gen Z nurses: personalizing professional development, reducing administrative friction, modernizing communication channels, offering greater scheduling flexibility and strengthening mental health support. Together, these efforts reflect a broader shift toward more individualized and continuous engagement strategies.

The post What it takes to sustain engagement among Gen Z nurses: 6 things to know  appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

In conversations with healthcare executives nationwide, I’m hearing a consistent theme: their organizations are investing heavily in AI to address capacity constraints and improve care quality, but getting clinical teams to use these tools effectively remains one of their biggest hurdles. Not the technology itself—the workforce’s readiness to leverage it.

We wanted to understand if this was systemic. So, we developed the Covista Care Capacity Monitor—a national study fielded by Gallup across all 50 states, surveying more than 1,300 clinicians and 160 healthcare executives.

What the Data Reveals

The adoption is real: 71% of healthcare organizations now use AI for clinical documentation, 54% for EHR interactions and 46% for diagnostics. Three-quarters of executives say AI has a positive impact on care quality. And 65% say AI can help address staffing shortages at least somewhat. The technology is working.

The hiring bar is shifting: 64% of healthcare executives say AI fluency now factors into recruiting decisions for physicians—57% for NPs and PAs, 49% for RNs. Nearly 60% also report that most of their existing clinical workforce needs upskilling or reskilling in these same technologies.

The priority gap tells its own story: 74% of clinicians say staffing is the problem, and only 34% prioritize technology improvements. Yet 63% say they want AI training. Those things aren’t in conflict—but right now, most clinicians aren’t seeing them as connected.

The Real Priority: Care Quality

When we asked healthcare executives about their top priorities for 2026, achieving adequate staffing ranked first, cited by 87% as a major priority.

The reason? Staffing shortages are negatively affecting care quality. 73% of healthcare executives and 76% of clinicians say staffing shortages negatively affect their ability to deliver high-quality care. Half of executives say shortages have reduced their capacity to serve patients.

From my vantage point preparing healthcare’s future workforce, these challenges are more connected than they may appear. Health systems have already made the AI investment—and are planning more. The workforce readiness investment is what unlocks it—getting that technology to do what it was built to do: relieve pressure on stretched teams and improve the quality of care they can deliver.

Most executives already sense this—the overwhelming majority see AI as part of the solution, increasing productivity and offloading the time-consuming administrative work that nurses, doctors and other clinicians deal with today. But the single biggest blocker right now is human capital: professionals who are fluent in these tools, can use them responsibly and help lead change within their health systems.

Our healthcare partners tell us that when clinicians are trained to use AI effectively, they can focus more attention on the aspects of care that require human judgment and connection. AI handles documentation, manages knowledge overload and surfaces what needs attention. Clinicians do what only clinicians can: exercise judgment, build trust and care for patients. The implementations that work are ones where staff understand what the technology is doing—and what it isn’t. Opacity breeds resistance. Transparency and training remove it.

Without readiness, the opposite happens. Experienced clinicians adopt new AI tools while managing full patient loads with minimal training time, creating stress and resistance. Newly hired staff need extensive AI onboarding, pulling experienced clinicians away from patient care.

The result? Underutilized technology. Frustrated staff. And care quality challenges remain unsolved.

What’s Actually Required

Getting there requires curriculum change that moves with urgency—for the next generation of healthcare professionals and the workforce already in place.

Our collaborations with Hippocratic AI, Google Cloud and Hello AI by GE Healthcare serve students pursuing healthcare careers and the health systems and healthcare providers whose staff need upskilling now. We’re developing AI credentials that run alongside traditional curriculum—building fundamental understanding of how AI works, when to trust it, when to question it and how to integrate it safely into clinical judgment.

The most effective approaches require sustained partnerships between healthcare and education providers. Health systems that clearly articulate what “AI workforce-ready” means for their environment give education institutions specific targets. Working together on competency development ensures graduates arrive with skills that match real-world workflows—and creates pathways for current staff to develop capabilities without leaving practice.

The Path Forward

Executives see AI’s value for care quality, but they’re underinvesting in workforce readiness. That gap explains why implementations stall.

The question isn’t whether to focus on staffing or AI adoption or care quality. It’s recognizing these are connected. You can’t hire fast enough to fill the gap. But you can prepare your current and future workforce to leverage AI in ways that help them deliver higher-quality care even while teams are stretched.

The organizations that realize the greatest returns on their AI investments will be the ones that build clinical trust in the technology in advance—through deliberate, sustained workforce preparation.

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Michael Betz is Chief Digital Officer of Covista, America’s largest healthcare educator serving more than 97,000 students, and President of Walden University, one of Covista’s five institutions.

The Covista Care Capacity Monitor combines survey data from 1,347 clinicians and 167 healthcare executives with labor market analysis from U.S. Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Lightcast and IPEDS. Explore the platform at covista.com/research.

The post AI Won’t Improve Care Quality Until Your Workforce Is Ready appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Health IT leaders increasingly see vendor consolidation as central to achieving interoperability, but most organizations lack the tools to fully realize it, a March 24 survey from CliniComp found.

The findings are based on a survey of CIOs conducted by the CHIME Foundation and released by CliniComp. The survey examined how health system leaders view interoperability, including current capabilities, barriers to adoption and expected outcomes.

Here are five key findings from the survey:

1. Nearly 90% of respondents said vendor consolidation is critical to their interoperability strategy, while 16% reported their core electronic health record systems currently support vendor-agnostic interoperability.
2. Cost and vendor-related challenges emerged as the most significant barriers. About 47% of respondents cited the expense of initial and ongoing integration, while 42% pointed to vendor unwillingness and delays. Many organizations still rely on customized or add-on solutions to bridge integration gaps, the survey found.
3. The survey also highlighted how fragmented data environments continue to hinder progress. Nearly half of respondents, 47%, said their organizations have the necessary data, but it remains siloed across disconnected systems. Many view interoperability not as foundational infrastructure, but as a project layered on top of existing systems.
4. Despite these challenges, respondents expressed a clear understanding of interoperability’s potential benefits. About 58% cited improved care coordination as a key outcome, while 37% pointed to improved patient safety, reduced medical errors or lower costs and duplication.
5. CIOs from hospitals with more than 500 beds reported they are still unable to fully participate in all four core domains of interoperability: sending, receiving, finding and integrating data.

The post Most health systems lack tools for vendor-agnostic interoperability: Survey appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Artificial intelligence is expected to disproportionately affect routine, clerical and administrative roles, while having a limited near-term impact on overall employment, The Wall Street Journal reported March 24. 

The Journal cited findings from a working paper recently published on the National Bureau of Economic Research website. The study, produced with economists from the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta and Richmond, surveyed about 750 CFOs across multiple industries between late 2025 and early 2026. 

Five things to know: 

1. Workers in more highly skilled roles, such as engineers and architects, are more likely to keep their jobs, especially if they can utilize AI, according to the report. 

2. John Graham, an economist at Duke University and one of the paper’s authors, told the Journal that employees with jobs that require higher levels of training and education could eventually be affected, “but probably not in 2026.” 

3. Regardless of role, AI is unlikely to eliminate a substantial number of roles in the near-term, according to the report. The study found that AI had essentially no employment effect in 2025. In 2026, CFOs expect that AI will reduce their headcount by about 0.4% compared to what it otherwise would have been.  

4. Companies with 500 or more employees are more likely to cut routine worker roles, while smaller companies plan to hire more skilled technical workers, according to the report. 

5. Another of the study’s authors, Atlanta Fed economist Salomé Baslandze, told the Journal she is optimistic AI will eventually create new types of work. She also expressed concern, however, that many of the roles vulnerable to elimination are stepping stones for moving into the middle class. 

The post AI is coming for admin jobs, CFOs say  appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Across five health systems, behavioral health leaders are seeing a fundamental shift in how integration is financed: moving from siloed service lines and short-term funding toward enterprisewide cost strategies. 

Rather than treating behavioral health as a standalone service, leaders said systems are embedding it across care settings and budgets, reflecting its impact on overall patient outcomes and utilization. 

Arpan Waghray, MD, CEO of Renton, Wash.-based Providence’s Well Being Trust, told Becker’s the shift requires a broader view of where behavioral health fits across the system. 

“We don’t think of behavioral health funding as just a service line,” he said. “Our intent is to think about this in a much broader context. So thinking about all the care that’s delivered outside of the behavioral health specialty for patients … and intentionally building these into the operating budgets of every unit.”

Other leaders echoed the importance of embedding behavioral health into core operations rather than treating it as optional.

Elicia Bunch, vice president of behavioral health at Aurora, Colo.-based UCHealth, said integration must extend into financial and operational structures. 

“When it’s embedded in our operational budgets, reimbursement strategies and comprehensive patient outcomes, it really does become sustainable,” she said.

Tracey Izzard, vice president of behavioral health services at Norfolk, Va.-based Sentara Health, said the system has structured behavioral health as a horizontal service line that spans care settings.

“It’s where we’re combining our health plan, our ambulatory and our acute care, and we are embedding behavioral health along the way,” she said. 

The system’s vertical behavioral health service line includes the behavioral health unit, emergency department, outpatient programs, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient services and outpatient medication management.

Utilization and costs

Leaders said this shift is driven in part by the significant role behavioral health plays in hospital utilization and costs. Often, patients who could have entered outpatient programs depend on crisis care for social, mental health and substance use needs. 

The financial implications are also substantial.

Mental illness costs the U.S. economy $282 billion annually, researchers at New York City-based Columbia University found. Behavioral health conditions are also linked with up to threefold spending increases for individuals with otherwise similar physical disease burden, according to a study published in 2025 in JAMA Network Open. 

“Since we are a payer and we’ve been scaling services, our goal is to start to measure that, to see if that reduction other organizations are seeing, if we’re realizing that value,” Dawn Zieger, vice president of psychiatry and behavioral health at Danville, Pa.-based Geisinger, told Becker’s.

Ultimately, leaders frame integration as a mechanism to reduce total cost of care and improve system efficiency. Embedding behavioral health into primary care and other settings is seen as key to reducing avoidable costs.

“Continuing to treat it as a one-off or an ancillary service — that’s where we continue to absorb all of that cost,” Ms. Izzard said. “There’s all that extra cost where we can embed it and where we can work hand in glove with primary care. That’s where we start to see the total cost of care reduced.”

At the system level, leaders also emphasize aligning financial incentives across entities to support integration.

“All those expenses and all those revenues are ultimately the system’s,” Mr. Jones said. “We’re trying to avoid the sometimes perverse incentive of thinking, ‘Well, what’s good for the department versus what’s good for the hospital?’ We are thinking about what’s good for the patient, and then let’s figure out how the finances work behind the scenes.” 

Reimbursement challenges

Despite the potential for return on investment, leaders highlighted persistent reimbursement gaps that require alternative financial strategies. In some systems, behavioral health services continue to rely on internal subsidies.

Maurizio Fava, MD, chair of psychiatry at Somerville, Mass.-based Mass General Brigham, said long-standing reimbursement challenges have required systems to step up.

“Our level of reimbursements for services in the state of Massachusetts has always made it hard to actually support the salaries of our clinicians, and so there has always been substantial subsidy of psychiatric services,” he said.

At Geisinger, reimbursement does not cover outpatient services, Ms. Zieger said. She added that fortunately, the system has other specialties including orthopedics and cardiology with a margin to help pay for the services the community needs.

These financial pressures are compounded in systems with a high proportion of Medicaid patients, in which reimbursement rates are typically lower.

“Fifty percent of our payer mix is Medicaid, which is often populations that have social determinants of health challenges,” Ms. Zieger said. “We’re looking really hard at how to optimize our payment, the fee-for-service commercial space and our Medicaid care so that we can make sure we’re able to have sustainable operations. It’s a hard hill to climb.” 

To address these gaps, systems are expanding beyond traditional reimbursement models, including community benefit investments and partnerships.

“Last year, we invested in our community benefits almost $2.1 billion across our seven states. So it’s not an insignificant amount,” Dr. Waghray said. “We’re trying to align our Community Health investment dollars in a way that provides them better support and structure.” 

The bridge between clinical care and community partnerships is also critical, particularly when working with organizations that may have more favorable reimbursement structures, he said. 

Others have worked to align reimbursement models with integrated care delivery. 

“That really includes using collaborative care codes, which are funded primarily under the medical plan, and then also supporting traditional behavioral health benefits where that model works best,” Ms. Bunch said. “A key has really been matching the care model to the reimbursement pathway in a way that really optimizes both the clinical and the business model approach to care.”

Philanthropy, high-margin service lines and grants

Leaders also highlighted the importance of partnerships and alternative funding sources. For example, over the past several months, Los Angeles-based UCLA Health, Monterey, Calif.-based Montage Health and Boston Children’s Hospital have received large gifts for behavioral health. 

“Philanthropy was used as a source of discretionary funding by each hospital and by each investigator,” Dr. Fava said. “Now we have a single team that oversees fundraising and philanthropy. … There will be donors that are going to say, ‘I would like to fund research in this area,’ and that may lift all boats in terms of philanthropic support across the entire department.”

Bernard Jones, vice president for behavioral and mental health and the psychiatry department for Mass General Brigham, said interventional psychiatry and procedural services can help improve financial sustainability.

“We are particularly interested in those sort of cutting edge services delivered through a department of psychiatry that not only help advance patient care significantly, but are often the most favorably reimbursed,” he said. “So thinking about interventional psychiatry and some of our procedural services, and that’s also a good way within an integrating department to make things financially sustainable.” 

Long-term sustainability must be built into financial models, particularly when relying on grants. 

Dr. Waghray cautioned against short-term funding strategies that cannot be maintained.

“The worst thing we can do is get some funding or grant and then support somebody for a short duration of time, and then have to take a service, pull the service back, just because there’s no sustainable pathway,” he said. 

Systems are increasingly evaluating sustainability at the beginning of grant-funded initiatives to avoid these disruptions.

“So how do we make sure on the other end of the grant we understand exactly what we’re going to be able to do,” Ms. Zieger said. “We know that we’ve got to be nimble on the other side of the grant infrastructure.”

Governance

Financial integration is reinforced through governance structures that align decision-making across the system. Ms. Izzard said cross-functional leadership alignment is critical.

“Having those standard committees where you have the CMOs, COOs and CFOs from all three divisions come together to make decisions on how to best proceed in the behavioral health area — a lot of alignment is met when we meet in those areas, but then we can also see where the divergence is.” 

Ms. Bunch added that executive-level prioritization is essential to sustaining progress.

“When behavioral health is represented in executive decision making priority, strategy  and financial planning, it really ensures the work remains central to the organization’s mission and strategy, and that is certainly how UC Health has demonstrated this mission.”

Editor’s note: This is the first of a three part series exploring what behavioral health integration looks like financially, clinically and operationally. Check out Becker’s behavioral health newsletter to see more coverage on the topic.

The post ‘We don’t think of it as just a service line’: How 5 health systems integrate behavioral health into core finances  appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Alpharetta, Ga., is the best small U.S. city for careers, according to a Jan. 13 ranking from CoworkingCafe.

The ranking was developed by analyzing 298 U.S. cities with populations below 250,000. CoworkingCafe evaluated several key metrics on a 100-point scale, including salary, income, cost of living, job market strength, access to healthcare and commute times.

Some of the small cities are also fast-growing communities with new hospital projects, such as Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White Health’s hospital that opened in Frisco, Texas, in July and Arlington-based Texas Health Resources’ hospital in McKinney, Texas, slated to open in 2028.

Here are the top 10 career hotspots with fewer than 250,000 residents, according to CoworkingCafe:

1. Alpharetta, Ga.

2. South Jordan, Utah

3. Mountain View, Calif.

4. Santa Clara, Calif.

5. Palo Alto, Calif.

6. Carmel, Ind.

7. Fishers, Ind.

8. Franklin, Tenn.

9. Kirkland, Wash.

10. Portland, Maine

11. Frisco, Texas

12. Bellevue, Wash.

13. San Ramon, Calif.

14. Boca Raton, Fla.

15. Flower Mound, Texas

16. Troy, Mich.

17. Pflugerville, Texas

18. Richmond, Va.

19. Alexandria, Va.

20. McKinney, Texas

The post 20 best small cities for careers appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Birmingham, Ala.-based UAB Health System is planning a third freestanding emergency department, this time in Oxford, Ala.

UAB St. Vincent’s St. Clair has filed a letter of intent with the Alabama State Health Planning and Development Agency to seek a certificate of need for the project.

The proposed freestanding ED would be developed through a joint venture between UAB Health System, the city of Oxford and Oxford Health Systems, the city’s healthcare authority. 

Oxford Mayor Alton Craft said the city’s rapid growth has outpaced its healthcare infrastructure, creating a need for additional emergency services.

“We approached UAB to fill this need in our community because we know they represent world-class patient care,” Mr. Craft said in a March 20 news release. “This project is only the beginning of healthcare transformation in our region.”

UAB Health System CEO Dawn Bulgarella said proximity to care is a key driver of community health outcomes.

“This project expands care options for Oxford and surrounding communities,” Ms. Bulgarella said. “It will enhance access and support continued improvement of health outcomes across the region.”

She added that the partnership would connect patients in the region to UAB’s broader care delivery network, improving access to specialty care while leveraging scale to help manage costs.

UAB Medicine currently operates freestanding emergency departments in Gardendale, Hoover and Trussville.

“Our other freestanding emergency departments have been game-changers for their communities,” Ms. Bulgarella said. “We hope to make this one a reality in partnership with the city of Oxford soon.”

Additional details, including the facility’s location and timeline, are expected to be announced at a later date.

The post ‘Game-changers for their communities’: UAB plans 3rd freestanding ED appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

South Dakota was found to be the least stressed state, while Louisiana was the most stressed, according to WalletHub’s annual ranking.

WalletHub compared all 50 states across 4 key dimensions — work-related stress, money-related stress, family-related stress, and health- and safety-related stress — which were evaluated using 40 metrics, ranging from residents’ average hours worked per week to the state’s quality of infrastructure. The health- and safety-related component factored in each state’s share of adults in fair or poor health, with diagnoses of depression, mental health, suicide rate and more. Read more about the methodology here.

Here are the 10 most and least stressed states, along with their overall score out of 100:

Most

1. Louisiana: 62.86

2. Kentucky: 58.18

3. New Mexico: 57.65

4. West Virginia: 56.20

5. Arkansas: 55.60

6. Nevada: 53.82

7. Oklahoma: 53.47

8. Oregon: 52.39

9. Mississippi: 52.16

10. Alabama: 50.99

Least

1. South Dakota: 32.35

2. Utah: 32.61

3. Minnesota: 33.50

4. New Hampshire: 33.51

5. Vermont: 33.77

6. Idaho: 35.12

7. North Dakota: 35.84

8. Connecticut: 36.46

9. Massachusetts: 36.54

10. Iowa: 37.28

The post 10 most, least stressed states appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Federal budget policies could put the nation’s nursing faculty workforce under great strain, according to a March 20 JAMA Health Forum viewpoint by two leaders at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Proposed changes to the U.S. federal budget emphasize short-term recruitment of clinical nursing staff “without thoughtful consideration for the faculty needed to train more nurses, not only for the present moment, but also for decades to come,” according to the viewpoint. 

The piece, “Funding Nurse Recruitment While Defunding Nurse Educators,” is by Joshua Barrett, PhD, RN, the associate director for UNC’s Center for the Business of Health, and Zoey Kernodle, DrPH, the center’s director and a research assistant professor.

The faculty nursing shortage is a significant driver of the nation’s short supply of nursing professionals. 

Dr. Barrett and Dr. Kernodle outlined two budget policy proposals that could harm the U.S. nursing workforce long-term:

1. The Nurse Faculty Loan Program

Drafts of the fiscal 2026 budget — H.R.1, which passed in July — included proposed cuts to federal nursing research and workforce development programs. One of those programs, called the Nurse Faculty Loan Program, faced termination but “ultimately received funding,” the viewpoint said. However, “recurring proposals for its elimination suggest its future remains tenuous.”

“During the 2023 to 2024 academic year, U.S. nursing schools turned away 65,766 qualified applicants, primarily due to insufficient faculty,” the viewpoint said. “Without capacity expansion, nursing schools will continue to limit the total workforce regardless of recruitment program success.”

2. Federal loan limits

One compounder to the potential elimination of the Nurse Faculty Loan Program and broader nurse educator shortage are proposed limits to federal student loans. 

H.R.1 places a $200,000 cap on federal loans for students in professional degree programs. The Education Department proposed removing nursing programs from the “professional” designation and shifting them to “graduate,” which would limit borrowing to $100,000 for students in Master of Science in Nursing and Doctor of Nursing Practice programs. 

DNP graduates account for a significant amount of nursing faculty, the viewpoint said. 

“With loan limit reductions and proposed [Nurse Faculty Loan Program] elimination occurring simultaneously, prospective nursing faculty face a double constraint: reduced borrowing capacity for their education and eliminated loan forgiveness for faculty service,” according to the viewpoint. 

To mitigate the nursing faculty shortage and support the future nursing workforce, Drs. Barrett and Kernodle said policymakers should stabilize and sustain funding the Nurse Faculty Loan Program and address “the academic-clinical salary differential,” as advanced practice registered nurses earn a median salary of $129,480, compared to the median $93,958 salary for nursing faculty.

The post Viewpoint: US nursing workforce faces several risks appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

CMS has finalized a rule to phase out faxing and mailing for healthcare claims documentation.

Four things to know:

1. The Administrative Simplification; Adoption of Standards for Health Care Claims Attachments Transactions and Electronic Signatures Final Rule is projected to save the healthcare industry roughly $781 million annually by establishing national standards for the electronic exchange of clinical documentation, according to a March 20 CMS news release. CMS did not share data behind the estimate.

“The 1980s called, and they want their fax machines back,” CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, MD, said in the release. “… This new rule will modernize American healthcare by standardizing electronic claims attachments and enabling secure electronic signatures. Because every minute providers save on paperwork is another minute they can spend caring for patients.”

2. The rule also adopts standards for electronic signatures to support the secure, authenticated transmission of claims-related information across healthcare entities.

3. The rule takes effect May 19 and applies to HIPAA-covered entities, including health plans, healthcare clearinghouses and healthcare providers that conduct electronic transactions. Covered entities must comply by May 19, 2028.

4. It establishes the first HIPAA-adopted standards for healthcare claims attachments, allowing for the secure electronic exchange of supporting clinical documentation such as medical records, X-rays and imaging, clinical notes, telemedicine visit documentation and laboratory results, according to a CMS fact sheet.

The post ‘The 1980s called’: CMS to phase out fax, mail appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

As rural hospital leaders guide their organizations through  2026, they are juggling the financial pressure of federal Medicaid changes while looking to state legislatures for tools to stabilize their organizations. 

From Nebraska’s Medicaid work requirements to New Mexico’s updated physician loan forgiveness initiative, the policy landscape is reshaping how rural hospitals recruit, operate and plan for the future. 

Becker’s asked six CEOs which healthcare law or legislative change is most top of mind and how their organizations are preparing.

New Mexico

Several New Mexico bills were signed into law March 6; they are focused on reforming hospital funding, medical malpractice rules and patient billing. David Shaw, CEO of Nor-Lea Hospital District in Lovington, expressed appreciation for the initiatives aimed at enhancing physician recruitment and retention.

“Notably, New Mexico’s anticipated participation in the Interstate Medical Licensure Compact and the revision of the state’s loan forgiveness program for physicians, which increases annual awards to $75,000, represent significant progress,” Mr. Shaw said. “These measures demonstrate that New Mexico is committed to welcoming physicians and valuing their contributions to healthcare.”

Once details regarding the updated loan repayment program are finalized, hospital leadership will prioritize understanding the new provisions so it can inform current providers and integrate the information into recruitment materials, he added.

Nebraska

Superior-based Brodstone Healthcare is preparing for the rollout of Rural Health Transformation Program funds and the changes accompanying HR 1, particularly new Medicaid work requirements, CEO Treg Vyzourek said. The organization is taking an active role in educating the Medicaid population in its region as information is released by the state, he said.

“Nebraska is also taking a more aggressive approach by proposing zero-day retroactive eligibility for patients who may qualify for Medicaid,” Mr. Vyzourek said. “We are highly concerned about the financial impacts of the Medicaid cuts and the implementation of work requirements, especially if zero-day retroactive eligibility is approved.”

Operationally, Brodstone Healthcare anticipates increased costs as a result of added administrative burden associated with the rollout of HR 1 and changes to Medicaid, he added.

Medicaid funding changes are also top of mind for Manuela Banner, RN, president and CEO of Memorial Community Hospital and Health System in Blair.

“We are preparing for increased uncompensated care and continued pressure on already thin margins, while doing everything we can to protect access to essential services in our community,” she said. “While the Rural Health Transformation Program grant is helpful, it was never intended to replace Medicaid dollars and will only go so far in offsetting potential cuts, particularly as a significant portion of the funding in our state is directed to entities that are not hospitals.”

Tim Gullingsrud, CEO of Banner Health’s Ogallala Community Hospital, said the state-directed payment model implemented in 2025 has been transformative in helping to improve its financial performance by raising Medicaid reimbursements.

“However, our top concern for this year is the potential decline in these reimbursements and methodology changes that could threaten our financial stability,” Mr. Gullingsrud said. “We’re also actively working on Rural Health Transformation grant applications to ensure sustainable programs within the five-year funding window, while preparing operational strategies to survive on lower reimbursement rates across all payers.”

In addition to managing reimbursement uncertainty, leaders pointed to disciplined operations and workforce support as priorities.

“Our focus right now is on staying disciplined operationally, supporting our workforce and continuing to advocate for sustainable funding solutions that allow rural providers to keep serving their communities,” Ms. Banner said.

North Dakota

Rural Health Transformation Program funding is one of the biggest areas leaders at Linton Regional Medical Center and Wishek-based South Central Health are closely monitoring, CEO Lukas Fischer, BSN, RN, said.

“These changes have the potential to significantly reshape how rural hospitals deliver care by expanding access to telehealth, care coordination and innovative service models,” Mr. Fischer said. “We are actively aligning our operations and partnerships to take advantage of these opportunities while maintaining financial sustainability. The challenge will be balancing innovation with ongoing workforce limitations that continue to impact rural healthcare delivery.”

Arizona

Gary Kartchner, MSN, RN, CEO of TMC Health’s Benson Hospital and Northern Cochise Community Hospital in Willcox, is focused on how policy changes are affecting access to care, such as uncertainty in Medicaid enrollment and declining affordability in the marketplace, which leave patients at risk of becoming uninsured or delaying care.

“At the same time, cuts to SNAP are increasing food insecurity in our communities, which shows up in worse health outcomes when patients do seek care. We are also seeing growing pressure in bad debt, a clear sign that families are struggling to afford care,” Mr. Kartchner said. “Our focus is on strengthening care coordination and working with community partners to intervene earlier, while continuing to elevate these impacts with policymakers.”

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Of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital is the most innovative, according to a ranking from personal finance website WalletHub.

The March 18 list evaluated all 50 states and Washington, D.C., using 25 indicators of “innovation friendliness,” including share of STEM professionals and concentration of technology companies. Metrics were graded on a 100-point scale, and each state’s weighted average was used to calculate its innovation index.

Here are the 10 most and least innovative states, according to WalletHub:

Most innovative

1. Washington, D.C.

2. Massachusetts

3. California

4. Colorado 

5. Washington

6. Maryland

7. Virginia

8. Delaware

9. Utah

10. New Jersey

Least innovative

42. Alaska

43. Oklahoma

44. Kentucky

45. Kansas

46. Arkansas

47. Iowa

48. North Dakota

49. West Virginia

50. Louisiana 

51. Mississippi

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A federal judge’s March 16 ruling blocking much of HHS’ recent vaccine policy overhaul is raising new questions about access to respiratory syncytial virus preventive shots for infants. 

In the decision, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts invalidated actions taken by members appointed to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices after HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. restructured the panel in June. The court found the committee was improperly constituted and vacated its recommendations, effectively reinstating the prior childhood immunization schedule and limiting the authority of the reconfigured advisory group.

In January, the CDC adopted a revised vaccine schedule that cut the number of vaccines routinely recommended for children and adolescents from 18 to 11.

The March 16 ruling has created near-term uncertainty for clinicians, states and public health officials, who are working to understand its implications for vaccine policy and coverage, The New York Times reported. Experts told the news outlet that the back-and-forth on vaccine policy is fueling confusion across care settings, particularly as the Trump administration is expected to appeal the decision, raising the possibility that the policy landscape could change again within days.

One area of concern is access to monoclonal antibody products that protect against RSV. Because at least one product was added to federal recommendations under the now-invalidated advisory committee, its coverage status is unclear. The disruption could affect whether certain RSV preventive therapies remain available at no cost to eligible children, depending on how federal agencies and payers respond in the coming weeks.

“It would be unfortunate if the court ruling were to limit access to a critical prevention tool for infants and young children, especially as R.S.V. activity is rising, with the highest rates of severe illness among those under age 4,” Robert Hopkins Jr., MD, medical director for the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, told the Times. 

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Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare’s executive compensation structure underscores a clear industry reality: financial performance — particularly EBITDA — remains the dominant driver of leadership pay.

According to HCA’s 2025 proxy report, published March 13, 80% of executive incentive compensation is tied to EBITDA performance, with the remaining 20% linked to quality and patient care metrics such as infection rates, mortality and patient experience scores. This weighting reflects a strong emphasis on financial outcomes, even as health systems face increasing pressure to prioritize quality, access and workforce stability.

The structure also reinforces how the for-profit hospital operator defines success. 

EBITDA targets are set within a relatively narrow range — with threshold performance at 4% below target and maximum at 4% above — and can yield payouts of up to 200% for that portion of incentives. In 2025, HCA executives achieved near-maximum performance, contributing to total bonus payouts of nearly 196% of target.

For example, HCA CEO Sam Hazen saw his overall compensation increase by $2.7 million in 2025 as the health system reported a $6.8 billion in net income on revenue of $75.6 billion, according to the report. Mr. Hazen earned more than $5.4 million in nonequity incentive plan compensation in 2025. 

Notably, quality metrics — while present — are partially dependent on financial performance. 

If EBITDA falls below 90% of target, no payout is awarded for the quality portion of incentives. This design positions financial performance as a gatekeeper, even for measures tied to patient outcomes and experience.

The emphasis on financial performance aligns with broader critiques of how hospital economics — and executive incentives — are structured.

Speaking on “The Healthcare Bridge” podcast, Mark Cuban — entrepreneur and co-founder of Cost Plus Drugs Co. — argued that hospital performance is often driven less by operational efficiency and more by market leverage. 

“One, I have market dominance, and I get to say, ‘f— you,’ to everybody and the insurance companies, right? I don’t need you, because I’m going to get my own patients too,” Mr. Cuban, who  said. “Two, I don’t have enough patient flow, so I need you insurance companies to send me patients, and so I’ll do the deal that you want me to do, because otherwise I don’t have a patient funnel.”

He also suggested that executive compensation structures can incentivize growth for scale rather than long-term sustainability. 

“I think part of the challenge is [how] most CEOs are rewarded. Hospital CEOs are rewarded by revenues and scale, and so they default to more buildings,” he said. “If this 100-bed hospital is not my final destination, I want to be the 60-hospital, 6 zillion beds, because that’s where I’m making $10 million a year.”

For hospital and health system leaders, this model — and Mr. Cuban’s critique — highlight a key tension: whether compensation structures are truly aligned with long-term value, or primarily with financial growth and market position.

Editor’s note: Becker’s has reached out to HCA for comment on this story and will update this story as more information becomes available.

The post An issue with hospital executive pay appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

A rising demand for adequate nurse staffing is pushing some hospitals to expand their recruitment strategies to nurses who had left the bedside.

Adequate staffing made national headlines during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has been a core issue for many hospitals ever since. But in the last year, its importance has become central as studies and organizations hone in on staffing levels as a key issue in the industry.

• A Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania survey found the majority of nurses who left bedside roles in recent years are willing to return, and adequate staffing levels are the factor that would reattract them.

• Another study of U.S. magnet hospitals found facilities where nurses report “enough nurses to get the work done” have better physician outcomes.

• The Joint Commission has formally recognized nurse staffing as a national performance goal, meaning hospitals seeking accreditation must meet certain standards related to staffing and oversight. 

• Adequate staffing is also still at the center of many union negotiations and nurse strikes.

Becker’s reached out to CNOs to find out if they are actively working on recruiting nurses back to the bedside. Every nurse leader said it is, but the ways they attract nurses back to the bedside differs.

Note: Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Maribeth McLaughlin, BSN, RN. Chief Nurse Executive and Vice President of Patient Care Services at UPMC (Pittsburg): Every nurse is part of the pipeline. It doesn’t matter whether they’ve left for ambulatory care, virtual nursing, work-from-home, we’re looking to bring any and all of them back to the bedside. As part of that effort, we looked at our education model and asked: how do we build something that supports the new graduate, the brand-new nurse straight out of school, as well as the returning nurse?

What we moved to is a system known as the tiered skill acquisition model. It’s an evidence-based model that allows us to standardize our approach so that everyone receives all the necessary components, while also individualizing it based on where each nurse is in their journey. The tiered structure ensures everyone gets the right resources and materials, but it’s flexible enough to meet each nurse where they are. For a nurse who’s returning to the bedside, probably the biggest challenge is technology. Many returning nurses still have their critical thinking skills intact; it’s really about bringing those skills back to the forefront and getting them current on the technology. We tailor their orientation accordingly.

An experienced nurse who’s been away is still looking for work-life harmony. They’re trying to find what they need to make work fit within their life. That’s where our career ladder and our various programs come in. 

We also allow people to come in and shadow. I actually just spoke with a nurse who has been working alongside physicians in research, is moving back to the Pittsburgh region, and wants to explore returning to the bedside. She hasn’t done it in a long time, but she’s feeling disconnected from her patients. We talked about how we could bring her in, let her shadow for a while, and I spent a good amount of time speaking with her individually about this life change, because I think that matters. It’s not just about “come back and get a job.” It has to work within the whole of their life. Making sure it’s a good fit from the beginning is another critical piece of what we do.

Deana Sievert, DNP, MSN, RN. Senior Vice President and CNO at Rush University Medical Center (Chicago): We see tremendous value in recruiting nurses who left the bedside and helping them get back to caring for patients again. While we are fortunate to have many tenured staff who remain at the bedside — speaking volumes to our strong nursing culture — we are still focused on trying to bringing more back into these roles. 

For example, we have boomerang campaigns where we reach out to eligible staff who have left and simply invite them back. Sometimes we find that staff end up realizing the “grass is not always greener,” and they are very interested in returning to Rush. We will be adding new, regular touchpoints with those who have left to highlight new opportunities that become available and would be a good fit for a former nurse. The focus there is to keep connecting until something resonates with them to consider returning. 

But more importantly, we are working hard to not lose them from the bedside in the first place. Rush is fortunate to have a robust shared governance system in place that helps us work with the tenured staff to better meet their needs. One of the messages we recently received was the need to find different ways to recognize our tenured staff with more than 15 years at the bedside.  

We are also working closely with those seasoned nurses to design different staffing models that allow for fewer weekend commitments, fewer holiday commitments and other perks that our nurses have identified as things they would appreciate. 

Courtney Vose, DNP, RN. Senior Vice President and CNO of Yale New Haven (Conn.) Hospital: There is only one thing that enhances great nursing — the added value of wisdom and experience. We work in close partnership with our nursing leaders, talent acquisition, finance and marketing to build strong, sustainable pipelines across every care area. Safe staffing, defined by us as staffing that fully accounts for volume, acuity and workload, is our number one priority.

We review our staffing performance three times a day and continuously adjust our plans based on real-time feedback from frontline RNs. This disciplined, data-driven approach strengthens the resilience of our current team, accelerates recruitment and creates the conditions that invite experienced nurses back to the bedside.

The post How 3 hospitals are bringing nurses back to the bedside appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Hospitals in Vizient’s top tier for quality performance reported an average operating margin of 6.3% in late 2025, while hospitals with the lowest quality posted a -3.6% operating margin, according to a Vizient study published March 16. 

To examine how quality rankings correlate with financial performance, Vizient analyzed data from more than 1,000 hospitals participating in its clinical database. The healthcare performance improvement and purchasing organization calculated hospitals’ operating margin through Medicare cost reports plus a patient care and other operating methodology.

The analysis “found a strong correlation between top-tier quality performance and improved operating margins, lower risk-adjusted direct costs and stronger commercial reimbursement,” the company said in a March 17 news release. 

Here are two key findings from the report: 

1. Hospitals in the top-quality quintile had an average direct cost index of 0.95, compared to 1.15 among those in the lowest quintile for quality performance. The lower index for high-quality hospitals mean their risk-adjusted costs per discharge were significantly lower, Vizient said. 

2. Top-quality hospitals negotiated commercial reimbursement at 257% of Medicare, compared to 211% for the lowest-performing group. 

Madeleine McDowell, MD, senior principal at Vizient’s research arm, Sg2 Intelligence, said quality stabilizes hospitals and health systems beyond what appears on quarterly reports, such as avoiding penalties, malpractice claims and regulatory scrutiny. 

“When care is delivered reliably and complications decline, resource intensity falls with it,” Dr.  McDowell said. “Fewer hospital-acquired conditions, preventable readmissions and downstream adverse events mean less waste embedded in the cost structure. Efficiency and outcomes, in turn, influence reputation and payer negotiations. Organizations with measurable performance bring a different level of credibility to contracting conversations. Over time, stronger reimbursement creates room to reinvest in workforce stability, analytics, care redesign and digital infrastructure.”

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Montana is the best state for physicians to practice in 2026, a recognition it has retained for several consecutive years as part of WalletHub’s annual ranking.

New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island were deemed the worst states to practice, according to the 2026 ranking, published March 17.

The personal finance website evaluated all 50 states and the District of Columbia across two key dimensions: opportunity and competition, and medical environment. Within those dimensions, 19 metrics are considered, ranging from average annual wage to quality of the public health system and hospital safety grades. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with 100 representing the most favorable conditions for physicians. WalletHub calculated each state’s overall score using the weighted average across all metrics.

15 best states for physicians:

1. Montana
2. Indiana
3. Louisiana
4. South Dakota
5. Minnesota
6. North Dakota
7. Missouri
8. Nebraska
9. Iowa
10. Wisconsin 
11. Mississippi
12. Utah
13. Kansas
14. South Carolina
15. Idaho 

And the worst:

1. New York 
2. New Jersey 
3. Rhode Island
4. Hawaii 
5. District of Columbia
6. Illinois
7. New Mexico
8. Oregon
9. Maryland
10. Vermont
11. Pennsylvania
12. Connecticut
13. California
14. New Hampshire
15. Massachusetts 

Four more insights from the ranking: 

• Montana, which ranked No. 1 overall, placed second for opportunity and competition and 15th for medical environment. 
• Missouri placed first for opportunity and competition, though ranked 42nd for medical environment. It ranked No. 7 overall. 
• Utah ranked first for medical environment, though 31st for opportunity and competition. Overall, it ranked No. 12. 
• New York (No. 51 overall) placed 48th for opportunity and rank, and 47th for medical environment. 

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The Lown Institute, a nonpartisan healthcare think tank, has named eight New York hospitals and four in Texas in its annual ranking of top 20 U.S. hospitals for community benefit. 

To evaluate an organization’s community benefit spending, the institute equally weighed available metrics on financial assistance, Medicaid patient revenue and community investment, according to its methodology. Lown published the ranking March 16. 

The institute measured the first two metrics using CMS data of hospital cost reports for fiscal year 2022, and assessed community investment through IRS tax filings from 2022 or the most recent year available. 

“Financial assistance was adjusted for hospital patient services margin … on the assumption that financially healthy hospitals should be able to give back more in assistance,” according to Lown. The community investment metric includes subsidized health services, such as free clinics and “other services provided at a loss to the hospital,” community health improvement activities, such as health fairs and immunizations, contributions to community organizations, and activities that address health needs such as education and nutritious food.

A few days before Lown published the community benefit rankings, the American Hospital Association published its annual “Costs of Caring” report, which found hospital expenses grew 7.5% in 2025, more than twice the growth rate in hospital prices. 

In years past, the AHA has commented on previous research and reports from Lown. Becker’s has reached out to the AHA and will update this article if more information becomes available. 

Lown ranked 2,716 acute care hospitals, 882 critical access hospitals and 322 hospital systems for 2025-26. 

These are the top 20 acute care hospitals recognized in this year’s ranking: 

1. Valleywise Health Medical Center (Phoenix)

2. Parkland Health and Hospital System (Dallas)

3. Olive View-UCLA Medical Center (Sylmar, Calif.)

4. NYC Health+Hospitals/Bellevue (New York City)

5. Mount Sinai Hospital (Chicago)

6. NYC Health+Hospitals Elmhurst (N.Y.)

7. NYC Health + Hospitals/Metropolitan (New York City)

8. NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln (New York City)

9. Hereford (Texas) Regional Medical Center 

10. NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health (New York City)

11. St. Bernard Hospital (Chicago)

12. Palisades Medical Center (North Bergen, N.J.)

13. NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens (New York City)

14. University Health (San Antonio)

15. John Peter Smith Hospital (Fort Worth, Texas)

16. University Hospital (Newark, N.J.)

17. NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County (New York City)

18. Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center

19. Holy Cross Hospital (Chicago)

20. St. Joseph’s Medical Center (New York City)

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Healthcare support workers and physician assistants are projected to have the lowest vulnerability to artificial intelligence among roles in the field, while medical secretaries and administrative assistants may face higher vulnerability, The Washington Post reported March 16.

The predictions come from researchers at GovAI, which studies technology policy, and Brookings Institute, a think tank. The groups created a tool to estimate which roles may be most and least able to adapt to AI.

There has been significant disagreement on AI’s potential effects on the workforce. While the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has said it is unlikely AI will replace jobs in the next decade, prominent CEOs have predicted the technology will replace millions of roles in the near future, the Post reported.

Forecasts about AI and the labor market — such as healthcare — should be taken seriously but not literally, the Post reported. While there is no measurable evidence that AI is replacing Americans’ jobs, white-collar roles may be first in line for AI-related disruptions.

Across industries, AI was the second-most-common reason cited for layoffs in October, according to a report released in November. Healthcare, however, has largely avoided AI-driven job cuts. 

The GovAI researchers began by measuring more than 350 occupations’ AI exposure — defined as how many job-related tasks a worker could perform more efficiently than AI. Researchers then attempted to quantify how easily workers in those roles could shift to other jobs if AI replaced their positions. 

Below are healthcare roles categorized by their vulnerability to AI, according to the interactive tool. This list is not exhaustive of all roles within hospitals and health systems.

Lowest vulnerability

• Other healthcare support workers
• Physician assistants
• Surgical technologists

Low vulnerability

• Clinical laboratory technologists and technicians
• Emergency medical technicians
• Home health and personal care aides
• Miscellaneous health technologists and technicians
• Nurse practitioners and nurse midwives
• Nursing assistants
• Occupational health and safety specialists and technicians
• Other healthcare practitioners and technical occupations
• Physicians
• Registered nurses

High vulnerability

• Healthcare social workers
• Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurses
• Medical and health services managers
• Medical records specialists
• Pharmacy technicians
• Psychiatric technicians
• Radiologic technologists and technicians
• Substance abuse, behavioral disorder and mental health counselors

Highest vulnerability

• Medical secretaries and administrative assistants

The post The healthcare roles least, most vulnerable to AI: Washington Post appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

The recent cyberattack on medtech company Stryker must serve as a “wake-up call” about hackers’ evolving tactics, even as it illustrates a “new normal” in healthcare, health system leaders told Becker’s.

Hackers disrupted the firm’s internal Microsoft environment March 11, causing health systems to evaluate their exposure and, in some cases, restrict connectivity to the devices. The company noted that the incident “did not affect any of our products — connected or otherwise” and did not involve ransomware or malware.

“The recent incident underscores the importance of third-party risk management, resiliency, and identity management,” said Steven Ramirez, vice president and chief information security and technology officer of Reno, Nev.-based Renown Health. “As cybersecurity teams increasingly rely on tools to protect systems and automate internal tasks, it is critical to ensure those systems are properly secured so they cannot be used against us. This incident also serves as a clear wake-up call regarding the near-term use of AI by attackers.”

In a March 15 update, Stryker said all of its products are safe to use. The firm manufactures a variety of surgical platforms, implants and smart hospital devices.

“It is completely safe for Stryker sales representatives to be on-site in hospitals and facilities,” the company said. “It is also safe for you to communicate by phone or email with Stryker personnel.”

An Iranian-linked cybercriminal group reportedly claimed responsibility for the hack (though Stryker has not confirmed this).

After the cyberattack, Loma Linda (Calif.) University Health changed how it manages access to its Microsoft 365 and Intune platforms, said Patrick Voon, executive director of information security.

“Even if the security incident did not impact us from a data breach perspective and did not pose any imminent threat to us, we were able to learn from it and make the necessary improvements in our own environment to prevent a similar exploit from happening to us,” he said.

Health systems plan for third-party cybersecurity incidents, as they have been increasing in recent years as organizations rely on more technology vendors and improve their internal cybersecurity.

“This increases the importance of our resiliency practices like downtime procedures and cross communications throughout the organization to keep clinical leaders and care providing teams aware of immediate impacts and engaged in continuity of care delivery,” said Jack Kufahl, chief information security officer of Ann Arbor-based Michigan Medicine. “It could be that this is the new normal that we all must adapt to address as a sector.”

Dennis Leber, PhD, chief information security officer of Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Erlanger Health System, said the event highlights the need to elevate cybersecurity to a completely separate business function, not just a part of IT.

“Third-party and supply chain management lives with cybersecurity, but must be incorporated into the overall enterprise risk management program,” he said.

Cybersecurity executives must “lead with confidence” during situations like this and be willing to collaborate both “internally and externally,” Dr. Leber said.

“Downtime procedures must be practiced before an event occurs,” he added. “Do not have unanswered questions that we should absolutely know the answers to.”

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Nearly half of healthcare employees report a low perception of safety culture, according to Press Ganey’s “State of Healthcare Safety 2026” report.

The report draws on 2025 data from 1.3 million healthcare workers — including nurses, physicians, security professionals and managers from 225 health systems and 3,846 facilities — as well as nearly 23.5 million patients across 3,196 inpatient, ambulatory surgery and medical practice sites.

Here are six key takeaways:

1. Safety culture scores have improved following pandemic-era declines, with average survey scores rising year over year, including in “resources and teamwork,” “overall safety culture,” “prevention and reporting,” and “pride and reputation.” However, 46.6% of healthcare workers report low safety culture perceptions, with lower ratings among clinical staff.

2. Facilities reporting safety events at or above the expected rate perform better on teamwork measures. These organizations are more than eight times as likely to rank into the top quartile for employee-manager collaboration, learning from mistakes, teamwork within units and perception of care quality.

3. Social capital is key. Organizations with strong employee responses to questions about respect and teamwork are 50% to 80% more likely to excel on safety outcomes and three times more likely to reach top-quartile patient loyalty scores. High-performing units are also more than twice as likely to have patients report they were treated with courtesy and respect. 

4. Safety perceptions vary by shift. Staff report different perceptions of culture across day, night and weekend shifts within the same organization. Much of the improvement in safety culture scores was driven by day-shift employees, who reported the strongest gains in average safety scores year over year. Night-shift scores slightly improved and remained the lowest overall.

5. Leadership alignment matters. Units reporting strong alignment between front-line teams and senior leadership show stronger reporting cultures and higher safety outcomes performance. Among organizations in the top decile for employee engagement, three of the five largest performance differentiators relate to confidence, trust and respect in senior leadership.

6. Safety culture is tied to retention. Seven of the 10 strongest drivers of employee engagement are related to safety culture. Employees with unfavorable perceptions of safety culture are 1.74 times more likely to leave than those with neutral or positive views.

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As patients increasingly turn to AI tools to interpret their health data, nurses are encountering new challenges at the bedside, according to a March case study in Nursing Outlook.

The paper describes a chemotherapy patient who used ChatGPT to interpret her lab results before an infusion appointment, creating confusion when the AI-generated explanation conflicted with clinical evidence.

To guide these interactions, the authors propose nurse-led communication protocols, including a patient-level framework — Ask, Balance, Clarify, Document — to help clinicians address AI-derived information during care discussions. The study emphasizes the need for stronger AI literacy among nurses and greater transparency around algorithmic outputs used by patients.

The researchers — from Plainsboro Township, N.J.-based Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center and Durham, N.C.-based Duke University School of Nursing — also call for health systems and nursing programs to integrate AI ethics, bias mitigation and governance into education and organizational policies.

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While cross-market mergers are becoming more common in health system growth across the U.S., some CEOs are more focused on expanding access within their existing markets.

Organizations that acquire or merge with hospitals in regions outside their core footprint may see benefits in payer leverage or risk diversification. However, for other systems, several factors make growing within their existing markets the right choice.

Take San Diego-based Scripps Health, for example. President and CEO Chris Van Gorder said the system is not currently planning any hospital acquisitions outside the region or state. 

“California is making it very difficult to add facilities to existing systems due to overregulation and excess oversight by state agencies including the attorney general and the new California Office of Healthcare Affordability, which review every transaction and apply onerous requirements to transaction,” Mr. Van Gorder told Becker’s. 

This development, coupled with California’s seismic safety law — which requires the replacement of many older facilities by 2030 — makes any acquisition financially and strategically risky, he said.

For Phoenix-based Valleywise Health, its mission as a safety-net system and public teaching hospital compels the organization to focus on improving access to care within Maricopa County, one of the largest and fastest-growing counties in the U.S., President and CEO Steve Purves told Becker’s.

“There are unmet needs for services to uninsured and low-income families within this geographic boundary, and it drives our strategic planning and development of new facilities and programs,” Mr. Purves said.

Staying within its current footprint — primarily Maricopa County, with some exceptions such as the Diane and Bruce Halle Arizona Burn Center — has led to successes in community impact.

“Our statutorily defined service area as a special healthcare district keeps us focused on deploying resources where they are most needed,” Mr. Purves said. “Good examples are the opening of a new teaching hospital, expansion of behavioral health services and the development of new primary care clinics throughout Maricopa County.”

Peoria, Ill.-based OSF HealthCare has grown significantly over the past 15 years —  now operating 17 hospitals — and has remained largely in Illinois, aside from a critical access hospital in Michigan. The facility is about 60 miles from the next closest hospital, highlighting a strong need for local access, CEO Bob Sehring previously told Becker’s.

For smaller urban systems such as OSF, it is important to evolve to reach as many patients as possible, but bringing every service to every patient is not realistic, Mr. Sehring said. Rather, it is about positioning resources appropriately to meet the needs of the broadest population — an approach OSF has strengthened through its hub-and-spoke model.

“In order to be clinically connected and able to drive clinical performance, you need to be closer geographically,” Mr. Sehring said. “You can’t be spread across the country and expect clinicians to align across that broad geography.”

Staying within its current market is also a key focus for Tulsa, Okla.-based Saint Francis Health System as it shifts capital toward ambulatory access points, President and CEO Cliff Robertson, MD, told Becker’s in December. The system plans to open new clinic locations over the next two years and assumed operations of Carrus Lakeside Hospital in Bristow, Okla., in February.

“We don’t have designs to be multistate or to acquire hospitals in Western Oklahoma,” Dr. Robertson said. “We’re not about that — we’re about improving the health of the populations we serve in Eastern Oklahoma.”

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Discontinuing GLP-1 treatment does not always cause significant weight gain, as many patients transition to other obesity or diabetes treatments, according to a Cleveland Clinic study published March 12 in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. 

One year after discontinuation, 19.6% reinstated the same GLP-1 and 35.2% received an alternative obesity treatment, according to the study. Alternative obesity treatments include another medication, lifestyle modification visit, and metabolic and bariatric surgery. 

The researchers analyzed EHR data for nearly 8,000 patients who discontinued a GLP-1 drug within three to 12 months — from Jan. 1, 2021, to June 30, 2025 — across Cleveland Clinic’s facilities in Ohio and Florida. 

All patients either received semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) or tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound) for Type 2 diabetes or obesity. 

• The Type 2 diabetes group lost an average 4.4% of body weight with a GLP-1 and an additional 1.3% body weight loss after discontinuation. A year after discontinuing Ozempic or Mounjaro, 44% gained weight and 56% either maintained or lost weight. 

• The obesity cohort had a different trend, with an average 8.4% weight loss with a GLP-1 and a 0.5% weight gain after discontinuation. A year after they stopped taking the Wegovy or Zepbound, 55% of patients regained weight while 45% either maintained or lost weight. 

Numerous studies on GLP-1 adherence have found approximately more than 50% patients stop taking the medication within a year, with the main causes being cost or insurance coverage limitations and side effects.

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Hospitals and health systems had a rocky start to 2026. Patient demand and revenue growth slowed while expenses intensified, leading to an operating margins dip, according to Strata’s Monthly Healthcare Industry Financial Benchmarks report.

The firm gathered data from more than 1,900 hospitals across the U.S. and identified financial and operational trends in the month of January. Below are five big trends for hospital and health system executives to know, based averages gathered by Strata.

1. Margins hit 12-month low. Health system margins dropped to -0.6% from 1.3% in December, which was the biggest monthly decline over the last year. For most of last year, health system operating margins hovered above 1% and even reached 1.5% in November.

Hospital margins also dropped 3.1 percentage points month over month and 2.4 percentage points year over year. Hospitals in the Northeast and South regions of the country had the smallest decline, about 1.2 percentage points, while Midwestern hospitals reported a 3.2 percentage point margin drop.

2. Smallest and largest hospitals are under the most financial pressure. Hospitals with less than 100 beds reported a 3.9 percentage point margin drop while hospitals with 500-plus beds reported a 2.5 percentage point decrease. Hospitals in between reported less steep declines.

3. Expense growth outpaced revenue. Total expenses increased 5.4% year over year in January while gross operating revenue rose 3.9%, leaving a significant gap for many organizations. Outpatient revenue jumped 4.4% while inpatient revenue increased a more moderate 2.5%.

4. Non-labor and drug costs surged. Non-labor expenses drove expense growth, at 6.4%. Labor expenses increased an average of 4.9% year over year and drug expenses were up 6.8%. Supply expenses increased just 4.6% in January.

5. Overall patient volume declined but select specialties are booming. Patient demand slowed, as inpatient admissions dropped 2.4% year over year and outpatient visits were down 2.5%. Emergency visits had the largest decline at 11.2% compared to the same period last year. Several specialties posted strong gains despite overall volume loss:

• Ophthalmology: 17.5%
• Genetics: 12.8%
• Hematology: 12.2%
• Cancer: 10.6%
• Pulmonology: 2.4%

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A decline in employment among occupations most exposed to artificial intelligence is hitting younger workers hardest, according to a study from three Stanford (Calif.) University researchers.

However, in roles such as nursing, psychiatric and home health aides — occupations considered less exposed to AI — employment among younger workers has continued to grow, according to the Nov. 13 study.

Stanford researchers Erik Brynjolfsson, PhD, Bharat Chandar, PhD, and Ruyu Chen, PhD, used administrative data from payroll software provider ADP to examine labor market shifts following the widespread adoption of generative AI. The dataset includes monthly, individual-level payroll records from millions of workers across tens of thousands of firms through September.

Workers ages 22-25 in occupations most exposed to AI experienced a 16% relative decline in employment, while employment levels among more experienced workers in the same roles remained largely stable, the study found.

While overall U.S. employment has continued to grow, employment among younger workers has been stagnant since late 2022. Workers ages 22 to 25 saw a 6% decline in employment from late 2022 through September 2025 in the most AI-exposed occupations, compared to 6% to 9% growth for older workers in those same roles.

Across industries, AI was the second most common reason cited for layoffs in October, according to a separate report released in November. Healthcare, however, has largely avoided AI-driven job cuts. Hospitals and health systems employ workers in roles both most affected by the technology — such as customer service representatives and telephone operators — and least affected, such as nurses.

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One in 3 Americans have made trade-offs  —such as prolonging a prescription or skipping a meal —to afford healthcare, according to a March 12 article from Gallup.

The insights come from surveys of 19,535 U.S. adults conducted by the West Health-Gallup Center on Healthcare between June 9 and Aug. 25.

Here are five things to know:

1. Thirty-three percent of respondents said they have made one or more financial trade-offs to pay for healthcare expenses in the past 12 months. The most common examples were prolonging a prescription or borrowing money, each cited by 15% of respondents.

2. Other reported trade-offs were skipping a meal (11%), driving less (11%) and cutting back on utilities (9%).

3. The trade-offs were more common among those without health insurance. While 29% of insured respondents reported making one of the trade-offs to afford care, 62% of uninsured respondents said they had made one in the past 12 months.

4. More than half of respondents with household incomes below $24,000 a year reported making at least one trade-off to pay for care. 

5. Respondents who said they were in poor or fair health were also more likely to have made one or more trade-offs to pay for care, at 62% and 47%, respectively.

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The Georgia Senate has passed a bill that would ban AI tools from being used independently to make coverage decisions.

The bill, which passed the chamber unanimously in February, would require a clinician to make the final decision on coverage denials. Insurers could still use AI to automate administrative tasks and in the review process, but the technology could not override the judgment of a clinician.

The legislation defines AI as “a machine-based system that can, for a given set of human defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing real or virtual environments.” 

If signed into law, the legislation would take effect in 2027.

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The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission estimated Medicare Advantage payments will be 14% greater than fee-for-service Medicare in 2026, according to a March 12 report from the congressional agency.

That 14% equates to an extra $76 billion for MA, with the increase attributable to favorable selection and coding intensity.

MedPAC has faced scrutiny in recent months over its methodology and results, and CMS leaders released counterfactual estimates on coding patterns earlier this year.

“MedPAC estimates do not accurately reflect Medicare Advantage spending, nor do they even attempt to capture the superior value of the program to beneficiaries and taxpayers. That is a problem,” a statement from the insurer-backed Better Medicare Alliance said before the March report went live. 

“MedPAC plays an important role in educating Congress about Medicare” the statement continued. “But that role is only valuable when the underlying methodology holds up to scrutiny, and policymakers should be clear-eyed about what today’s report represents: one data point among many, not the definitive last word.”

Here are five other things to know from the report:

1. Fifty-five percent of eligible Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in MA, more than doubling since 2010. There were about 34.9 million MA enrollees in 2025.

2. For supplemental benefits in 2026, Medicare is paying MA plans $2,660 per beneficiary per year on average in rebates, which have more than doubled since 2018. The rebates make up about 15% of the program’s payments to MA plans.

3. MA spending correlates to higher Part B premiums across the Medicare population, resulting in $175 more per beneficiary per year. Separately, the Congressional Joint Economic Committee said MA overpayments prompted Part B premiums to rise by $212 per enrollee in 2025.

4. In 2024, overall Medicare spending totaled $1.1 trillion, accounting for 21% of national health spending. Contributing factors include greater service intensity and increased drug spending in Part B.

5. MedPAC recommended payment cuts across skilled nursing facilities, home health and inpatient rehab. MA plans are paid per member, per month, incentivizing briefer skilled nursing facility stays, utilization of less costly post-acute care and longer hospital stays to keep out of post-acute care altogether.

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Access to affordable healthcare has become the defining concern of leaders in rural America.

Sixty-three percent of rural physicians identify it as the top issue policymakers should address, according to athenahealth’s 2026 Physician Sentiment Survey; that’s 12 points higher than their urban and suburban counterparts, and a figure that has surged 25 points in just two years. Rural physicians also report constant burnout at a rate of 67%, with 69% reporting they’ve considered leaving the medical profession entirely.

“Rural hospitals and independent practices serve as primary access points in many communities,” said Joe Ganley, vice president of government and regulatory affairs at athenahealth. “Ensuring they can modernize and remain financially stable is essential to preserving access over the long term.”

These numbers have real consequences: can patients afford care? Is there a facility nearby to deliver it? Are there enough clinicians left to staff it?

HR-1 and federal policy changes are amplifying all three challenges. Potential adjustments to Medicaid eligibility, uncertainty around 340B pharmaceutical funding, and the budget provisions of HR-1 are creating what leaders on the ground described as a funding cliff that will fall hardest on the organizations serving patients who have nowhere else to go.

But the Rural Health Transformation Program, which directs $50 billion to rural healthcare providers over the next five years, offers some relief. Healthcare organizations and companies, including athenahealth, have emphasized the importance of federal support efforts to strengthen rural healthcare and streamline technology investments that can help rural hospitals survive and thrive.

Building a talent pipeline
At the heart of every rural access challenge is the question of who will actually deliver the care. For Kelly Macken Marble, CEO of Osceola (Wis.) Medical Center, that question is urgent and personal. She’s recruited 10 clinicians in the past year and a half, but recruitment alone isn’t the answer if the environment drives people out.

In an effort to improve retention, she is pursuing two parallel workforce initiatives. The first targets moral injury — systematically identifying the administrative burdens that pull clinicians away from patient care and working to eliminate them. The second is participation in a Wisconsin statewide effort to reduce the stigma around physicians seeking mental health support, including addressing fears about licensure consequences for those who do.

“We need to take care of our teams, first and foremost, so they can take care of patients,” she said.

The physician survey data reinforces why this matters beyond the individual: reducing administrative tasks tops the list of what rural physicians say would most simplify care delivery (51%), and 40% are considering major operational changes to offset financial burdens. When the system fails to support clinicians, it accelerates the very workforce shortage that makes access worse for patients.

“It’s really hard to run a practice and it’s hard to run a community health center because of all the administrative workflow burdens that surround care delivery. The caregivers are awesome, but it’s really hard to manage all of the unnecessary complexity of care for patients, and all the transactional and administrative work that goes along with that,” said Mr. Ganley. “At athenahealth, we try to build products and services that make that work easier. Our mantra is curing complexity.”

Expanding what’s possible
For rural hospitals operating without the scale of larger systems, survival increasingly depends on adding services that serve both the community and the balance sheet and finding creative ways to fund them.

Raymond Hino, CEO of Southern Coos Hospital and Health Center in Bandon, Ore., has been doing exactly that. When Rite Aid closed its local storefront with almost no warning — leaving the coastal town without its only major retail pharmacy — Southern Coos was already 12 months into planning a pharmacy of its own. It opened in June 2025, and the community’s need was immediately apparent.

“Our utilization numbers have been much higher than what we initially anticipated,” Hino said. “We thought we were going to have a gradual ramp up over six to nine months, but we got fairly busy pretty quickly.”

The pharmacy is one piece of a broader expansion. Mr. Hino invested $800,000 to renovate the hospital’s sterile processing department and reopen a surgery program shuttered during the pandemic. He’s launching group psychiatric therapy for seniors through a partnership with Senior Life Solutions, targeting depression, loneliness, and caregiver burnout in a retirement-heavy community. The hospital also received a $171,000 grant from the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort’s charitable foundation to fund a master facility plan for the next generation of the hospital’s physical footprint.

Osceola is on a similar trajectory. Ms. Macken Marble is adding 20,000 square feet, opening a second clinic in Minnesota, and building out substance use withdrawal treatment services, a gap her county data identified as the highest unmet need in the region. But just identifying the need doesn’t mean a new service line will make financial sense for the organization.

“We’ve got to be really smart about what we add and when we add it. We don’t want to overextend ourselves so that if we do experience a reduction in reimbursement, we’ve got the financial bandwidth to manage that.”

As healthcare providers expand services and locations, the need for more communication and interconnected systems increases. Interoperability has been a challenge in healthcare for many years and athenahealth is committed to being part of the solution.

“Physicians continue to report difficulty exchanging information across systems, and most say those gaps increase stress,” said Mr. Ganley. “In rural settings, where care coordination often spans multiple organizations, fragmented data translates into additional work for already lean teams.”

Other industries are much more interoperable and serve as a model for healthcare. The end goal: to share information across platforms and provide better patient care.

“Healthcare ought to be technology agnostic and platform-agnostic. We’ve built a lot of infrastructure over the last 10 years to make that possible,” said Mr. Ganley. “Right now, we’re getting everybody over the hump so they are comfortable with it. We’ve built the ability to do it from a technology and privacy standpoint, and we need to break some of the old business models a bit more so folks are comfortable moving health information.”

Financing the Mission
None of this expansion happens without financial discipline, and the policy headwinds are making that discipline harder to maintain. For Sham Firdausi, deputy CFO of the County of Santa Clara Health System — one of the nation’s largest public safety net systems, serving nearly 2 million California residents regardless of their ability to pay — the stakes are existential. HR-1 alone represents a projected shortfall approaching $1 billion for the system by 2028.

“Constraint breeds innovation,” Mr. Firdausi said. “When the traditional approaches don’t work, we’re forced to think differently.”

His response is operational: embedding finance leaders within clinical teams, standardizing revenue cycle processes end-to-end, and pursuing payer-provider partnerships that leverage his background on the health plan side. Nationally, the physician survey found that 49% of physicians are more concerned about claim denials than declining reimbursement rates, a signal that operational efficiency has become as critical as advocacy.

For Mr. Hino, the long-term financial answer lies in collective action. He’s working with Oregon’s state government and the Rural Health Transformation Program to build a clinically integrated network among 13 rural independent hospitals, giving small, unaffiliated facilities the scale for value-based contracts.

“We have several very excited and motivated hospitals that are excited about partnering together and we believe that through the partnership, we’re going to create new and more beneficial payer contracting, which would be so important,” he said. “That’s something I’m really looking forward to in the coming year.”

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Hospice nurses in Wyoming and California spent the longest time with patients during weekend visits between Jan. 1, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2024, according to CMS data published Feb. 18.

CMS collects skilled nursing visit data, submitted directly by hospice providers, from Medicare hospice claims, and from the Hospice Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey, through the Hospice Quality Reporting Program. Organizations can earn a point toward their Hospice Care Index score if they report a percentage of skilled nursing minutes provided during the weekend above the 10th percentile nationally.

The national percentage of hospice nurse visits provided during the weekend was 9.6%.

Here are the percentage of weekend skilled nursing minutes provided between Jan. 1, 2023, and Dec. 31, 2024, by state, according to CMS:

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Savannah, Ga.-based St. Joseph’s/Candler plans to launch a residency program with 103 positions across four specialties, hospital leaders confirmed to Becker’s March 10.

The two-hospital system received nearly $17 million in state funding to support the program, which legislators approved as part of an amended state budget for 2026, according to a report from NBC affiliate WSAV. St. Joseph’s/Candler will launch an internal medicine residency program in July 2027. In subsequent years, the system will launch a family medicine program, a cardiovascular disease fellowship and a general surgery program. 

Health system leaders said the initiative represents the largest new residency program in Georgia. Expanding graduate medical education programs is widely viewed as a key strategy for strengthening the physician workforce, as national data suggests many physicians ultimately practice in the communities where they complete their residency training.

“With this funding we plan to open four residencies in four years, which is virtually unheard of,” Paul Hinchey, president and CEO of St. Joseph’s/Candler, said in a statement to Becker’s. 

“It’s well known that Georgia is facing a shortage of physicians and we’ve been working for the last three years to stand up a residency program that will quickly recruit new doctors to our region,” he said. 

The residency program will be run through a partnership with Augusta University’s Medical College of Georgia, which will provide academic oversight and accreditation support. 

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American hospitals saw expenses grow 7.5% in 2025, more than twice the rate of growth in hospital prices that year, according to the American Hospital Association’s annual “Costs of Caring” report.

The findings, which were drawn from industry benchmark data compiled by Strata Decision Technology, point to a system under mounting strain: Hospitals are treating more patients, those patients are getting sicker and the cost of supplies from drugs to disposable gloves is increasing quicker than reimbursements can keep up with.

“Rising costs for labor, supplies, drugs, and administrative burdens caused by corporate insurers, combined with caring for sicker patients, have created challenges for hospitals and health systems,” AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack said in a March 11 news release shared with Becker’s. “These strains are jeopardizing hospitals’ ability to provide around-the-clock care and services that patients and communities need.”

Here are four findings from the report: 

1. Hospital drug expenses increased 13.6% in 2025, with spending on medical supplies up 9.9%. Academic medical centers also saw drug costs jump by 21.6% in the same period. The average new drug launch price in 2024 was more than $370,000, up 23% from 2023. 

Workforce spending remains the largest hospital expense. Roughly 60% of total expenses went toward compensating physicians, nurses, specialists and other hospital workers. Workforce costs jumped 5.6% in 2025 from the previous year.

2. The AHA estimated that hospitals spent $43 billion in 2025 by attempting to collect payments owed to them for providing care, including nearly $18 billion on overturning denied claims. In 2024, Medicare Advantage plans made approximately 53 million prior authorization determinations, and providers appealed 11.5% of them, up from 7.5% in 2019.

The report said “administrative friction” can delay payment and increase bad debt, which jumped 10% in 2025. 

3. Inpatient volumes rose 5.3% in 2025 and outpatient visits climbed 9.8% year over year. The AHA reported that hospital case-mix index, which measures patient sickness, increased around 5% from 2019 to 2024.

“A little over half of the growth in hospital expenses is explained by the fact that hospitals are caring for more patients who are sicker, while just under half reflects the higher cost of the people, medicines and materials required to care for them,” the report said.

4. Medicare reimbursed hospitals just 83 cents on the dollar in 2024, which resulted in more than $100 billion in underpayments. Additionally, 56.1% of hospital costs are tied to service lines where reimbursements fell short, or was less than, care delivery costs. Behavioral health held an all-payer payment-to-cost ratio of 74.5%.

“Despite hospitals facing higher labor and input costs, treating more patients with greater clinical complexity, and maintaining essential, always-on services that communities depend on, they have managed to keep price increases below the increases in their input costs, the report said. “However, this mismatch between expenses and revenue leaves hospitals increasingly at risk of being able to maintain the full spectrum of services on which communities rely.”

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McKinsey’s “State of Organizations 2026” report highlights several disruptions affecting organizations globally, including challenges hospital and health system leaders are grappling with.

The report is based on survey responses collected from June to September from more than 10,000 senior executives across 15 countries and 17 industries. More than 3,000 respondents were from U.S.-based organizations, and healthcare systems and services accounted for 531 respondents.

The report builds on McKinsey’s first edition published in 2023. While leaders remain focused on driving performance, the emphasis is shifting from short-term resilience to long-term productivity and organizational change.

Here are three forces reshaping organizations in 2026, according to the report:

1. Technology infusion: Survey responses pointed to three forces reshaping organizations, the first being the infusion of technology. This includes artificial intelligence, automation and data analytics, which are driving organizations to rethink traditional structures. McKinsey said these technologies could produce several benefits together — including cost reductions and productivity gains — and suggested organizations seize emerging opportunities and “test, test, test.”

Across many hospitals and health systems, AI is moving past the pilot era and transitioning into becoming ingrained with clinical and operational workflows. The era of one-off AI tools is also ending, health system leaders have told Becker’s.

“We’ll move from point solutions that solve individual problems to platforms that support many use cases,” Terri Couts, chief digital officer at San Diego-based Sharp HealthCare said in December. “Right now, you might have one vendor for coding help, another for ambient documentation, another for referrals or denials management. That’s not sustainable.”

2. Economic and geopolitical disruption: The second force is intensifying economic disruption and geopolitical uncertainty, prompting organizations to adapt swiftly and sustainably.

The heightened challenges have also been reflected in several hospitals closing, ending services or cutting jobs in 2026.

3. Workforce transformation: The third force is workforce transformation, driven by evolving employee expectations, demographics shifts and tech-driven working models. Organizations should move beyond traditional structures, redefine leadership and center their focus on performance to navigate disruption, according to the authors.

As the U.S. population ages and new employees entering the workforce articulate their expectations for employers, hospitals and health systems are doubling down on recruitment and retention, including through educational partnerships and compensation increases.

The three forces will play out across the following nine themes, according to McKinsey. Read the full report here.

Technology disruption

• Unlocking the AI-enabled organization: Organizations should aim for a technical and organizational transformation that includes reimagining how work is done across workflows and functions.
• Humans and AI agents: McKinsey suggests AI agents and employees should collaborate, prompting organizations to build human engagement with the technology and redefine capability requirements. 
• Leveraging AI to rewrite the future of shared services.

Economic disruption

• Finding value in a new geopolitical context through the development of resilient and flexible structures.
• Reaching the next productivity frontier by shifting attention away from structure and toward how work gets done, cutting redundancies and streamlining decision routines.
• Focusing on the core so organizations can identify the performance moves that have the greatest effects, selecting a few areas to excel and build capabilities while allocating budget and talent to drive them.

Workforce shifts

• Aiming higher with a new performance edge: Improvement requires a focus on organizational capital, such as culture, employee health and well-being investments and management practices.
• Sharpening the focus on diversity and inclusion.
• Leadership reinvented: Leaders must focus on personal growth and reflect on the “why” to inspire meaningful change, according to McKinsey.

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Private equity firms have become a major force in healthcare, investing more than $1 trillion over the last ten years, according to a recent report from New York University’s Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.

The report, published March 10 and authored by Michael Goldhaber, examines how private equity’s investments have impacted patient care, hospital finances and medical access.

“There is a healthcare crisis in the United States. Costs are rising, driven by market consolidation, increased insurance premiums, escalating drug prices and other changes,” the report said. “Many hospitals and healthcare facilities are experiencing staffing shortages. These and other factors mean that the poorest people in the U.S. have worse health outcomes than those in other high-income countries, despite the high level of spending.”

Here are four things to know:

1. The PE investments cover a wide range of sectors, including hospitals, behavioral health providers, nursing homes, ambulance services and medical staffing companies. 

A study of leveraged buyouts cited in the report found PE-owned healthcare companies averaged debt-to-cash flow ratios of 7.1 — more than double that of public healthcare companies and also above the 4.0 threshold considered to be high by finance regulators. On the plus side, the report said, PE firms can improve operational efficiency and strategic guidance through capital and strategic expertise. 

“In the context of healthcare, some of these firms have adopted responsible practices, suggesting that industry-wide reform is possible,” the report said.

2. Several academic studies found that PE acquisitions can lead to operational changes in healthcare organizations.

For example, Eileen Appelbaum of the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that PE investors are more likely to have a positive impact in smaller deals, using limited debt to acquire and revitalize struggling companies. However, larger deals, which can attract the most capital, can entail PE firms adding significant debt to healthcare institutions, which can weaken their financial stability and stymie operations. 

Other studies cited in the report found that PE ownership can raise hospital complications by 25% and reduce hospital staff by 11.6%. One study also found nursing homes under PE ownership had 11% higher patient mortality rates. 

3. In 2023, PE healthcare businesses saw 34 bankruptcies, which can “sometimes leave entire communities without adequate medical care,” the report said. It pointed to multiple hospital chains that have sought bankruptcy protection in recent years following PE ownership, including: Dallas-based Steward Healthcare, which sought Chapter 11 protection in May 2024; Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings, which sought Chapter 11 protection in January 2025; and El Segundo, Calif.-based Pipeline Health, which sought Chapter 11 protection in October 2022 but exited bankruptcy in early 2023.

4. Rather than eliminating PE investment in healthcare, the report called for reforms to improve accountability and protect patient care.

Recommendations include increased transparency around healthcare firm finances, ownership, and care quality; avoiding risky financial practices like sale-leasebacks, excessive debt or debt-funded dividends; keeping debt levels at sustainable ratios; and protecting patient care by avoiding service cuts, facility closures or staff and wage reductions except in “exigent circumstances.” The report also suggested stronger government oversight of healthcare acquisitions and public financial disclosures from PE firms as responsible investment policies.

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Fremont, Calif., topped WalletHub’s 2026 ranking of happiest cities in the U.S. for another year, while Detroit ranked at the bottom.

For the ranking, the personal finance website compared 182 of the largest U.S. cities — including the 150 most populous nationwide, plus at least two of the most populous cities in each state — across three dimensions: emotional and physical well-being, income and employment, and community and environment. 

WalletHub evaluated these dimensions using 29 metrics, which ranged from depression rates to average daily leisure time.

Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the highest level of happiness. WalletHub then determined 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 10 happiest cities, according to the analysis:

1. Fremont, Calif. 

2. Bismarck, N.D.

3. Scottsdale, Ariz.

4. South Burlington, Vt. 

5. Fargo, N.D.

6. Overland Park, Kan.

7. Charleston, S.C.

8. Irvine, Calif.

9. Gilbert, Ariz.

10. San Jose, Calif.

The 10 cities at the bottom of the list:

1. Detroit

2. Memphis, Tenn.

3. Shreveport, La.

4. Cleveland 

5. Huntington, W.Va.

6. Toledo, Ohio

7. Augusta, Ga.

8. Fort Smith, Ark.

9. Dover, Del.

10. Akron, Ohio

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Healthgrades has recognized 442 hospitals in 40 states for being the top 10% in the nation for patient safety. Texas had the most recognized facilities at 77.

The 2025 Patient Safety Excellence Award recognizes hospitals that excel in quality care while preventing serious safety events during hospital stays. The award was based on analysis of Medicare inpatient data from the Medicare Provider Analysis and Review from CMS. The data measured clinical performance across 13 patient safety indicators. Learn more about the methodology here.

Healthgrades found that four patient safety indicators accounted for nearly 76% of all patient safety events between 2021 and 2023. Hospitals that were honored had a lower risk of experiencing the following adverse events:

• In-hospital fall resulting in fracture (54% less likely)
• Collapsed lung due to a procedure or surgery in or around the chest (54.8% less likely)
• Pressure sores or bed sores acquired in the hospital (69.4% less likely)
• Catheter-related bloodstream infections acquired in the hospital (72% less likely)

If all hospitals performed similarly to the 2025 Patient Safety Excellence Award winners, 100,891 patient safety events could have been avoided between 2021 and 2023.

Find the award-winning hospitals here.

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A federal judge ruled March 6 in favor of five Florida hospitals that filed a lawsuit against The Leapfrog Group nearly a year ago, which claimed the organization’s “D” and “F” safety scores unfairly damaged the hospitals’ reputations. 

Leapfrog has faced these allegations in two separate cases — one in 2017 and another in 2019 — but those courts ruled in the patient safety organization’s favor. 

A more recent lawsuit, filed April 30, 2025, alleged Leapfrog penalizes hospitals that do not participate in its national surveys. A Florida judge agreed. 

In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks said Leapfrog assigned “arbitrarily low scores for several measures” and changed the weighing on those measures for nonparticipating hospitals, according to court documents. 

Five hospitals in Palm Beach (Fla.) Health Network, which is a division of Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, filed the lawsuit April 30, 2025, after three of the hospitals received an “F” grade and two earned a “D.”

The hospitals “have adequately shown a range of harms, including patient diversion and delay of care, physician concerns, insurer inquiries and declines in patient volume” from these grades, the judge said. 

Mr. Middlebrooks ordered Leapfrog to:

• Stop assigning a safety grade to these five hospitals through a methodology that “assigns assumed or imputed values,” scores nonparticipating hospitals differently than participating hospitals or reduces a hospital’s safety grade for not providing performance data

• Withdraw the safety grades for these five hospitals for fall 2024, spring 2025 and fall 2025

• Send corrective disclosures to all entities that paid to license the three most recent safety grades that the grades “were found to be deceptive and unfair”

In a March 8 statement, Leapfrog President and CEO Leah Binder said the organization disagrees with the court’s decision and plans to appeal. 

“We cannot accept the decision’s main conclusion, that Florida citizens — and all Americans — don’t have a right to hear Leapfrog’s expert perspective on how well these five for-profit, Tenet-owned hospitals care for patients,” the statement said. 

Ms. Binder said Leapfrog will comply with the order to remove the five hospitals’ safety grades from fall 2024, spring 2025 and fall 2025. She added the March 6 ruling undermines “all published ratings and reviews in all industries,” including ratings on Amazon, Experian, Moody’s and Yelp, and violates the First Amendment. 

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Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro is projected to be the best-selling drug in the world in 2030, according to Statista data shared March 9 with Becker’s. 

Statista is a global data company that provides market insights for 170 industries, including pharmaceuticals. 

The company projects these 10 drugs will be the best-selling pharmaceutical products worldwide in 2030: 

1. Mounjaro, a Type 2 diabetes medication

Manufacturer: Eli Lilly 

Projected global sales in 2030: $36.2 billion

2. Skyrizi, a therapy for plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis

Manufacturer: AbbVie

Projected global sales in 2030: $26.6 billion

3. Zepbound, a GLP-1 for obesity and sleep apnea

Manufacturer: Eli Lilly

Projected global sales in 2030: $25.5 billion

4. Dupixent, a therapy for nine chronic inflammatory conditions 

Manufacturer: Sanofi/Regeneron

Projected global sales in 2030: $25.1 billion

5. Ozempic, a GLP-1 for Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and kidney disease

Manufacturer: Novo Nordisk

Projected global sales in 2030: $24.4 billion

6. Wegovy, a GLP-1 for obesity, cardiovascular disease and kidney disease 

Manufacturer: Novo Nordisk

Projected global sales in 2030: $18.1 billion

7. Keytruda, a therapy for about a dozen cancers 

Manufacturer: Merck

Projected global sales in 2030: $16.9 billion

8. Darzalex, a multiple myeloma therapy 

Manufacturer: Johnson & Johnson/Genmab

Projected global sales in 2030: $16.6 billion

9. Biktarvy, an HIV-1 treatment 

Manufacturer: Gilead

Projected global sales in 2030: $15.7 billion

10. CagriSema, an experimental GLP-1 drug for weight loss 

Manufacturer: Novo Nordisk

Projected global sales in 2030: $15.2 billion

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The newly launched Health Care Affordability Lab within New Haven, Conn.-based Yale University’s Tobin Center for Economic Policy released a tool March 9 that allows users to explore hospital mergers, closures, ownership changes and market concentration across all 50 states.

Using the dataset behind the lab’s new Hospital Markets data visualization tool, researchers analyzed the share of hospitals in each state operating in a highly concentrated or monopoly market, defined within a 30-minute travel radius around each facility. The dataset includes general, short-term acute-care hospitals and excludes specialty hospitals, long-term care facilities and VA or military hospitals.

To measure market concentration, researchers used the Herfindahl–Hirschman Index, or HHI — a standard antitrust metric that ranges from 0, denoting many small competitors, to 10,000, denoting a monopoly. Markets with HHIs between 5,000 and less than 10,000 are considered highly concentrated, while markets with HHIs above 10,000 are considered monopolies.

Researchers totaled the number of hospitals in highly concentrated and monopoly markets in each state and divided that by the state’s total number of hospitals to determine the percent of hospitals operating in highly concentrated or monopoly markets.

Here are the 50 states ranked by the percent of hospitals located in highly concentrated or monopoly markets.

More information on the dataset and methodology is available here.

1. North Dakota — 100.0%

2. South Dakota — 100.0%

3. Wyoming — 100.0%

4. Montana — 98.4%

5. Maine — 97.4%

6. West Virginia — 87.2%

7. Vermont — 86.7%

8. Idaho — 86.0%

9. Alaska — 85.7%

10. New Mexico — 76.1%

11. Oregon — 71.7%

12. North Carolina — 71.2%

13. Arkansas — 68.1%

14. South Carolina — 67.7%

15. Colorado — 66.7%

16. Delaware — 66.7%

17. Hawaii — 66.7%

18. Alabama — 66.3%

19. Washington — 66.3%

20. Georgia — 61.7%

21. Utah — 61.7%

22. Virginia — 60.5%

23. Iowa — 59.7%

24. Kansas — 56.5%

25. Oklahoma — 56.2%

26. Kentucky — 55.7%

27. New Hampshire — 55.6%

28. Tennessee — 54.8%

29. Missouri — 54.2%

30. Mississippi — 53.8%

31. Minnesota — 52.8%

32. Pennsylvania — 50.0%

33. Indiana — 47.8%

34. Nebraska — 47.7%

35. Michigan — 47.4%

36. Arizona — 45.5%

37. Louisiana — 43.1%

38. Connecticut — 40.6%

39. Wisconsin — 40.6%

40. New York — 39.9%

41. Texas — 38.8%

42. Florida — 38.2%

43. Nevada — 38.2%

44. Illinois — 37.9%

45. Ohio — 33.8%

46. Massachusetts — 31.9%

47. Maryland — 30.2%

48. California — 26.8%

49. New Jersey — 21.1%

50. Rhode Island — 8.3%

51. District of Columbia — 0.0%

The post 50 states ranked by hospital concentration appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

The use of artificial intelligence in diagnosis, rural healthcare access and federal funding cuts are among the most pressing patient safety concerns facing healthcare organizations in 2026, according to a new report from ECRI and the Institute for Safe Medication Practices.

Topping the list of patient safety threats this year is the “AI diagnostic dilemma.” As health systems increasingly adopt AI tools to support clinical decision-making, experts caution the technology may introduce new risks if used without proper oversight. While AI can analyze large volumes of clinical data, automate information retrieval and potentially improve diagnostic accuracy, ECRI warned that overreliance on these systems could contribute to diagnostic errors, automation bias and erosion of clinicians’ critical thinking skills.

To reduce these risks, the report urges healthcare organizations to implement governance policies for AI tools, train clinicians on their capabilities and limitations, and ensure AI supports — rather than replaces — clinical judgment.

Here are the 10 most pressing patient safety challenges in 2026, per the report:

1. Navigating the AI diagnostic dilemma
2. Reduced access to rural healthcare increases health risks and disparities
3. Increasing rates of preventable acute diseases in communities and healthcare settings 
4. Effects of federal funding cuts on healthcare operations and patient safety 
5. Lack of recognition and reporting of harm events
6. Structural and systemic barriers inhibit equitable pain management for women
7. Persistent workforce shortages continue to burden staff and restrict access to care 
8. The impact on system improvement when a culture of blame hinders learning
9. Emergency department boarding contributes to worse patient outcomes 
10. Persistent gaps in manufacturer packaging and labeling design continue to undermine medication safety efforts   

ECRI — founded in 1968 as the Emergency Care Research Institute — and ISMP compiled the list through a nomination process that drew on internal experts, healthcare leaders and public input. Nominated topics were supported by evidence from scientific literature, safety event reports, medication error reporting programs and investigations conducted by the organizations. A cross-disciplinary team then reviewed the topics and selected the final list based on factors such as the potential severity of harm, likelihood of occurrence, number of patients affected and how difficult the issue may be to detect or address.

The post 10 top patient safety concerns in 2026: ECRI  appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

By 2036, the U.S. is projected to have 39,600 cardiology physicians available to meet a demand of 46,600, leaving a shortfall of about 7,000 physicians nationwide, according to projections from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration.

Most states are projected to fall below full adequacy, with many meeting less than 90% of projected demand. Several states, including Idaho, Nevada, Alabama and Oklahoma, are forecast to meet 60% or less of demand, while a handful of states such as Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut are projected to exceed demand. Washington, D.C., stands out with a projected cardiologist supply more than four times higher than demand.

The projections are based on HRSA’s Health Workforce Simulation Model, an integrated microsimulation model that estimates the current and future supply and demand for healthcare workers by occupation, geography and year. The model accounts for factors such as population growth and aging, geographic shifts in patient populations, provider entry and retirement patterns and changes in healthcare access.

Here’s a breakdown of projected cardiology physician supply and demand by state by 2036:

The post The cardiology physician shortage by state by 2036 appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Massachusetts is the best U.S. state for women for the second consecutive year, according to a March 2 WalletHub ranking.

The personal finance website’s 2026 list of the “Best & Worst States for Women” was compiled by comparing the 50 states and Washington, D.C., across 25 key metrics. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale and grouped into two major categories: women’s healthcare and safety and women’s economic and social well-being.

Specific metrics included women’s unemployment rate and job security, quality of women’s hospitals, and women’s uninsured rate.

Below are the 10 best and worst states for women, along with their healthcare and safety rank, according to WalletHub:

Top 10

1. Massachusetts (1)

2. Washington, D.C. (7)

3. Maine (12)

4. Minnesota (6)

5. Maryland (10)

6. Vermont (5)

7. Connecticut (3)

8. Hawaii (8)

9. New York (2)

10. Oregon (16)

Bottom 10

42. Idaho (30)

43. Mississippi (49)

44. West Virginia (48)

45. South Carolina (39)

46. Wyoming (45)

47. Alabama (46)

48. Texas (44)

49. Arkansas (50)

50. Oklahoma (51)

51. Louisiana (40)

The post 10 best, worst states for women in 2026 appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Across the country, health systems are showing that staffing stability is achievable even in a constrained physician market. While workforce pressures are now a daily reality, leading organizations are responding differently: aligning service lines, redesigning care delivery, and building stability into their operating models rather than relying on reactive fixes.

In recent Medicus-hosted panels at industry conferences, health system executives shared what is working in their organizations today. Four clear priorities surfaced, offering practical insight for leaders who want more predictable coverage and the capacity to move long-term workforce plans forward.

Across multiple panel discussions, several consistent strategies emerged. While the approaches varied by market and specialty, leaders consistently shared four areas of focus that are helping stabilize clinical operations despite ongoing workforce constraints.

Many leaders emphasized the importance of creating unified service lines to reduce variability and improve coverage flexibility across sites. When leadership structures, staffing practices, and performance metrics are aligned across hospitals, health systems can coordinate coverage more effectively, reduce silos, and deliver more consistent care. This structure also makes it easier to redeploy clinicians across facilities and respond quickly as demand shifts.

Across panels, a recurring strategy was redesigning care delivery to create stability when physician capacity is limited. Rather than filling every gap with additional physician hours, systems are building models that distribute work more effectively and make coverage more predictable across inpatient and outpatient settings. Common approaches included care team models in specialties such as anesthesia, hospitalist-style models in areas like OB/GYN and gastroenterology, and selective shifts in coverage strategy, including moving from outsourced to employed models or adjusting contracted partnerships when greater alignment is needed.

In today’s physician market, culture consistently surfaced as a key differentiator for both recruitment and retention. As expectations evolve around scheduling, call shifts, and protected personal time, candidates and current clinicians are evaluating the day-to-day practice experience, not only compensation or job titles. Health systems described investing in scheduling flexibility, including self-scheduling, establishing clearer and more consistent call expectations, and making clinician well-being a visible operational priority. Leaders also pointed to leadership rounding and structured feedback loops that capture input and demonstrate follow-through.

Another common theme was identifying early indicators of strain before staffing issues become operational crises. Coverage instability typically builds gradually, with early signals appearing in subtle shifts in performance and schedule reliability. To stay ahead of disruption, teams are using operational data to monitor leading indicators such as slower radiology read times, longer time-to-fill for open shifts, or reduced call availability in specialties like anesthesia. Several systems also described using historical staffing and demand trends to anticipate predictable periods of over- or understaffing and adjust plans earlier.

For additional detail on how these strategies translate into coverage planning and service line execution, read the full recaps of leader perspectives.

The strategies above are actionable, but implementation is often the hardest part when coverage is already stretched. Healthcare executives consistently shared that meaningful workforce change requires a stable coverage plan first, so clinical leaders have the bandwidth to redesign models, strengthen alignment, and invest in retention without creating additional strain on permanent teams.

That is why Medicus Healthcare Solutions created the Medicus Transition Program. Built for specialties with multi-FTE coverage gaps, it offers a consultant-led, project-based approach that stabilizes coverage while a system executes change. Whether the goal is to transition from outsourced to employed coverage, adjust or change an outsourced group, or support new care models, Medicus provides high-quality clinicians and manages the locum tenens process end-to-end, so leaders can stay focused on long-term workforce initiatives.

To hear more insights from the field, join Medicus as we continue the conversation at the Becker’s Annual Meeting during “The New Reality of Physician Staffing: Building Workforce Stability” on Monday, April 13, 2026, from 11:35 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

The post Four Proven Approaches to Stabilizing Clinical Operations appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Long wait times, crowded waiting rooms, and frustrated staff are often symptoms of inefficient workflows driven by physical space constraints. Poorly designed layouts can create bottlenecks, limit privacy, and negatively impact both staff and patient experience. Yet for many hospitals, clinics, and outpatient settings, expanding or relocating simply isn’t feasible. Construction costs have risen dramatically in recent years, making it increasingly difficult for healthcare organizations to add new space.

As patient volumes continue to grow and staffing shortages persist, making better use of existing square footage has become a strategic priority. Many organizations are discovering that improving flexibility and workflow within their current footprint can significantly increase throughput and enhance the patient experience, without the expense and disruption of construction.

“Most healthcare organizations don’t have a space problem — they have a flexibility problem. When layouts and furniture are designed to adapt, the same square footage can support higher throughput, better workflows, and a more positive experience for both patients and staff.”
— Sasha Barausky, Vice President, Furniture, Staples Business

Healthcare facilities across acute care, outpatient clinics, and senior living settings are turning to space optimization strategies to improve efficiency. By focusing on flexible layouts, streamlined storage, and modular furniture, organizations can unlock the full potential of their facilities.

Here are five practical ways healthcare organizations can maximize space and efficiency.

1. Assess How Space Is Really Used

The first step toward improvement is understanding how space functions today. Evaluating patient flow, exam room turnover, and equipment placement can reveal inefficiencies that slow operations.

Often, underused or single-purpose areas can be repurposed into flexible spaces that support multiple functions. A thoughtful assessment helps organizations identify opportunities to improve throughput without increasing square footage.

2. Create Flexible, Multi-Purpose Rooms

Healthcare needs change throughout the day. Spaces that serve only one function often sit idle for long periods, limiting overall efficiency.

Reconfiguring rooms to support multiple uses — such as consultations, telehealth visits, or minor procedures — improves utilization and allows facilities to adapt to changing patient volumes. Mobile furniture, modular layouts, and wall-mounted storage can make spaces more adaptable while maintaining clinical standards.

3. Improve Scheduling to Reduce Congestion

Even well-designed spaces can become inefficient if scheduling creates unnecessary congestion. Overlapping appointments often lead to crowded waiting rooms and delayed care.

Optimized scheduling helps reduce bottlenecks and makes better use of available rooms. Staggered appointments and streamlined care pathways can improve both patient experience and staff productivity while easing pressure on shared spaces.

4. Streamline Storage and Supply Placement

Storage inefficiencies often consume valuable clinical space. Duplicate equipment, poorly organized supplies, and bulky storage units can slow staff and reduce available work areas.

Standardizing supplies and using vertical or mobile storage solutions can reclaim floor space while improving accessibility. Organized storage not only improves efficiency but also supports infection control and safer workflows.

5. Choose Furniture That Supports Adaptability

Furniture plays a critical role in healthcare efficiency. Multifunctional and modular solutions — such as integrated storage, fold-down work surfaces, modular seating, and privacy partitions — allow spaces to adapt as needs change.

“Furniture isn’t just an aesthetic decision in healthcare — it’s operational infrastructure. Modular, multifunctional furniture can unlock underused space, reduce bottlenecks, and help care teams do more without the cost and disruption of new construction.”
— Sasha Barausky, Vice President, Furniture, Staples Business

Selecting the right furniture can often deliver meaningful improvements faster and at a lower cost than facility expansion.

Making Every Square Foot Work Harder

Healthcare organizations don’t necessarily need more space to improve performance — they need smarter use of the space they already have. By improving flexibility, optimizing layouts, and investing in adaptable solutions, facilities can increase room utilization, improve satisfaction, and strengthen operational performance.Ready to optimize your healthcare spaces?
View the Full Report – Discover detailed strategies and recommendations.
Connect with a Staples Healthcare Space Expert – Get personalized guidance for your facility.

The post 5 Ways Healthcare Facilities Can Optimize Space and Efficiency appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

According to data gathered by Becker’s, Parkland Health and Hospital System saw the highest number of emergency department visits in 2025. 

The figures below represent the number of ED visits at individual hospital facilities, rather than the total visits across entire health systems. These self-reported totals were provided directly by hospitals.

Hospitals reported data for either calendar year or fiscal year 2025. Figures based on a fiscal year are marked with an asterisk. Start and end dates for the fiscal year may vary by hospital.

This is not an exhaustive list. If you have an addition or an update for this list, please contact Anna Falvey at afalvey@beckershealthcare.com.

1. Parkland Health and Hospital System (Dallas) — 228,759 visits*
2. Lakeland (Fla.) Regional Medical Center — 199,320 visits*
3. Inova Fairfax Hospital (Falls Church, Va.) — 184,524 visits
4. Multicare Good Samaritan Hospital (Puyallup, Wash.) — 175,011 visits
5. John Peter Smith Hospital (Fort Worth, Texas) — 162,964 visits
6. Wellstar Kennestone Hospital (Marietta, Ga.) — 153,518 visits
7. Hackensack Meridian Hackensack (N.J.) University Medical Center — 152,385 visits
8. Los Angeles General — 148,004 visits
9. NYC Health + Hospitals/Lincoln (Bronx, N.Y.) — 142,868 visits
10. Montefiore Medical Center-Moses Campus (New York City) — 141,131 visits
11. UMass Memorial Medical Center (Worcester) — 140,622 visits*
12. University Health Hospital (San Antonio, Texas) — 134,841 visits
13. WakeMed Raleigh (N.C.) Campus — 133,482 visits*
14. Boston Medical Center — 130,977 visits*
15. UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital (Aurora, Colo.) — 127,682 visits*
16. BronxCare Health System (Bronx, N.Y.) — 126,704 visits
17. NYC Health + Hospitals/Elmhurst (Queens, N.Y.) — 126,566 visits
18. Antelope Valley Medical Center (Lancaster, Calif.) — 126,265 visits
19. Cape Fear Valley Medical Center (Fayetteville, N.C.) — 122,901 visits*
20. Renown Regional Medical Center (Reno, Nev.) — 120,720 visits
21. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital (Los Angeles) — 120,563 visits
22. Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston) — 120,536 visits*
23. Sharp Grossmont Hospital (La Mesa, Calif.) — 120,445 visits*
24. Baystate Medical Center (Springfield, Mass.) — 119,938 visits*
25. University of Michigan Health – Ann Arbor — 118,500 visits
26. SSM Health St. Anthony Hospital-Oklahoma City (Okla.) — 118,377 visits
27. NYC Health + Hospitals/Kings County (Brooklyn, N.Y.) — 117,849 visits
28. Strong Memorial Hospital (Rochester, N.Y.) — 117,711 visits
29. MultiCare Tacoma (Wash.) General Hospital — 117,338 visits
30. Jersey City (N.J.) Medical Center — 115,488 visits
31. Stony Brook (N.Y.) University Hospital — 115,179 visits
32. Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth — 114,182 visits
33. Denver Health Medical Center — 113,077 visits
34. Banner Desert Medical Center (Mesa, Ariz.) — 113,009 visits
35. University Medical Center of Southern Nevada (Las Vegas) — 112,758 visits
36. Stanford Medicine-Palo Alto (Calif.) campus — 112,000 visits*
37. Reading Hospital-Tower Health (West Reading, Pa.) — 111,256 visits*
38. Broward Health Medical Center (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) — 110,600 visits
39. Hartford (Conn.) Hospital — 110,337 visits*
40. Morristown (N.J.) Medical Center — 110,087 visits
41. NYC Health + Hospitals/Jacobi — 106,494 visits
42. Penn Medicine Lancaster (Pa.) General Health — 105,888 visits*
43. Sharp Memorial Hospital (San Diego) — 105,211 visits*
44. The Mount Sinai Hospital (New York City) — 103,715 visits
45. Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (New Brunswick, N.J.) — 103,435 visits
46. NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue — 102,373 visits
47. Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center (Annapolis, Md.) — 101,455 visits
48. Newark Beth Israel Medical Center (Newark, N.J.) — 101,364 visits
49. Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center (Livingston, N.J.) — 100,389 visits
50. Yale New Haven (Conn.) Hospital, York Street Campus — 100,068 visits
51. Northside Hospital Gwinnett (Lawrenceville, Ga.) — 99,929 visits
52. NewYork-Presbyterian Queens (Flushing, N.Y.) — 98,626 visits
53. Rochester (N.Y.) General Hospital — 96,885 visits
54. ECU Health Medical Center (Greenville, N.C.) — 96,741 visits*
55. NYC Health + Hospitals/Queens — 95,842 visits
56. NYC Health + Hospitals/South Brooklyn Health — 95,156 visits
57. Pomona (Calif.) Valley Hospital Medical Center — 95,108 visits
58. UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central (Colorado Springs, Colo.) — 94,487 visits*
59. Children’s Medical Center Dallas — 93,840 visits
60. Nicklaus Children’s Hospital (Miami) — 92,413 visits
61. Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center (Neptune, N.J.) — 91,745 visits
62. NYC Health + Hospitals/Harlem — 89,305 visits
63. Sharp Chula Vista (Calif.) Medical Center — 89,131 visits*
64. Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (Torrance, Calif.) — 87,792 visits
65. MultiCare Yakima Memorial Hospital (Yakima, Wash.) — 86,178 visits
66. NYC Health + Hospitals/Woodhull — 83,193 visits

The post 66 hospitals with the most ED visits in 2025 appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Two-thirds of workplace leaders cite meetings as the No. 1 thing they spend too much time on, according to a Feb. 10 Korn Ferry article.

The figure stems from surveys of executives from Fortune and Korn Ferry’s 28th annual list of the World’s Most Admired Companies — on which six health systems, including Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare and King of Prussia, Pa.-based Universal Health Services, earned a spot.

To counter meeting fatigue, Korn Ferry recommends organizations set clear expectations, including ground rules for length and participation. Meeting-free Fridays and daily windows for focused work time are also common across industries.

Hospital and health system leaders shared their strategies for managing meeting load with Becker’s. Intentional time management is key, according to Cliff Wilson, president and CEO of Albuquerque, N.M.-based Lovelace Health System.

“One thing I’ve learned as a leader is that if you’re not intentional with your time, your calendar will run your day,” Mr. Wilson told Becker’s. “In a virtual‑first environment, meetings can multiply quickly, so I focus my schedule on the goals that matter most and regularly evaluate what truly drives impact.”

Mr. Wilson treats one-on-one time with direct reports as nonnegotiable, as those conversations create alignment and support.

“I also protect time with frontline team members,” he said. “Being present in our facilities provides insights you can’t get from dashboards and helps build trust with the people caring for patients every day.”

He also periodically reviews his calendar to clear out low-value or outdated commitments.

“AI has been helpful in highlighting patterns and surfacing opportunities to reclaim time for strategic work,” he said. “Intentional time management isn’t just a habit, it’s a leadership discipline.”

Other health system leaders have eliminated redundant meetings to make better use of time. For example, Bob Duncan, executive vice president and COO of Hartford-based Connecticut Children’s, told Becker’s in June that the system replaced a one-hour report-out with a focused 30-minute huddle, prioritizing key themes and next steps. Carol Dozier, CEO of North King’s Daughters’ Health in Madison, Ind., also consolidated meetings to make better use of leaders’ time.

“Combining topics has enhanced the meeting content so we feel we have more meaningful discussions with different perspectives,” Ms. Dozier said.

The post How health system leaders combat ‘meeting overload’ appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Nearly half of hospital executives said patient experience is their top priority for the next two years, according to a recent survey. However, scores have steadily declined since 2019.

In 2020, 14% of executives said patient experience was their top strategic initiative. In 2025, that rose to 49%. However, patients’ “likelihood to recommend” scores have declined 2.2 points since 2019 — the only setting to see a decline. The corresponding scores have improved 2.8 points for medical practices, 1.7 points for ASCs and 0.5 points for emergency departments.

Becker’s asked nine leaders what levers hospitals can pull this year to have the greatest impact on patient experience. A single theme emerged: clear communication with patients.

Note: Responses have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Jen Bayersdorfer. Chief Quality Officer at Providence St. Joseph Health (Renton, Wash.): The single greatest lever hospitals can pull is making coordination of care reliable and visible at the bedside. When patients clearly understand who is caring for them, what the plan is, what happens next and how transitions will occur, experience improves across multiple domains simultaneously, including nurse communication, discharge information, care transitions and overall rating. Standardizing practices such as bedside shift report, interdisciplinary rounding, purposeful hourly rounding and proactive discharge planning creates consistency in the patient journey rather than isolated service behaviors. This is all possible with a renewed focus on team-based, human-centered care.

Theresa Brennan, MD. Chief Medical Officer at University of Iowa Health Care (Iowa City): It is important to clarify the connection between patient experience, staff engagement and quality outcomes. This shifts the conversation toward measurable results rather than perception alone. We know that higher staff engagement and a strong culture of safe, high-quality care are directly associated with better patient satisfaction. 

An exceptional patient experience happens when everyone involved in a patient’s care consistently communicates clearly and leads with empathy. Given the complexity of care, many people interact with patients during their encounters. Getting everyone on the healthcare team aligned with the patient’s needs and these expectations of every patient, every time, can be a challenge. There is increasing recognition of the impact patient experience has on overall quality outcomes, making it a priority for improvement efforts. Across the country, organizations are implementing operational changes such as structured bedside handoffs and nurse leader rounding to strengthen communication and enhance the patient experience.

Chris Cable, MD. Clinical Lead for Risant Health (District of Columbia): Across the healthcare industry, patients encounter significant variability in emergency department boarding times based on when they seek care — what day of the week or what week of the year they happen to need our help. This cannot be the case if we want our patients to have the best experience and outcomes in our hospitals.

Risant Health is focused on eliminating inconsistency in ED boarding and is already making progress with our Care Without Delay system. By adjusting how we do things behind the scenes, like staffing plans and rounding routines, we can make a big impact on how patients move into, through and out of our emergency departments. Not only is this a major driver of patient experience, we also know from evidence that quality outcomes are higher when patients spend less time waiting in the ED and more time in the hospital, where a full array of services are available. Since implementing Care Without Delay at Geisinger Community Medical Center a year ago, ED boarding hours have decreased by 55%, or more than 5,600 hours per month compared with the baseline.

Flavia Diaz-Hays, MSN, APRN. Vice President of Quality and Patient Safety at El Paso (Texas) Children’s Hospital: The biggest lever that hospitals can pull this year to improve patient experience is doubling down on the reliability and consistency of communication throughout the patient’s journey. In our opinion, patient experience boils down to how informed, respected and emotionally connected patients and families feel during their care journey. Of course clinical outcomes matter, but often patients and families determine if they received high-quality care by if the staff listened to them, explained things in a way that they could understand, and worked together like a team. If hospitals hardwire the discipline of standardized interdisciplinary bedside rounding, leader visibility and service recovery done in real time, we can create much more reliable and consistent experiences for our patients and families. When we focus less on “Is Sally a good communicator?” and more on “Did we communicate with Sally at the expected times throughout her stay?” we will see patient trust and experience increase.

There are a few things that have changed that allow us to leverage improvement in patient experience: 1) We, as executives and board members, understand that patient experience is not a variable to safety and quality — it is safety and quality. 2) We have real-time data available to us now to identify gaps in experience and intervene before they become system problems. 3) We are investing more than ever in our workforce to understand that employee engagement directly correlates to patient experience. 4) We are embracing high reliability principles, leadership rounding and accountability structures that force us to focus on the patient experience as part of our daily operations.

Alexander Greengold. Senior Vice President and Chief Consumer Experience Officer at Memorial Hermann Health System (Houston): When hospitals make the patient experience predictable, transparent and human, trust follows. At Memorial Hermann, we see the strongest impact from “ease of visit” behaviors like clear arrival guidance, proactive communication and consistent follow-through. By combining AI, real-time operational data and a deep understanding of the patient journey, we’re shifting from reacting to problems after they occur to predicting and preventing them. 

Historically, the patient experience was treated as a survey score rather than an operational system. Feedback arrived weeks or months after the encounter — far too late to drive meaningful change — while accountability was fragmented, with no clear owner of the end-to-end journey. Experience improvement is more achievable now because data and technology have finally converged at the point of care. Hospitals can combine operational, digital and experience signals — not just lagging surveys — to predict dissatisfaction and intervene in real time, during the stay, rather than after the fact. At the same time, digital tools such as mobile check-in, real-time messaging, smart rooms and integrated rounding dashboards are embedded directly into care workflows, allowing teams to remove friction. At Memorial Hermann, this has enabled a shift from reactive service recovery to predictive, system-level experience design — allowing us to focus on the moments that matter most and scaling what works across our care delivery sites.

Lorie Rhine, MSN, RN. Chief Nursing Executive at UNC Health (Chapel Hill, N.C.): The most powerful lever is integrating patient experience with safety and quality, treating them as inseparable outcomes of reliable care. At UNC Health, our goal is to establish 100% trust with our patients, just as we strive for zero harm. When patients consistently feel safe, heard and cared for, their experience improves naturally.

At UNC Health, progress has accelerated through our proprietary care delivery model, Carolina Care, and the implementation of a standardized Nursing Bundle focused on safety and reliability. This bundle includes consistent interval nursing rounds, patient-engaged bedside report, and nurse and hospital leader rounding. Through these practices, nurses and leaders intentionally convey a clear message of safety and presence to patients. We support this work with standardized tools, leader education and clear accountability processes to ensure high fidelity across the system. Importantly, we measure not only process adherence through observation and validation, but also patient perception. We assess whether patients experience these safety-focused practices through nursing bundle questions on the HCAHPS survey and have recently added a systemwide patient-reported safety question to better understand whether patients feel safe while in our care.

Kristie Rozands, BSN, RN. Senior Director of Operations at Manning Family Children’s (New Orleans): The biggest lever for patient experience is communication with patients and families. Hospitals must ensure that families understand how to navigate the hospital environment, including outpatient services, inpatient care, diagnostic testing, discharge planning and billing processes. Clear, proactive communication reduces anxiety, builds trust and improves overall satisfaction. When families feel informed and supported, their experience improves — even during complex or stressful situations.

Historically, patient experience improvement has relied heavily on survey feedback. Many  families are overwhelmed after hospitalization and may choose not to complete surveys,  resulting in low response rates. This limits actionable data and often delays identification of communication gaps. Hospitals now have better tools, data visibility and structured processes to proactively engage families rather than relying solely on post-discharge surveys. By standardizing communication expectations and reinforcing accountability across teams, meaningful improvement is more attainable than ever.

Maureen Sullivan, BSN, RN. Vice President of Patient Experience and Service Excellence at MetroHealth (Cleveland): We lost some ground in consistently demonstrating our best practices [for patient experience] during the pandemic, and it takes time, focus and sustained effort to rebuild them. At MetroHealth, we’ve seen patients respond positively to our human‑centered training, particularly the emphasis on empathy. For example, historically the emergency department has been one of the most challenging care settings to consistently exceed patient expectations, and we’ve seen a steady improvement that has been sustained for the past year. What has made the greatest impact, however, is the commitment of clinical leadership to fostering a culture of excellence and accountability. This focus supports not only exceptional care for patients but also a positive, engaging and supportive environment for the staff who deliver that care.

Barbara Vazquez, DNP, RN. Chief Nursing Officer for Christus Children’s Hospital (San Antonio): The biggest opportunity we have right now is to give our caregivers more time to be fully present with patients and families. Competing demands such as documentation, technology, operational pressures often pull caregivers away from the bedside. Even the most dedicated team can struggle to deliver the kind of calm, consistent communication families deserve when the system makes it hard to do so. When nurses and care teams can slow down enough to listen, explain, and connect, everything about the experience improves. It’s not a new idea, but it’s the one that consistently makes the most meaningful difference.

The post The next phase of patient experience appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Six health systems were featured on Fortune and Korn Ferry’s 28th annual list of the World’s Most Admired Companies.

The list, published Jan. 21, is based on surveys of executives, directors and financial analysts who rated companies on nine criteria, including talent attraction, management quality, product quality and social responsibility. Fortune and Korn Ferry began with 1,500 companies, narrowed the field to the highest-revenue organizations and selected the top half of performers across 51 industries for the final list.

Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare made the list for the 12th consecutive year and ranked No. 1 in its category, according to a Feb. 26 health system news release shared with Becker’s.

Here are the health systems operating acute care hospitals that were featured in the medical facilities category, along with their category rank:

1. HCA Healthcare (Nashville, Tenn.)

2. Universal Health Services (King of Prussia, Pa.)

4. Encompass Health (Birmingham, Ala.)

5. Tenet Healthcare (Dallas)

11. Ardent Health (Brentwood, Tenn.)

12. Community Health Systems (Franklin, Tenn.)

The post 6 health systems land on Fortune’s most-admired companies list appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Hospitals are reaching a breaking point as demand and competition for healthcare workers pushes wages ever higher.

Labor and expenses per calendar day grew 5% from 2024 to 2025, and 12% from 2022, according to Kaufman Hall’s “National Hospital Flash Report” and the growth may not be done. Fitch forecasts staffing costs will rise in the mid-single-digit rates, while medical professional fees could increase by around 10%, a change from last year’s tailwinds as health systems reduced reliance on temporary staffing. The pressure stems from a fundamental tension: increased competition for a finite pool of qualified workers, compounded by a generational shift in workforce expectations, is forcing hospitals to rethink their compensation strategy from the ground up.

Nowhere is that rethinking more visible than in California, where legislation passed in 2024 raised the minimum wage for healthcare workers to $25, phased in over three years. The mandate doesn’t just affect entry-level roles; it elevates the pay scale for positions throughout the system, creating a cascade effect that strains already tight budgets.

For hospitals, especially rural and community organizations operating on thin margins, the pressure is spurring a search for new revenue-adding services and more creative ways to make ends meet.

“One of the most pressing workforce challenges we anticipate in 2026 is the continued increase in mandated minimum wages for healthcare workers in California,” said Marie Langley, CEO of Desert Valley Medical Group in Victorville, Calif. “While raising wages are necessary to keep pace with the region’s escalating cost of living and to provide meaningful opportunities for individuals entering the workforce, they also create significant wage compression for experienced staff who have invested years in developing their skills and expertise.”

Ms. Langley said the salary increases impact almost all entry-level positions and create a complex challenge for leadership to balance fairness, retention and morale for the more tenured employees. She also sees compensation expectations shifting and the pressure mounts as professional reimbursement rates stagnate or decline.

“To address this, we are proactively reviewing compensation structures, investing in career progression and professional development opportunities and identifying operational efficiencies to help offset rising labor expenses,” she said. “Our goal is to remain competitive, equitable and financially sustainable while continuing to support and invest in our workforce.”

California hospitals aren’t the only ones giving steep pay increases. In the last year, Becker’s recorded 44 hospitals and health systems that increased pay for some or all employees in clinical and non-clinical roles. In January, Charlotte, N.C.-based Advocate Health reported investing $776 million in workforce compensation this year, including a unified $18.85 minimum wage across all hospitals. Renton, Wash.-based Providence also committed $600 million in merit and market adjustments for staff this year as part of a strategic overview.

Jenny Collopy, vice president and chief marketing and communications officer of The Christ Hospital Health Network in Cincinnati, sees a growing disconnect between the cost of care delivery and what hospitals are paid for care.

“Wages for healthcare workers must continue to increase so team members can keep up with inflation, support their families and manage the rising cost of living,” she said. “At the same time, inflation continues to outpace what payers are willing to reimburse for healthcare services. That imbalance puts real pressure on health systems and forces difficult tradeoffs.”

The Christ Hospital is making adjustments through the Forward 2.0 operational improvement plan, focused on improving performance, eliminating inefficiencies and redesigning care so our teams can work at the top of their license. Then, the organization can reinvest in the workforce without negatively impacting access or quality of care.

The hospital’s Team Member Value Proposition focuses on ensuring team members have “everything it takes for everyone to thrive.”

“That means creating an environment where team members feel valued, have clear pathways for growth and mobility, are recognized and rewarded for excellence, and feel genuinely connected to our mission,” said Ms. Collopy. “Building a strong culture of engagement and loyalty is one of the most important drivers of retention, and it’s a commitment we take seriously as we navigate the workforce challenges ahead.”

Hiring healthcare workers is more competitive; health systems are investing in education pipelines, but that takes time and organizations are seeing an immediate need to increase compensation packages to maintain or expand access to care today. Physicians and nurses entering the workforce are seeking additional schedule flexibility, faster career growth tracks and more work-life balance.

Erika Werner, MD, president of the physician organization at Boston-based Tufts Medical Center, said historically hospitals expected 50-plus hour work weeks that could stretch all seven days of the week, and clinicians requested less time off for illness or family leave. In the academic setting, research and committee work were performed outside regular hours and considered “privileged pursuits.”

That’s not the case today.

“Not only are new hires challenging these historic healthcare norms, but seasoned clinicians are seeking culture change as they see their age-matched peers in other professions having increased schedule flexibility,” said Dr. Werner. “While this evolution has enormous potential to result in a happier, healthier workforce, reductions in clinician effort without congruent decreases in compensation risk further increases in labor costs, the main driver of ever escalating healthcare costs. Our health system is navigating these competing interests through honest, direct discussions between clinicians and administrators.”

The clinical and administrative leaders are developing a framework of understanding about how clinical and non-clinical time drives healthcare forward and delivers value. Together, the group is increasing transparency about the value of future investments.

“We are evolving our employment model so that clinicians can titrate time and compensation to best fit their individual needs,” said Dr. Werner. “Only with partnership, transparency and flexibility can we meet workforce and financial demands of 2026 and beyond.”

The post What’s next for hospital wages? appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

For many chief medical information officers, technology investments are no longer framed solely as operational upgrades. Increasingly, they are being discussed in the context of clinician recruitment, retention and burnout mitigation.

Becker’s asked CMIOs whether EHR platforms and newer AI tools are influencing their ability to attract and retain clinicians — and whether those technologies are making a measurable difference in workforce stability.

Several leaders pointed first to documentation burden and inbox overload as defining pressure points.

“Our EHR and newer AI tools are increasingly important to both recruiting and retention because they influence what matters most to clinicians in their daily work: time spent on documentation, inbox overload and how easily teams can work together,” said Usman Akhtar, MD, CMIO of VHC Health in Arlington, Va.

That emphasis on documentation time has fueled rapid expansion of ambient AI tools across health systems. At Norfolk, Va.-based Sentara Health, for example, leaders piloted a large language model to generate discharge summaries using episode-of-care data — a project that required retraining to eliminate early hallucinations before scaling systemwide. After rollout across 12 acute facilities, adoption surpassed 75%, driven largely by physicians who said the tool gave them meaningful time back.

For Joseph Evans, MD, vice president and chief health information officer at Sentara, those types of deployments now shape recruitment conversations.

“Our technology strategy has shifted from a purely operational focus to a primary lever for retention, where candidates now view relentless devotion to human-centered design and EHR usability as a proxy for how we value clinician time,” he said.

He added that ambient intelligence has rapidly evolved from novelty to “table stakes” as clinicians seek to minimize after-hours charting and administrative friction.

Other CMIOs said clinicians are watching not just for AI adoption, but for sustained signals that leadership understands burnout at a structural level.

“When physicians see a credible commitment to reducing inbox burden, streamlining workflows and reinvesting reclaimed time into patient care, it signals that leadership understands burnout and is willing to act on it,” said Amer Saati, MD, CMIO at Roseville, Calif.-based Adventist Health.

In some cases, that signal begins with infrastructure decisions rather than advanced AI. Adventist Health committed to a systemwide Epic transition in 2024 after a multiyear evaluation, underscoring how EHR environment and workflow cohesion are increasingly treated as strategic levers.

At Valley Health System in Paramus, N.J., clinician frustration with fragmented data and manual reconciliation prompted a move toward a unified platform.

“This decision was based on overwhelming feedback from our clinicians, who have been struggling with multiple sources of clinical data and having to manually reconcile data from within our own network each time they open a patient’s chart,” said CMIO K. Nadeem Ahmed, MD.

“It is unclear how this may help retain or attract clinicians; however, we are confident it will improve the overall experience for all our healthcare professionals in providing high-quality care to our patients,” he said.

Valley Health System’s broader digital strategy has also tied technology investments to measurable clinical outcomes. Its new hospital’s smart rooms integrate EHR data with AI-powered fall prevention alerts, reducing falls by 10% to 30% during pilot phases — an operational improvement leaders say reduces staff disruption and workflow strain.

CMIOs described a consistent pattern: Clinicians are evaluating employers not on whether they “have AI,” but on whether digital tools tangibly reduce cognitive load. Adoption rates, workflow integration and measurable time savings matter more than feature launches.

In that environment, technology investments are becoming less about innovation branding and more about daily usability — visible evidence that leadership is attempting to restore time to patient care.

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One in 5 children aged 2 to 19 in the U.S. are living with obesity, marking the highest rate ever recorded, according to newly published data from the CDC.

The agency published two reports Feb. 25 examining obesity prevalence in the U.S. — one focused on children and adolescents and another on adults 20 and older. The estimates are based on measured height and weight data collected through the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between August 2021 and August 2023.

Five things to know:

1. About 21.1% of children and teenagers ages 2 to 19 are living with obesity, including 7% with severe obesity, according to the new data. By comparison, during the 1971-1974 survey cycle, 5.2% of children had obesity and 1% had severe obesity, underscoring the sharp rise over the past five decades.

2. Nearly 23% of adolescents ages 12 to 19 were classified as having obesity in the most recent survey, the highest prevalence among pediatric age groups. Among children ages 2 to 5, 14.9% were classified as obese.

3. About 40.3% of adults ages 20 and older met criteria for obesity in the 2021-2023 survey period. Of those, 9.7% had severe obesity, while 31.7% of adults were classified as overweight. The latest figure represents a substantial increase from 1988-1994, when 22.9% of adults had obesity, 2.8% had severe obesity and 33.1% were overweight.

4. In 2017-2018, 42.4% of adults were classified as having obesity — the highest level ever recorded in the survey. The decline to 40.3% in the most recent cycle suggests the rapid rise seen in earlier decades may be slowing, though experts told ABC News it is too early to determine whether the shift represents a sustained downward trend.

5. Public health experts say a combination of factors could be contributing to the leveling off among adults, including increased awareness of nutrition and physical activity, policy interventions and the growing use of GLP-1 drugs. 

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Proposed changes to federal student loans threaten to shrink the nursing workforce when we can least afford it.

Our nation is in the throes of a health care crisis, and we should be doing everything possible to support nurses and attract new ones to the profession. Yet, the Department of Education has officially proposed new rules that will limit access to federal loans for graduate education and exclude nursing from a list of “professional degree” programs eligible for higher financial support. This proposal risks making our crisis even worse.

By 2028, the U.S. is expected to be short more than 100,000 health care workers needed to provide essential care. Simultaneously, health care demand is accelerating due to an aging population and the growing prevalence of chronic diseases. This growing gap between workforce supply and patient need is already straining Americans’ access to timely, quality care.

If adopted, this change would sharply limit federal loan amounts and loan forgiveness pathways for post-baccalaureate nurses including our Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (APRNs), our nurse faculty, nurse leaders, researchers, scientists and other frontline providers. It’s a misguided move that would hurt not only current and future nurses, but patients and families across the country – at the exact moment our country can least afford it. 

The Department of Education’s definition of “professional degree” for these loan caps includes disciplines we’d all expect and support: medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, optometry, and law, to name a few. Yet somehow, their approach overlooks nursing – even though nurses are, in many instances, the sole providers of essential health care services for patients and communities.

If federal policymakers leave nursing off the list of “professional degree,” nurses pursuing master’s or doctoral degrees would have access to roughly half as much federal student loan aid as other recognized professional degrees. Post-baccalaureate nursing students’ aggregate borrowing will be capped at $100,000, compared to $200,000 for degrees deemed professional. The annual borrowing limit would be just $20,500 for nursing, compared to $50,000 for recognized professional degrees. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, graduate nursing programs cost an average of more than $33,000 per year, already exceeding the proposed federal cap. Recent studies also show the average cost to be closer to $38,542. Many nurses interested in pursuing advanced roles and leadership positions will either be priced out of this educational pathway or will have to take out private loans which have higher interest rates. It also creates barriers, not only for nurses from rural, underserved or low-income backgrounds, but for the patients that rely on high-quality nursing care in communities across the country. 

Each year, thousands of nurses depend on federal student loans to pursue advanced degrees to become nurse practitioners, certified registered nurse anesthetists, certified nurse midwives and clinical nurse specialists. These professionals are essential to broadening access to primary care, supporting rural hospitals and ensuring the stability of the health care workforce.

The ripple effects extend even further. In 2024 alone, U.S. nursing schools had 1,693 full-time faculty vacancies. Imposing these graduate loan caps would only deepen this faculty shortage by discouraging nurses from earning the degrees required to teach our next generation of nurses. We desperately need more new nurses entering the field. Without them the consequences will be evident across every setting where patients seek health care. 

In a recent letter to the Department of Education, a bipartisan, bicameral group of more than 140 lawmakers urged the inclusion of nursing on the list of professional degrees eligible for full federal loan benefits, emphasizing the field’s critical contribution to the health care system. And more than 245,000 nurses and patients across the country have signed our petition calling on the Department of Education to reverse course.This is not just a trivial policy change. It will have enormous consequences, not only for the nursing profession but for all of us who will need nurses’ care. The Department of Education public comment period is now open. We urge all Americans, who have relied on the care of our nation’s nurses, to submit comments to regulations.gov urging the Department of Education to include post-baccalaureate nursing degrees (MSN, DNP, Ph.D.) explicitly in the list of “professional degrees.”  Our nation’s health depends on it.

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