News

Hospitals are increasingly seeking out new financial arrangements for energy management, transitioning capital expenditures into operating expenses, according to a report from Moody’s Investor Services.

“Hospitals and health systems are embracing [Energy as a Service] models to address aging utility infrastructure, enhance energy efficiency and support sustainability initiatives,” the report notes. “EaaS arrangements typically involve long-term partnerships with third-party providers who design, build, finance, operate and maintain energy systems. These models require limited upfront capital investment, allowing institutions to redirect financial resources while gaining access to modern energy technologies and expertise.”

Five takeaways from the report:

1. More health systems are choosing to outsource building maintenance and upgrades because there are predictable operating costs in the outsourced contracts as compared to owning the infrastructure outright.

2. The outsourcing strategy provides improved energy efficiency and lower upfront costs for hospitals, in addition to advanced technologies for energy management. Hospitals can avoid large capital expenditures as a result.

3. Some health systems are using EaaS to make progress on green and sustainability goals to reduce their carbon footprint.

4. Moody’s predicts hospitals will further deploy alternative energy sources to align their financial and sustainability goals.

5. EaaS does have some incremental costs and rigidity, which could lead to higher financing expenses for health systems as compared to traditional debt.

“The credit impact of EaaS projects will vary over time, depending on provider guarantees and financial strength,” the report notes. “As health systems continue to modernize and pursue sustainability, EaaS models are likely to play an increasingly important role, though institutions will need to carefully assess the long-term financial and operational implications of these arrangements.”

The post Hospital rethink energy infrastructure spend: 5 notes appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Readmission penalties for hospitals with greater Medicare Advantage penetration are distorted, possibly due to unobserved severity, according to a University of Michigan of Ann Arbor study published Jan. 22 in JAMA Network Open.

CMS’s Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program is a value-based initiative designed to deter readmissions and promote patient and caregiver engagement with discharge plans.

The researchers evaluated Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program data across fiscal years 2019 to 2022, focusing on six conditions targeted by the program: acute myocardial infarction, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart failure, pneumonia, coronary artery bypass graft surgery, and elective primary total hip or knee arthroplasty. The study encompassed 3,203 hospitals.

Here are four notes from the research:

1. After accommodating for MA penetration, estimates suggested hospitals in the first quintile of Medicare Advantage penetration were penalized $30,746 more on average versus those in the fifth quintile, which were penalized $26,915 less.

2. Peer grouping, or comparing hospitals to only similar ones, did not resolve the penalty differences.

3. Average MA penetration increased from 25.3% to 29.9% throughout the studied timeframe. 

4. Unobserved severity — patient well-being factors that may not present in claims data — could be one issue in the program. Risk adjustment may not account for every indicator of patient status. “Because MA beneficiaries are unobservably healthier than traditional Medicare counterparts on average, hospitals with greater MA beneficiary shares likely have unobservably higher-severity TM populations,” the paper said.

The post Hospital readmission penalties shift based on Medicare Advantage penetration: Study appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

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

That is a question Craig Cheifetz, MD, president of Inova Health System’s primary care service line, is working through alongside a clinical council at the Fairfax, Va.-based system. 

Inova is approaching the patient access issue from several angles, including shared medical visits, e-consults, primary care walk-in clinics and plans for an after-hours virtual clinic.

Improving access to care could also be done through hiring more people and building more care facilities, but there is another, less expensive approach, according to Dr. Cheifetz, who has worked at Inova for about 29 years. 

For months, Dr. Cheifetz and the clinical council have discussed the idea of changing follow-up discharge orders based on each patient’s needs. The usual “follow up in one week” discharge order is more of a reflex than a national or organizational guideline, he said. 

As president of the system’s primary care service line, he oversees approximately 330 primary care physicians and advanced practice providers at 30 primary care clinics in Northern Virginia. A constant frustration that reaches his ears is around the routine “follow up in one week” order.

“If a very busy emergency room for the majority of time says, ‘Follow up with primary care in one week,’ those who really need it are going to be struggling against those who may not need it,” Dr. Cheifetz said. 

Similar to triage in emergency medicine, it could be beneficial to examine a patient’s readmission risk, condition and other factors to determine the appropriate timeline for a follow-up. If everyone receives the same time frame of one week, it clogs the system and sets an impossible goal.

“If the patient’s medical situation stipulates they need that [one week] follow up, that makes complete sense,” he said. “But we’re talking specifically about chronic, stable follow up, not somebody who has a changing situation.”

Shifting the cadence of follow-up discharge orders can create capacity for new patients and higher acuity cases by breaking the routine of writing “follow up in three months” orders for chronic, stable cases, Dr. Cheifetz said.

For example, if there are Type 2 diabetes patients who are seen every three months but can be safely moved to a four-month follow-up cadence, capacity opens up. 

“As I go out there and talk to folks, all I’m saying to them is, ‘I’m not getting on a soapbox and saying anybody’s wrong,’” he said. “I’m saying, ‘Look at your data to determine if you have capacity that won’t impact your patients or your clinical outcomes.’ So you can say it’s a hypothesis, but it’s a hypothesis that we can watch carefully in healthcare.”

Inova is in the education and technology phase of the idea, Dr. Cheifetz said. The system is working to build algorithms to educate and prompt providers to ask themselves, What is the appropriate follow-up timing for this patient? Does this patient need to be seen in seven days, or can they be seen in 14 days? 

“We’re naturally increasing capacity, without hiring more people and without building more sites and potentially [being] able to get people in sooner,” Dr. Cheifetz said. “This is just a piece to our strategy playbook to try to enhance access.”

The post Is ‘follow up in 1 week’ costing health systems capacity? appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

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

Below are job eliminations announced in 2026.

Editor’s note: This webpage was created Jan. 23 and will be continually updated.

January

Pomona (Calif.) Valley Hospital Medical Center shared plans to eliminate 265 positions amid significant state and federal funding cuts. The 427-bed nonprofit community medical center said the cuts affect management, clinical and nonclinical roles, including seven registered nurses. 

Ogdensburg, N.Y.-based North Star Health Alliance shared plans to eliminate more than 100 positions across its clinical and nonclinical and management teams. The health system comprises Carthage (N.Y.) Area Hospital, Ogdensburg, N.Y.-based Claxton-Hepburn Medical Center and Medical Campus, and Watertown, N.Y.-based North Country Orthopaedic Group, according to its website. 

Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health is transitioning certain nonpatient-facing revenue cycle functions to an external partner, resulting in a 10.5% reduction in positions across the department, the health system confirmed in a statement shared with Becker’s. The health system, which has about 133,000 employees across 25 states, declined to provide further details, including how many employees will be affected.

The post The hospitals, health systems cutting jobs in 2026 appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Hospitals and healthcare facilities are rescheduling appointments, stocking up on medical supplies and coordinating with maintenance crews before a brutal winter storm sweeps across two-thirds of the U.S.

The National Weather Service expects a “significant, long-duration winter storm” to travel across the country, starting in the Southwest on Jan. 23 to the Northeast by Jan. 25. 

Heavy snow, “catastrophic ice accumulation” and “bitterly cold temperatures and dangerously cold wind chills” will begin in the Southern Plains as the storm moves northeastward, covering the Mississippi Valley, Southeast and the Northeast. 

Snowfall will exceed 12 inches in some regions, creating hazardous travel conditions. Widespread freezing rain and sleet will likely prompt power outages and infrastructure damage, according to the National Weather Service. 

CVS and Walgreens are reminding patients to refill and pick up prescriptions as soon as possible. Walgreens also said patients with temperature-sensitive medications, such as insulin, should review storage instructions in the event of a power outage. 

Several hospitals and health systems told local news outlets they are preparing accommodations for staff, including housing and food, and setting up command centers to ensure continuity of care during dayslong power outages. 

Also in preparation for power outages, Tennova Healthcare in Knoxville, Tenn., told CBS affiliate WVLT it has secured mobile backup generators with plans to keep its hospitals and emergency departments open during the storm. 

With subfreezing temperatures and ice accumulation in Fort Worth, Texas, the city’s government has brined all roadways leading to hospitals. 

In North Carolina, health system leaders told ABC 11 their hospitals will remain open but added that operations at outpatient clinics could be limited. Employees at Durham, N.C.-based Duke University Health System have contacted some infusion and dialysis patients to reschedule appointments. 

UVA Health in Charlottesville, Va., is also rescheduling outpatient clinic appointments and nonurgent procedures. The four-hospital system is also working to discharge inpatients ahead of the storm to create more capacity, according to WVIR, an affiliate of NBC and The CW. 

In Maryland, where snow could reach between 5 and 18 inches, Annapolis-based Luminis Health is considering rescheduling elective surgeries and delaying opening outpatient centers, according to The Baltimore Banner.

The post US hospitals brace for severe winter storm appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Bainbridge, Ga.-based Memorial Hospital and Manor hopes to leverage the $50 billion federal Rural Health Transformation Program to make technology improvements, the Post-Searchlight reported.

The organization, which includes an 80-bed hospital and long-term and personal care facilities, is eligible for the $219 million that Georgia received as part of the initiative. The health system is targeting robotic and cybersecurity updates.

“Robotics is super expensive, and it’s in very limited places throughout the southeast part of Georgia,” Memorial Hospital and Manor CEO LaDon Toole told the news outlet. “If we were able to get robotics, that’d be wonderful, but it’s a very big price tag — over $2 million to have robotics in this hospital. But you’re not gonna find a surgeon in the future if you don’t invest in technology because they’ll go to other places.” 

The hospital was hit with a ransomware attack in 2024, after which it partnered with the Georgia Cyber Innovation and Training Center on a pilot program to identify its cybersecurity weaknesses, according to the Jan. 22 story. But the organization could stand to add more servers and further boost its cyber defenses.

The post Georgia hospital plans tech upgrades with rural health funding appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Goshen (Ind.) Hospital made a bold commitment in November: implementing a maximum 1-to-4 nurse-to-patient staffing ratio across all inpatient units.

The move reflects a strategic shift to reinvest funds traditionally spent on overtime and incentive pay into sustainable nurse staffing — a decision aimed at strengthening retention, improving care, and ultimately reducing costs, according to Julie Crossley, MSN, RN, the hospital’s chief nursing officer. The 1-to-4 ratio serves as an upper limit, not a blanket assignment, she said in an interview with Becker’s. Many units, such as critical care and step-down, frequently operate with fewer patients per nurse based on acuity.

Just a few months into the change, Goshen is already seeing signs that the investment is paying off. Some veteran nurses who had been weighing retirement say they now plan to stay longer, and early indicators point to improved patient care and stronger staff engagement.

Becker’s recently spoke with Ms. Crossley about what prompted the hospital to act now, how leaders determined the 1-to-4 threshold, and what early outcomes suggest about the sustainability of the model.

Question: What made now the right time for this decision, and what internal or external signals prompted action?

Julie Crossley: We identified an opportunity to redirect funds previously spent on overtime and incentive pay; to invest in staffing through improved nurse-to-patient ratios. This strategy will help us create a sustainable and supportive professional practice environment. The return on this investment is through improved patient outcomes and lower turnover costs. Attracting and retaining nursing talent is fundamental to achieve organizational priorities.

Q: How did you determine that a 1:4 ratio was the optimal threshold for both patient safety and nurse sustainability at Goshen? Were there specific clinical outcomes or workforce indicators that influenced this choice?

JC: Research demonstrates the strongest predictor of patient safety and highest quality of care, is safe nurse-to-patient ratios. And the reality is, that the work nurses are tasked with today is incredibly challenging. Over the last 27 years, I have watched the growing demands placed on nurses leading to record numbers of burnout in the profession.

Seasoned nurses are leaving at rates that are faster than the schools of nursing can prepare new grads. Addressing manageable workloads improves nurse well-being and strengthens our workforce, which will lead us to that highest quality of care. We have always had great staffing as a Magnet organization. This workforce strategy is a bold commitment to have the best staffing in our region. We expect this to not only attract but also retain nursing talent. Through data analysis and benchmarking, we determined one to four patient ratios was the commitment level necessary. And based on the inquiries and phone calls I have received from across the state, the reaction suggests one to four was the right decision.

Q: What was the most significant barrier you and your leadership team faced in putting this into practice? How did you work through it?

JC: Our analysis and planning determined that this was the appropriate strategy for Goshen Health. If you want different outcomes, different approaches are necessary. The barrier we face is filling the handful of open positions to have the necessary workforce to achieve one to four or less everyday. Through our successful recruiting, I expect the barrier to be addressed soon. 

Q: Many hospitals voice concern that strict staffing ratios can be financially unsustainable or misaligned with flexible, team-based models of care. What is your response to those who say staffing ratios are too rigid for today’s care delivery landscape?

JC: Our analysis confirmed that this strategy was really one that was cost effective. It’s redirecting funds that we have historically been spending on incentive pay, traveler costs, overtime — all associated with the workforce. By doing this and strengthening our staffing ratios, we’re going to be more cost effective in the long run. What healthcare organization right now is not looking to be cost effective?

We expect a healthier work environment, improvements in quality of patient care, patient experience and nurse well-being. A strong workforce positively impacts the outcomes a healthcare organization is trying to achieve. Investing differently will lead Goshen to achieving and sustaining those outcomes. I am excited to see some of the early signs, validating this was the right strategy for us.

I understand the comments about rigidity with staffing ratios. I believe healthcare organizations face challenges and must determine their individual approach with the resources they have. For Goshen, the analysis was very clear. 

Q: What early signs or feedback have you received since the shift — from nurses, patients, or other care team members?

JC: At the end of the day, when nurses care for fewer patients, patients have better care. Staffing is about giving that individualized care that patients deserve, and creating this environment where nurses can thrive. I can tell you that we’ve already seen some pretty positive outcomes since we’ve made this move. Naturally, when you increase the number of nurses, you improve outcomes. To name a few, I’ve walked these halls, and some of the seasoned nurses were telling me leading up to this decision that they were not sure that they could continue with the workload as it is today. Following this announcement, those seasoned nurses shared with me that they were considering retirement, and now they plan to stay longer. That is significant, especially when you look at the experience complexity gap that exists within healthcare today. Retaining seasoned nurses is huge.

Initially, we have experienced some other positive changes. Adherence to bedside reporting has improved, leading to a better patient experience. We have noted fewer call lights in the hospital environment, and observe more patients being walked in the halls. When you think about nurse sensitive indicators like falls and HAPIs, changes in progressive mobility have positive effects on quality of care and length of stay. We have seen improved communication and engagement in safety huddles and colleagues are leaving their shifts on time, decreasing overtime and improving work-life balance. These changes are improving our outcomes on all levels, organizationally, for the patient and the nursing colleagues. 

Q: Earning Magnet with Distinction reflects excellence across many domains. Of all the elements that had to be “done well” for Goshen Hospital to achieve that honor, what’s one area you’d point to as exceptionally strong or defining for Goshen’s nursing culture?

JC: I believe we were the fifth organization to have received that level of distinction. Our culture is built on the foundation of empowering our colleagues through a program which we call ‘The Uncommon Leader.’ The underpinnings of that recognize that colleagues who are closest to the work can identify opportunities for improvement — improvement in many of our pillars.

At Goshen, the uncommon leader culture provides the foundation for our strong professional governance structure in nursing. Colleagues are empowered to shape the decisions that truly influence their clinical practice. Nurses own their professional practice, and have the opportunity to drive improvements around quality, satisfaction and work environment. 

The post Why one hospital set a 1:4 cap on nurse-to-patient ratios appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

In 2024, private industry employers in the U.S. reported 2.5 million nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses, down 3.1% from the previous year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Jan. 22. 

Nonfatal recordable workplace injuries and illnesses include cases with days away from work, job restriction or transfer, along with other recordable cases.

In 2024, private industry employers in the healthcare and social assistance sector reported 553,800 nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses, the third highest among sectors. The rate of nonfatal injury or illness per 100 FTE workers was 3.4 in 2024, down from 3.6 in 2023.

Here is a breakdown of private industry nonfatal workplace injuries and illnesses within healthcare:

Ambulatory health care services — 133,300

• Offices of physicians — 42,600
• Offices of dentists — 10,900
• Offices of other health practitioners — 11,100
• Outpatient care centers — 30,500
• Medical and diagnostic laboratories — 7,200
• Home healthcare services — 18,100
• Other ambulatory healthcare services — 12,700
  • Ambulance services — 8,500

Hospitals — 216,000

• General medical and surgical hospitals — 199,900
• Psychiatric and substance abuse hospitals — 7,800
• Specialty hospitals — 8,300

Nursing and residential care facilities — 141,600

• Skilled nursing facilities — 71,500
• Residential mental health and substance abuse facilities — 24,000
• Assisted living and continuing care retirement communities — 39,700
• Other residential care facilities — 6,400

The post Healthcare workplace injuries, by setting appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Emory Healthcare refurbished its brand identity Jan. 21 across Atlanta and Central Georgia, according to a health system news release shared with Becker’s.

Seven things to know:

1. Emory Healthcare is an academic health system with 11 hospitals and provider locations across Georgia. Its network is the largest academically based, clinically integrated network in the state, with more than 3,800 physicians across more than 580 provider locations, according to its website.

2. Emory Healthcare said the refreshed look “reflects the strength of its academic roots, the humanity of its care and its vision for the future of healthcare — one defined by discovery, innovation and deep community connection.”

3. The brand expression also features a new tagline, “The frontline of care, the forefront of discovery,” which Emory believes bolsters the system’s academic and clinical positioning.

4. Emory dubbed the new brand color “innovative green,” which the health system said “symbolizes life, healing, renewal and hope.”

5. As part of the launch, Emory Healthcare also activated City Pulse, a large-scale community illumination event whereby member hospitals and clinics, as well as iconic landmarks across the Atlanta metro area and Central Georgia, were bathed in a glowing green light. The 12-hour nighttime display began at 6:30 p.m., Jan. 21, and ran through 6:30 a.m., Jan. 22.

6. In addition, Emory Healthcare introduced Aurora portals — illuminated, circular sculptural installations placed in high-visibility locations in the community.

7. In spring 2026, the health system plans to launch Breakthrough Spaces — pop-up installations across the Atlanta area designed to showcase medical innovation and engage the public.

The post Emory rejuvenates brand: 7 things to know appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Boston tops WalletHub’s 2026 ranking of the best cities for science, technology, engineering and math jobs.

The personal finance website compared 100 of the most populated U.S. metropolitan statistical areas across three dimensions: professional opportunities, STEM-friendliness and quality of life.

WalletHub evaluated those dimensions using 21 metrics, ranging from job openings for STEM graduates per capita to singles-friendliness. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with 100 representing the best job markets for STEM professionals. Each metropolitan area’s overall score is based on its weighted average across all metrics. More information about the methodology is available here.

The best cities for STEM professionals, according to the analysis:

1. Boston

2. Atlanta

3. Seattle 

4. Pittsburgh

5. Austin, Texas

6. San Francisco

7. Cincinnati

8. Salt Lake City

9. Minneapolis

10. Orlando, Fla.

The worst cities for STEM professionals, according to the analysis:

1. Cape Coral, Fla.

2. Jackson, Miss.

3. North Port, Fla.

4. Memphis, Tenn.

5. Little Rock, Ark.

6. Deltona, Fla.

7. McAllen, Texas

8. Winston-Salem, N.C.

9. Greensboro, N.C.

10. Oxnard, Calif.

The post 10 best, worst cities for STEM jobs appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Clinicians should take on a more proactive role during post-acute care transitions, according to a review published Jan. 20 in JAMA Internal Medicine. 

Researchers from University of California at San Francisco and Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania analyzed the post-acute care landscape for the review and highlighted potential opportunities for clinician involvement. 

“Clinicians should proactively recognize post-acute care needs, advocate for specific post-acute care settings for targeted situations and assist [with] selecting an appropriate post-acute care facility,” the review authors said. “Post-acute care stays represent an opportunity for clinicians to revisit prognosis with patients and caregivers, engage in goals of care conversations and clarify plans for the future.”

Read the full review here.

The post Clinicians should play bigger role in care transitions: Report appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Clinical fellows are among the fastest-growing healthcare roles in major U.S. cities, according to a Jan. 21 LinkedIn News post.

The post outlines the 10 fastest-growing jobs in 10 major metropolitan areas, five of which include a healthcare position. LinkedIn also compiled a national list of the 25 fastest-growing jobs, which included two healthcare roles. 

The lists were created by analyzing millions of jobs started by LinkedIn members between Jan. 1, 2023, and July 31, 2025, to calculate growth rates for each job title. Internships, volunteer roles, interim roles and student roles jobs were not included.

Some cities also saw growth in leadership roles commonly found within hospitals and health systems, such as human resources executives in Houston and chief information security officers in Boston and Los Angeles.

Here are the healthcare roles that landed on the city-specific lists, according to LinkedIn:

Atlanta: Clinical fellow (No. 8)

Chicago: Healthcare reimbursement specialist (No. 7)

Houston: Psychologist (No. 5), school nurse (No. 7), clinical fellow (No. 8)

Philadelphia: Medical professor (No. 3), emergency medicine physician (No. 5)

San Francisco: Medical sales representative (No. 8)

The post The fastest-growing healthcare roles in 5 US cities appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

About a year after West Texas reported a large measles outbreak, South Carolina has the most measles cases of any U.S. state so far in 2026. 

The state’s health department is counting 646 cases as of Jan. 20. Most cases are in Spartanburg County, a county in northwest South Carolina that is about 70 miles from Charlotte, N.C.

This figure far surpasses the 145 cases reported by the CDC as of Jan. 13. Some jurisdictions report probable measles cases; however, the CDC only reports confirmed cases that jurisdictions have notified to CDC.

South Carolina far exceeds other states, according to CDC data on confirmed measles cases. In 2026, eight other states have reported confirmed measles cases to the CDC: Utah with 14, Ohio (three), Florida (two), North Carolina (two), Oregon (two), Arizona (one), Georgia (one) and Virginia (one). 

There are 538 people in quarantine and 33 in isolation in South Carolina, according to the South Carolina Department of Public Health.

“We feel like we’re really kind of staring over the edge, knowing that this is about to get a lot worse,” said Johnathon Elke, MD, emergency medicine physician from Greenville, S.C.-based Prisma Health, at a Jan. 16 press briefing, according to NBC News. 

The U.S. might lose the measles elimination status it has held since 2000. The status can be removed after one year of transmission — but confirming a link between the West Texas measles outbreak in January 2025 to the measles outbreaks in South Carolina and other states in January 2026 is tricky, according to The New York Times. 

In 2025, the CDC reported 2,242 confirmed measles cases — a significant increase from 2024, which saw 285 confirmed cases. So far in 2026, the CDC has confirmed 171 measles cases.

The post With 600+ measles cases, South Carolina has largest outbreak in US appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Increased telehealth use since the pandemic has not been associated with a rise in overall healthcare utilization, according to a study at Ann Arbor-based Michigan Medicine.

The researchers analyzed 538.8 million Medicare fee-for-service outpatient office visits from January 2019 to June 2024, finding that the total number of visits stabilized or even declined slightly among patients with higher telehealth use, per the December study in Health Affairs Scholar. CMS telehealth flexibilities are set to expire Jan. 30, which would leave Medicare beneficiaries unable to access virtual care.

“One of the things that is paralyzing the policy debate is uncertainty and concern about whether covering telehealth in parity with in-person care would be associated with runaway utilization. But we don’t see that here,” said study lead author James Lee, MD, a national clinician scholar at University of Michigan’s Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation and a clinical instructor at its medical school, in a Jan. 15 news release.

While the study was limited to outpatient office visits and Medicare fee for service, the researchers noted that the findings aligned with other studies that also show that the rise in telehealth doesn’t appear to have changed overall healthcare use.

The post Telehealth doesn’t lead to ‘runaway utilization’: Michigan Medicine study appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

A renewed focus on core nursing practices at Ascension St. Vincent’s Clay County in Middleburg, Fla., led to significant gains in patient experience.

Patient feedback highlighted opportunities to improve nurse response times, communication and care team coordination, according to Chief Nursing Officer Sadie Durham, DNP, RN.

In late 2024, the hospital trained all 275 of its inpatient nurses and patient care technicians on bedside shift reporting and hourly rounding. Charge nurses underwent the training first and led change management efforts. After the training, nurse leaders directly observed staff to confirm they understood the new processes and were applying them consistently, according to a Jan. 16 news release.

Within several months, the hospital’s net promoter score increased by nearly 40 points.

“We saw double digit improvement not only in NPS but key journey points like nurse interaction and respect for time,” Dr. Durham said in a statement to Becker’s. “These improvements happened within a few short months of program implementation and have sustained through 2025.”

Ascension St. Vincent’s Clay County is a full service, 134-bed hospital that opened in 2013 and is part of St. Louis-based Ascension.

The post Nursing fundamentals boost patient experience at Ascension hospital  appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

As rural hospitals across the nation continue to face mounting financial challenges and closures, East Adams Rural Healthcare’s Ritzville (Wash.) Hospital is emerging as a success story through aggressive operational and financial changes, with hopes to become the state’s first rural emergency hospital by April 1.

“We just don’t have a big enough population to support a critical access hospital,” Todd Nida, CEO of East Adams Rural Healthcare, told Becker’s. “The rural emergency hospital will be a saving grace.”

EARH issued a WARN notice in the fall of 2025 for the potential Jan. 7 closure or bankruptcy of the hospital, but improved its financial performance to avoid the deadline. Officials there moved toward an REH model after the hospital’s board approved a 2026 budget for the transition in late November 2025.

“One of our main purposes was to make sure we were here on Jan. 7, but to also make sure we are here on Jan. 7 for the next 50 years,” East Adams CFO Viola Babcock told Becker’s. 

As of Jan. 16, the hospital still had zero days of cash on hand, with vendors that have waited around six months for payment. However, November and December financial improvements provided a strategic path forward to keep the system afloat.

Mr. Nida, who became interim CEO five months ago and now serves in a permanent role, said workforce reductions were the primary driver of financial improvement for the hospital. The hospital conducted 12 layoffs in July 2025, eight in September and will be reducing four more provider roles in January or February. 

“The largest improvement was wages and benefits,” he said. “The impact of those layoffs drove the reduction in labor and benefits showing up in our November financials, which made a big difference. Next would be the increase driven by having a company like [Tacoma, Wash.-based] MultiCare handle our billing and revenue cycle work. Their proficiency greatly increased our revenue with that move. We also made sure that we had the right people in the right positions and paid correctly to ensure that nothing was missed after the layoffs that we had to do.”

The hospital’s conversion from a CAH to an REH will also greatly improve finances, with the facility targeting April 1 for CMS’s approval.

“Once CMS starts sending us the monthly check of $283,000, your cash on hand looks much better real fast,” Ms. Babcock said. 

The REH model will let the hospital keep patients for an average of 24 hours versus a required immediate discharge, allowing for flexibility in providing community care while eliminating inpatient and swing bed services.

Transparency has also been key to EARH’s turnaround strategy. The hospital held two community forums to address concerns and outline a path forward. 

“Everything we do we talk about, and share what the next steps are,” she said. “That includes the community…whether they asked a clinical, financial or legal question, they walked away from the meetings with answers.”

EARH COO Dallas Killian, who grew up in Ritzville, said the hospital has brought on an executive chef to open a cafe for inpatients while also offering employees meals, which has boosted morale. The hospital is also implementing scanning software to track inventory and is changing its group purchasing organization to secure stronger supply discounts.

“If you mind the pennies and the dimes, the dollars will take care of themselves, so just finding every way we can save the dime,” Mr. Killian said. “It’s been a great challenge for me, which I love a good challenge, but if we pay attention to the small things, the big things will take care of themselves.”

Looking ahead, EARH has two levy votes Feb. 10 that could bring $500,000 in additional annual revenue for the facility. Hospital leadership also plans to reissue bonds in 2026 to reduce interest rates and save anywhere from $200,000 to $500,000 yearly. 

Despite EARH’s financial challenges over the years, Mr. Nida expressed optimism in serving as a model for other rural facilities that might be struggling.

“We’re hoping that by our example of enduring what we had to and persevering through it and formatting a path forward, we hope there’s a positive message to everyone out there. We hope that we can at least be a little bit of a light in that journey they can look to.” 

The post A rural Washington hospital’s roadmap to financial recovery appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

New Mexico has seen the biggest increase in ACA enrollment from 2025 to 2026, while North Carolina has seen the largest decrease, according to KFF.

The ranking below uses preliminary CMS data comparing similar periods during the 2025 and 2026 open enrollment periods. The figures do not include final enrollment totals for either year.

The 2026 data includes plan selections through Jan. 3 for federally-facilitated marketplaces and state-based marketplaces using HealthCare.gov, and through Dec. 27 for state-based marketplaces. Idaho is an exception, where open enrollment ran from Oct. 15 through Dec. 15.

The 2025 data includes plan selections through Jan. 4, 2025, for federally-facilitated marketplaces and state-based marketplaces using HealthCare.gov, and through Dec. 28, 2024, for state-based marketplaces.

As of Jan. 3, national marketplace enrollment stood at nearly 22.8 million, down about 3.5% from 2025.

States ranked by ACA enrollment change from 2025 to 2026:

1. New Mexico: 19.5%
2. District of Columbia: 9.7%
3. Texas: 6.5%
4. Maryland: 6.2%
5. Massachusetts: 5%
6. Connecticut: 3.8%
7. Louisiana: 3.4%
8. New Jersey: 3.2%
9. Idaho: 2.6%
10. California: 2.1%
11. Pennsylvania: 1.3%
12. Rhode Island: 0.9%
13. Vermont: -0.8%
14. Colorado: -0.9%
15. Illinois: -0.9%
16. Virginia: -2.1%
17. Kansas: -2.4%
18. Nevada: -2.5%
19. Arkansas: -2.6%
20. North Dakota: -3.2%
21. New York: -3.3%
22. Florida: -3.4%
23. Montana: -3.4%
24. Alabama: -3.5%
25. Hawaii: -3.6%
26. Nebraska: -4%
27. Minnesota: -4.2%
28. Michigan: -4.8%
29. Washington: -4.9%
30. New Hampshire: -5.3%
31. Wisconsin: -5.6%
32. South Dakota: -5.8%
33. Kentucky: -6.1%
34. South Carolina: -6.6%
35. Utah: -6.9%
36. Mississippi: -7%
37. Maine: -7.7%
38. Alaska: -8.3%
39. Iowa: -8.4%
40. Wyoming: -8.5%
41. Missouri: -11.3%
42. Tennessee: -11.3%
43. Georgia: -12.8%
44. Arizona: -13.8%
45. Oregon: -14.1%
46. Oklahoma: -14.4%
47. Delaware: -14.7%
48. Indiana: -14.7%
49. West Virginia: -15%
50. Ohio: -18.6%
51. North Carolina: -21.1%

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

That shift is reshaping the chief nursing informatics officer role. Once centered on documentation and system adoption, CNIOs are increasingly accountable for how digital breakdowns, algorithmic tools and data gaps affect patient safety across the enterprise.

At Akron, Ohio-based Summa Health, CNIO Marc Benoy, BSN, RN, said the role has moved beyond serving as a connector between nursing and IT. Today, he views it as an executive function focused on clinical digital safety, resilience and risk — particularly when technology disruptions spill directly into care delivery.

“Digital workflows do not respect professional or departmental silos,” Mr. Benoy said. “That naturally expands the scope of accountability.”

That expanded scope reaches well past nursing workflows. CNIOs are often responsible for the reliability of clinical processes used by physicians, advanced practice providers and interdisciplinary teams, reflecting a reality in which digital workflows no longer align neatly with professional boundaries. As a result, CNIOs and CMIOs increasingly share governance over order entry, documentation integrity, decision support and AI-enabled tools.

That shared ownership has become unavoidable as digital risk shows up in places health systems once treated as purely technical. Cybersecurity incidents, for example, no longer stop at data loss. When systems are unavailable or degraded, clinicians still have to place orders, administer medications and communicate across teams — often without the digital scaffolding on which those workflows depend.

“When technology fails, it isn’t just an IT disruption,” Mr. Benoy said. “It becomes a patient safety event, an operational crisis and a legal vulnerability.”

That reality has pushed CNIOs into planning not just for downtime, but for clinical continuity under digital stress. Traditional workarounds — such as reverting to paper — no longer hold up against the complexity of modern care delivery. 

Instead, CNIOs say their role increasingly involves identifying where digital fragility could compromise safety and redesigning workflows before a disruption forces clinicians to improvise in real time.

At, CNIO 

Jared Houck, BSN, RN, said the role’s center of gravity has shifted upstream. 

“The CNIO operates less as an implementer and more as a front-line leader,” he said, particularly as regulatory and safety expectations are embedded directly into system design.

At Cleveland-based MetroHealth System, CNIO Jill Evans, MSN, RN, echoed those sentiments, noting the role has moved decisively away from system rollout toward stewardship.

“CNIOs are no longer just implementers of systems,” she said. “We are the stewards of safe, compliant and ethically sound digital nursing practices.”

Artificial intelligence has accelerated that shift. As AI-enabled tools move from limited pilots into daily clinical use, CNIOs are increasingly involved in deciding where automation fits — and where it does not. Legal teams may negotiate contracts, but CNIOs say accountability for clinical reliance often rests with the leaders who authorize workflow integration.

“If a nurse or physician uses an AI-driven tool that fails due to bias or drift, accountability will focus on the executives who authorized its use,” Mr. Benoy said.

Interoperability has followed a similar trajectory. What was once framed as a compliance obligation is now widely treated as a patient safety issue when critical data fails to follow patients across care settings. CNIOs are increasingly accountable for ensuring digital pathways are reliable, traceable and defensible — especially as information blocking regulations frame access to data as a patient right.

Those pressures are reshaping how CNIOs define success. Adoption metrics still matter, but they no longer capture the full scope of the job. Increasingly, CNIOs are judged by whether technology-enabled care holds up under strain — during outages, cyber events, data gaps or algorithmic failure — and whether patients remain protected when it does not.

The post Why today’s CNIO must plan for digital crisis appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

To remain competitive in 2026 and beyond, healthcare leaders must improve performance, embrace technology and rethink traditional care models, according to a Jan. 12 report from McKinsey.

Here are five key takeaways for hospital leaders:

1. Healthcare EBITDA as a percentage of national health expenditures fell from 11.2% in 2019 to 8.9% in 2024 and is projected to dip to 8.7% in 2027.

2. Providers, along with payers, have absorbed much of the decline so far and are expected to remain under pressure in the near future. For hospitals, that includes rising levels of uncompensated care and reimbursement challenges tied to coverage shifts and policy changes.

3. Non-acute care continues to be the strongest growth area, driven by post-acute and outpatient services such as home health, hospice and ASCs. Other outpatient settings, including diagnostic imaging centers and dialysis clinics, are expected to see comparatively slower growth.

4. Recent EBITDA margin improvements have been supported by higher utilization, modest rate increases and easing inflation. Growth has been strongest in pre-acute settings — such as ASCs and urgent care centers, driven by sites-of-care shifts — and well as in post-acute segments that include home health and hospice amid an aging population.

5. General acute hospital EBITDA margins are projected to rise from 6.8% in 2024 to 7.6% in 2029, supported by reimbursement increases and cost-management efforts. However, hospitals are expected to face renewed headwinds through 2027 from factors including tariffs, subsidy expirations and federal policy changes.

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The typical working family in the U.S. spent $3,960 on healthcare-related costs in 2024, including premiums and out-of-pocket expenses, according to a Jan. 13 report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

The report analyzed 2024 data from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey and found a high cost burden among working families, defined as those with at least one worker between the ages of 18 and 64.

Here are six findings from the report:

1. One in 8 working families spent more than 10% of their income on healthcare.

2. Ten percent of working families paid more than $14,800 in premiums and out-of-pocket costs.

3. Healthcare expenditures rose with education levels, from $1,575 for families with a worker who did not finish high school to $5,700 for families with a worker who holds an advanced degree.

4. Among families in the bottom income quintile, 22.1% spent at least 10% of their income on healthcare. The same was true for 16.9% of families in the second quintile and 17% in the middle quintile.

5. In the upper-middle-income bracket, 11.2% of families spent more than 10% of their income on healthcare.

6. Families in rural areas faced higher burdens: 18.8% spent more than 10% of their income on health insurance.

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

CMS awarded $50 billion across all 50 states through the five-year program, which runs from 2026 through 2030. The initiative is intended to strengthen access, infrastructure and workforce capacity in rural communities. While state allocation plans vary and many are still awaiting federal approval, hospital executives are already thinking carefully about how the dollars could be used to support sustainability rather than short-term relief.

Across interviews, a consistent picture emerges: rural hospitals are prioritizing workforce stabilization, access to specialty and maternal care, technology and data infrastructure, and regional partnerships, with an emphasis on investments with an enduring impact.

Workforce remains the foundation
For many rural hospitals, workforce challenges sit at the center of transformation planning. Kelly Macken-Marble, CEO of Osceola Medical Center in Wisconsin, said early signals from the state suggest funds will be directed toward workforce, technology and rural partnerships. While details on grant mechanics are still emerging, hospital leaders are optimistic, particularly if funding can support recruitment, retention and collaboration rather than isolated programs.

“We are encouraged about the opportunity, specifically in the area of technology and innovation,” she said. “Grants for workforce and rural partnerships look to be focused on bringing together multi-sector partners. I’m hopeful that we will have the opportunity to be included in those partnerships as the grant process develops.”

In Oklahoma, workforce development is one of six pillars the state has outlined for its Rural Health Transformation Fund. Tom Vasko, CEO of Shattuck, Okla.-based Newman Memorial Hospital, said the state is prioritizing long-term capacity building, including efforts to grow and retain the next generation of rural healthcare workers.

“At Newman Memorial, we view the Rural Health Transformation Fund as a catalytic opportunity to accelerate work that is already underway, such as strengthening access, sustainability and quality of care for the communities we serve across Northwest Oklahoma,” he said. “While final allocations have not yet been determined, we anticipate pursuing targeted, initiative-aligned funding rather than a single lump sum award, with potential support spanning several million dollars over multiple years as programs are phased and scaled.”

Mr. Vasko aims to deploy funds across all six of the state’s priority areas, including telehealth and preventive care as well as chronic disease management. He also plans to facilitate more regional collaboration for reduced duplication and improved access across the hospital’s large service area.

“We also anticipate leveraging resources to grow and retain the next generation rural workforce, invest in data, analytics and health information exchange capabilities, and continue our transition toward value-based, outcomes-driven care models,” he said. “Newman’s approach is grounded in sustainability. Transformation dollars would be used primarily for startup, infrastructure, workforce onboarding and capability building, with clear pathways to long-term visibility through billable services, operational efficiencies and regional partnerships.”

Strengthening the talent pipeline
Rebecca Napier, vice president of finance and administration at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center in Albuquerque, is thinking about the workforce as well. The university submitted a proposal for funds that would strengthen its training programs and future talent pipeline.

“As a university, we have trained a disproportionate number of physicians in our state and as you have individuals who go through medical school and residency, if they do both at your institution, they’re more likely to stay here,” she said. “If they have a tie to the community, they are far more likely to stay here. We are heavily vested in really growing our own healthcare workers, whether it’s nurses or physicians or pharmacists or population health workers.”

The University of New Mexico is planning to double the number of students and graduations through 2035. The process will include new faculty structures and allocating efforts to provide clinical experiences and educational opportunities for more medical professionals.

“Making it all come together in a harmonious way is incredibly important because if we don’t grow our healthcare workforce, our healthcare access problem will never be solved,” she said. “Buildings don’t take care of patients. People do. That’s where we really make sure that we’re doing our part, and the education piece of that is a huge part of it, in addition to one of the larger clinical delivery systems in the state.”

Ms. Napier also said the funds may be used to address healthcare access needs, behavioral health and addiction services, which are critical in the state.

Maternal health and specialty access rise to the top
Rural hospital leaders also see the funds as a potential lifeline for service lines that have been difficult to sustain in rural settings, particularly maternal health. Brian Sponseller, CEO of Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center in Hartsville, S.C., said his hospital proposed several maternal health initiatives during the state’s initial request for ideas.

“There are three counties between us and North Carolina that have no maternal care, no OB, nothing,” Mr. Sponseller said. “What we proposed was starting a family residency program with an OB focus within our family medicine group.”

Pregnant women living in rural communities often are low income and aren’t able to take time off of work to travel long distances for monthly appointments; that puts them and their babies at risk. New technologies coming out allow remote monitoring of pregnant women at a cost and time savings for them, and it could drive down mortality rates. Then, the family medicine physicians with an OB background and training could staff rural clinics and have the expertise to serve pregnant women as well as other patients.

Raymond Hino, CEO of Bandon, Ore.-based Southern Coos Hospital & Health Center, said leaders in Oregon have a similar focus.

“I know that many of the rural hospitals that are struggling to keep obstetrics care in their communities will plan to apply for funding to support local access to obstetrics,” Mr. Hino said.

Regional partnerships and shared infrastructure
Another common theme is collaboration, not just between hospitals, but across regions and sectors. Mr. Hino said Oregon’s planning process has emphasized regional initiatives and shared infrastructure, with funding expected to be distributed in phases.

Under the state’s approach, early “catalyst” grants would support shovel-ready projects, while later phases would focus on larger regional efforts designed to improve sustainability and coordination.

Southern Coos plans to apply for startup funding to support the creation of an Oregon clinically integrated network, an effort involving independent rural hospitals. Much of the planning work has already been completed and the group believes it could be ready to launch quickly if funding is approved.

“We feel that we will be ready to ‘go live’ with an Oregon CIN before Oct. 1, 2026,” he said.

The state’s planned oversight structure is an encouraging sign for collaboration. Oregon intends to administer the program through its Rural Health Coordinating Council, which includes representation from rural hospitals, EMS, primary care providers and clinics.

“We are encouraged that rural stakeholders will be involved to help ensure that funds are used for areas of need for our rural providers and their patients,” he said.

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U.S. healthcare spending reached $5.3 trillion in 2024, a 7.2% increase from $4.9 trillion the previous year, and similar to 7.4% growth in 2023, according to a CMS analysis published Jan. 14 by Health Affairs.

Eight things to know, per the analysis:

1. Healthcare spending accounted for 18% of GDP in 2024, up from 17.7% in 2023.

2. Healthcare spending growth in 2023 and 2024 reflected increased use and intensity of healthcare goods and services.

3. Hospital care spending (31% of total healthcare spending) was $1.6 trillion in 2024, reflecting an 8.9% increase from $1.5 trillion the previous year. This compared with 10.6% growth in 2023.

4. Spending for physician and clinical services (21% of total healthcare spending) was $1.1 trillion in 2024, reflecting an 8.1% increase from $1 trillion the previous year. This compared with 7.4% growth in 2023.

5. Retail prescription drug spending (9% of total healthcare spending) was $467 billion in 2024, a 7.9% increase from the previous year. This compared with 10.8% growth in 2023. Study authors partially attributed the slower growth to slower growth in retail prescription drug prices, as well as slower growth in the use of medicines.

6. The insured share of the population reached 92.5% in 2023, compared with 91.8% in 2024. Study authors noted that in 2024, Medicaid enrollment declined amid enrollment gains in marketplace plans and employer-sponsored private health insurance. 

7. Federal government-sponsored healthcare spending increased 5.5% in 2024, compared with 3.8% growth in 2023.

8. “The future of health care spending remains uncertain,” the study authors wrote. “Although some of the recent factors affecting utilization and insurance coverage might not persist, health spending trends are certain to be affected by future economic and demographic changes, as well as by new technologies and innovations. 

“For example, developments in artificial intelligence and cancer treatment, as well as expanding policies and use around weight loss treatments and other healthy behavior initiatives, may affect the health care system in unexpected ways.”

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For the first time in the 21st century, the U.S. recorded an isolated decrease in deceased kidney donations, according to a Jan. 14 report from the Kidney Transplant Collaborative. 

The report, “Losing Transplants for All the Wrong Reasons: A Statistical Analysis of the Reduction in Kidney Transplants in Response to Reports of OPO [Organ Procurement Organization] Failures,” details a decline in overall kidney transplants from 2024 to 2025. 

Although living donor kidney transplants increased and the kidney discard rate declined in 2025, the decline in deceased kidney transplants and donations led to an overall decline in transplants. 

The Kidney Transplant Collaborative, a nonprofit organization focused on increasing the number of living donor transplants in the U.S., said recent industry oversight and negative media reports have rattled the landscape. 

“While policymakers have been appropriately focused on maintaining the integrity of the  deceased donor process, an unanticipated effect of recent oversight efforts of the kidney  transplant system and accompanying negative media reports has shaken the deceased donor  landscape and may have possibly caused the reduction in deceased donor rates,” the report said. 

In mid-2025, HHS said it found patient safety concerns in a probe of a Kentucky organ procurement organization. The investigation focused on donation after circulatory death, which involves patients with some brain function who are on life support and are not expected to recover. The Kentucky organization denied the investigation’s findings. 

More recently, CMS rolled out national reforms to the organ transplant system; decertified the Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency, previously a division of the University of Miami Health System in Florida; and selected a Nevada agency to manage organ procurement services in Southern Florida. 

Organ procurement organizations “may be operating more cautiously in response to investigations, legal exposure and public scrutiny, particularly in Donation After Circulatory Death cases that historically supported transplant growth,” the Kidney Transplant Collaborative said in a Jan. 14 news release. 

From 2024 to 2025, the Kidney Transplant Collaborative recorded 116 fewer kidney transplants. Nearly 100,000 Americans are waiting to receive a kidney transplant. 

“Without immediate action, more patients will be pushed onto long-term dialysis and a system already stretched thin will face mounting pressure both financially and logistically,” the release said. “Policymakers, hospitals and transplant leaders should not sit on the sidelines thinking this crisis will solve itself.”

The post Kidney donations decline ‘for all the wrong reasons,’ report finds appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

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

Dr. Powell-Steed, interim executive vice president and COO of Loretto Hospital Network in Chicago and CEO of Breakthrough Innovation Partners, has spent more than 25 years leading transformations in some of healthcare’s most challenging environments, including safety-net systems, highly unionized organizations and financially distressed hospitals serving underinvested communities.

“My career has really been built in the hardest places in healthcare,” she said. “What pulls my heartstrings is safety-net health systems, highly unionized environments, financially distressed organizations, and communities that historically have been underinvested yet deeply resilient.”

That experience now shapes her work advising hospitals, health systems, payers and public-sector organizations through complex turnarounds. The focus is not incremental improvement but helping organizations fundamentally shift care delivery and health system leadership.

Dr. Powell-Steed has stepped into multiple organizations facing severe financial and operational distress, often compounded by lingering workforce exhaustion from the pandemic. The pressure pushes leaders toward short-term decisions that undermine long-term viability.

“Organizations must elevate quality performance and keep the community well and out of the hospital while also balancing the dynamic of pay-for-performance,” she said, adding that sustainable turnarounds require resisting “very quick, tempting solutions to bluntly cost cut.”

For Dr. Powell-Steed, the success or failure of a turnaround often hinges on change management, and specifically on trust.

“You know, honestly, change management at its core is all about people. It is all about culture, and is all about rebuilding a sense of trust and respect in the people-centered aspects of change management,” she said.

It’s more important for leaders to listen than speak, and bring both frontline teams and community members into the transformation process. Too often, change feels imposed rather than inclusive.

“A lot of times, the community feels like change is happening to them and not for them,” she said. “I really, pride myself in opening up seats at the table for the community to have a real voice, to unmute the muted who are often not heard or respected in the change management process.”

Looking ahead, Dr. Powell-Steed said one of the most urgent priorities for healthcare leaders is moving beyond a prolonged state of survival mode. She noted that many systems were already struggling before the pandemic, which only intensified financial, regulatory and workforce pressures.

“I think the biggest priority for leaders and organizations and communities alike, is moving beyond the survival mode that we’ve been in,” she said.

With reimbursement erosion, capital constraints and political volatility converging, she warned that some leaders are quietly shifting from asking how to thrive to questioning whether their organizations can survive at all.

“That’s really a dangerous place to lead from,” she said.

The greater risk is fear-based leadership.

“The headwinds are real, but the bigger risk is fear-based leadership,” she said. “Those that really exercise a different level of courage and won’t losing strategic nerve to execute effectively.”

That courage is especially critical as leaders face pressure to act quickly and demonstrate movement. Executives may need to slow down decision-making and challenge their assumptions about the future of healthcare delivery to protect their organizations and fragile workforce against the rapidly changing political and financial landscape.

“Speed without strategy is how organizations really create self-inflicted wounds,” Dr. Powell-Steed said, later adding, “Leadership right now in this era is not about being popular and making the popular decisions. It’s about being anchored, being disciplined, being focused, and taking the courage to slow yourself down and act more strategically. That’s going to propel us into long term success.”

When it comes to growth, Dr. Powell-Steed argued that health systems must rethink how value is defined; it’s not just by where revenue comes from, but also through workforce investment, culture and trust.

“Traditional brick-and-mortar mergers and acquisitions are not going to be the dynamic,” she said. “Strategic collaboration is really the space for growth. We have to check our titles at the door and not be competitive in that collaboration, because at the end of the day, we’re fighting for the same populations that we’re trying to drive value for. We need to truly align clinical excellence with financial stewardship instead of pitting those dynamics against each other.”

The post The strategic mistakes that wreck hospital turnarounds appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Several healthcare roles landed on U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 rankings of the best jobs without a bachelor’s degree.

The list is part of the publication’s annual best jobs rankings series, released Jan. 13, which evaluates jobs across 17 categories, including healthcare. 

To develop the rankings, U.S. News analyzed data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to identify jobs with high demand and then scored each role based on five weighted components: future prospects (30%), wage potential (25%), employment (20%), job safety and stability (15%), and work-life balance (10%).

The “Best Jobs Without a College Degree” list features careers accessible with a high school diploma or associate degree. Some roles may also require certifications, apprenticeships or on-the-job training.

Here are the 25 best jobs without a bachelor’s degree in 2026, including links to each career profile on U.S. News: 

1. Ophthalmic medical technician

2. Home health aide

3. Solar photovoltaic installer

4. Wind turbine technician

5. Flight attendant

6. Hearing aid specialist

7. Pharmacy technician

8. Electrician

9. Massage therapist

10. Construction worker

11. Baker

12. Licensed practical and licensed vocational nurse

13. Community health worker

14. Exercise trainer

15. Maintenance and repair worker

16. Choreographer

17. Carpenter

18. Medical records technician

19. Plumber

20. Surgical technologist

21. Transit bus driver

22. Medical assistant

23. Teacher assistant

24. Optician

25. Equipment operator

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Skilled nursing facility operating capacity dropped by 5% in the U.S. between 2019 and 2024, according to a study published Jan. 12 in JAMA Internal Medicine. 

Researchers analyzed CMS data from 2018 to 2024 to identify capacity changes at skilled nursing facilities after the COVID-19 pandemic, and assessed whether capacity changes were associated with staffing shortages and hospital discharge outcomes. 

Here are five notes from the study:

1. While overall operating capacity declined by 5% between 2019 and 2024, the number of licensed skilled nursing facility beds declined by 2.5%.
2. Capacity declines varied by geographic location, with 1 in 4 counties experiencing declines of over 15%.
3. The largest capacity declines were found in rural counties and counties with more frequent skilled nursing facility staffing shortages.
4. Among skilled nursing facilities that experienced capacity declines, nearby hospitals had increased mean length of stay and increased median distance travelled to skilled nursing facilities post-discharge. 

5. “Results of this study suggest that skilled nursing facility capacity in the U.S. has declined since the start of the pandemic, likely related to staffing shortages,” the study authors said. “These declines may reduce older adults’ access to skilled nursing facility care and disrupt hospital discharges.”

Read the full study here. 

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For the third consecutive year, nurse practitioner earned the No. 1 spot in U.S. News & World Report‘s annual best jobs rankings.

The media company released the rankings Jan. 13, highlighting the best jobs across 17 categories, including healthcare.

To determine the best jobs, U.S. News examined data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to identify jobs with the greatest hiring demand. Analysts then scored jobs using five component measures: future prospects, wage potential, employment, job safety and stability, and work-life balance. 

The media company said nurse practitioner took the No. 1 spot as the best job in the U.S. and also topped the healthcare list due to the continuous need for professionals in healthcare roles. Following nurse practitioner on the overall best jobs list is financial manager at No. 2, IT manager at No. 3, information security analyst at No. 4 and physician assistant at No. 5. Read more about the methodology here.

Here are the top 25 jobs in healthcare, listed with links to more information about each job: 

Note: This list includes jobs in the healthcare category only.

1. Nurse practitioner 

2. Physician assistant 

3. Speech-language pathologist 

4. Respiratory therapist 

5. Nurse anesthetist  

6. Occupational therapist

7. Dental hygienist 

8. Psychiatrist 

9. Ophthalmic medical technician

10. Oral and maxillofacial surgeon

11. Anesthesiologist

12. Registered nurse

13. Diagnostic medical sonographer

14. Physical therapist

15. Orthotist and prosthetist

16. Veterinarian

17. Nurse midwife

18. Hearing aid specialist

19. Pharmacy technician

20. Optometrist

21. Radiologist

22. Pharmacist

23. Pediatrician

24. Dentist

25. Veterinary technologist and technician

Explore the full list here. 

The post Best healthcare jobs in 2026: US News appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Cybersecurity risks facing healthcare organizations in 2026 are increasingly tied to prolonged technology outages that directly disrupt patient care, according to John Riggi, national adviser for cybersecurity and risk at the American Hospital Association.

“I believe there needs to be an increased understanding that our increased dependency on network and internet connected technology and data to deliver care is creating an increased risk to care delivery, if and when that technology is suddenly not available for an extended period,  such as during a ransomware attack,” Mr. Riggi said.

Recent attacks have shown that disruptions can last weeks, not days.

“Unfortunately, hundreds of ransomware attacks against hospitals and our mission critical third parties have shown us that we need to be prepared to deliver safe and quality care for 30 days or longer without the benefit of connected technology.” he said.

Becker’s spoke to Mr. Riggi about the biggest cybersecurity themes hospitals and health systems will face in 2026:

Geopolitical and nation-state risks

As healthcare enters 2026, Mr. Riggi said geopolitical tensions continue to influence cyber risk, even when hospitals are not the primary target.

“Current geopolitical tensions with Russia, Iran and China over such issues as Venezuela, Ukraine, Taiwan and protests in Iran may incentivize these countries to use cyber means to retaliate against the U.S. — but not directly,” he said.

Those actions may involve third-party actors or infrastructure-level disruption.

“They may direct or facilitate unattributable criminal cyber proxies or ‘hacktivists’ to conduct targeted or regional cyber or denial-of-service attacks against sectors such as financial services,” he said. “Or, they may attempt something more disruptive, such as a regional cyberattack against critical infrastructure or cloud-based common technology infrastructure.”

According to Mr. Riggi, these types of attacks “would almost certainly have a cascading disruptive effect.”

Third-party attacks remain a major concern

Mr. Riggi said cyberattacks on vendors and service providers continue to pose one of the most serious risks to healthcare operations.

“Based on the continuing pattern we have seen over the last several years, cyberattacks against third-party mission-critical technology and service providers and the supply chain remain a major concern in healthcare.”

Criminal groups target vendors for scale and impact.

“Criminal ransomware groups, particularly Russian-speaking groups, continue to target healthcare third parties for maximum disruptive effect and to steal large aggregations of healthcare data held by third parties.”

Nation-state activity adds to the threat.

“We know that nation-states, particularly China, have been successful at penetrating U.S. critical infrastructure to preposition destructive malware for future activation.”

AI-driven attacks expected to increase

Mr. Riggi said healthcare leaders should expect more AI-enabled cyberattacks in 2026.

“The third elevated risk we are watching closely — and we expect to see more of in 2026 — is autonomous AI-generated and -facilitated cyberattacks,” he said.

AI is being used throughout the attack lifecycle.

“Not only will we continue to see expanded instances of AI-generated audio and video deepfakes, and AI-assisted vulnerability detection and malware development, but we may see AI being used by sophisticated cyber adversaries to launch cyberattacks and be used throughout the entire attack cycle. The first such ‘autonomous’ attack was documented by Anthropic last year,” Mr. Riggi said.

He also warned of risks within AI systems themselves.

“I believe we will also see an increase in cyberattacks tied directly to the exploitation of vulnerabilities embedded within AI software and systems, along with the risk of ‘data poisoning’ and AI manipulation by cyber adversaries.”

Readiness gaps and the shift to clinical continuity

Despite years of attacks, Mr. Riggi said third-party risk remains underestimated.

“I believe there also needs to be an increased focus on third-party risk,” he said. “We would benefit from mapping the potential cascading effects of cyberattacks that target mission-critical technology, service providers and the supply chain — especially potential attacks against cloud-based providers and internet service providers.”

“We then recommend that hospitals develop contingency plans for when those third parties go offline, either due to a malicious or nonmalicious event.”

More broadly, he said healthcare leaders must rethink preparedness.

“The field would benefit from a shift from not just preparing for ‘business continuity’ but also preparing for ‘clinical continuity.’”

“In the interim, we are recommending that hospitals begin by making clinical continuity plans for their most critical life-saving and life-supporting technologies and services.”

Signs of progress

Mr. Riggi said there are signs of improvement in how cyber threats are being addressed.

“U.S. government agencies seem to be collaborating more effectively on cyber law enforcement and disruption operations, and the pace of these operations appears to have increased significantly, especially from the FBI Cyber Division.”

Federal agencies are also reframing ransomware attacks on healthcare.

“They truly understand that ransomware attacks that disrupt and delay healthcare delivery are not ‘data crimes’ but are ‘threat-to-life’ crimes.”

“I believe we will continue to see more effective information sharing and operational collaboration within the sector and with the government.”

The post What healthcare leaders need to know about cybersecurity in 2026 appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Hospitals and health systems nationwide are preparing for significant access and operational challenges after enhanced ACA premium tax credits expired Dec. 31 and congressional negotiations to revive them remain uncertain.

The House voted Jan. 8 to extend the subsidies for three years, but the measure is not expected to pass in the Senate. A bipartisan group of senators is instead advancing a narrower two-year proposal that would include new income limits, minimum monthly premiums and additional guardrails around enrollment. Legislative text could be finalized as soon as Jan. 12, but no immediate relief is guaranteed for hospitals planning for 2026.

Without an extension, health system leaders warn that emergency departments will see higher volumes, uncompensated care will rise and access gaps will widen — particularly in rural and underserved communities.

ED strain, coverage losses and rising uncertainty

Nearly 93% of the 24.3 million Americans enrolled in ACA marketplace plans in 2025 relied on enhanced subsidies, according to CMS. The Urban Institute estimates 4.8 million people could lose coverage without an extension.

“Americans continue to say affordable coverage matters. Families want stability and they want to know they can access care when they need it,” Ascension President and CEO Eduardo Conrado said in a Jan. 9 statement shared with Becker’s. “More than 20 million people are facing higher premiums or the loss of coverage altogether. For many of our patients, these tax credits are the difference between having insurance and delaying or going without care. Their expiration forces impossible choices between medical care and everyday necessities and increases the risk of medical debt.”

Hospital leaders argue the policy change will have systemwide ripple effects, including longer delays and wait times, especially in already overburdened emergency departments.

“We’re currently assuming the subsidies for the exchanges will go away, and that’s likely to increase uncompensated care,” Kyle Benoit, executive vice president and COO of Dover, Del.-based Bayhealth, said on a recent episode of the Becker’s Healthcare Podcast. “As a not-for-profit, community-based hospital, that will probably mean more activity in our ER. We have to care for these patients when they walk through our doors.”

Bayhealth is investing in fast-track emergency department areas and streamlining inpatient flow to prepare for higher volumes, but Mr. Benoit said waiting for political clarity is not a strategy.

“We have to stop hoping challenges will go away and instead focus on real opportunities to reduce the cost of care while staying accessible to our patients,” he said. 

Economic ripple effects extend beyond hospitals

The expiration of ACA subsidies is also expected to ripple across state economies. A Commonwealth Fund analysis projected a $57 billion drop in national economic output, a $34 billion decline in state GDPs and the loss of 286,000 jobs in 2026 — including 130,000 healthcare positions.

States projected to see the steepest coverage losses include Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Georgia, while Texas, Florida and Georgia would face the largest federal funding losses.

“With the tax credits expired, millions of hardworking Americans are now priced out of health coverage and need Congress to act,” Charlene MacDonald, president and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals, said in a statement shared with Becker’s. “Real relief requires a bipartisan solution that extends the tax credits, lowers Americans’ health care costs, and can be signed into law.”

Calling the issue nonpartisan, Mr. Conrado also urged lawmakers to act.

“This is not about politics. It is about people. Extending these tax credits would help families keep coverage and ensure care remains available for the people who depend on it,” he said. “I ask congressional leaders to build on this bipartisan momentum and find a path forward that protects access to care and supports a healthier future for all.” 

As hospitals plan for a volatile 2026, leaders say clarity — and action — are urgently needed to prevent deeper access gaps, ED overcrowding and further strain on an already fragile healthcare safety net.

The post Hospitals prep for rising ER visits as ACA subsidy lapse leaves patients with ‘impossible choices’ appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

In recent years, a swell of states has adopted laws to lessen the requirements for foreign-trained physicians to join the U.S. workforce.  

The laws aim to combat the nation’s growing physician shortage, which is becoming more urgent as patient acuity rises, more physicians approach retirement age and a plethora of other factors. One tactic to staunch the shortage is reducing residency requirements for internationally trained medical school graduates to gain employment in the U.S.

Eighteen states have laws allowing internationally trained physicians to gain full licensure, three states grant limited licensure, three other states have pending bills related to limited licensure and another six state legislatures are considering pathway bills in 2026.

International medical graduates account for about one-fourth of physicians practicing in the U.S., according to the American Medical Association, which supports these pathway laws. 

Five things to know about this strategy: 

1. As of December 2025, 18 states have enacted legislation allowing internationally trained physicians to gain full licensure without U.S.-accredited postgraduate training, according to the Federation of State Medical Boards. Those states are Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin. 

2. At least three states have pathways for internationally trained physicians to gain limited U.S. licensure without additional graduate medical education, according to the FSMB. Those are California, New York and Washington. 

3. Seventeen other state legislatures were considering bills in 2025 to simplify licensure. Six of them will continue weighing the proposals in 2026 — Georgia, Kansas, Maine, South Carolina, Vermont and Washington. 

4. Michigan’s bill for temporary and limited licenses is pending, as are New Hampshire’s bill for provisional licensure and Pennsylvania’s bill for full licensure. 

5. The bills failed in Arizona, Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and Wyoming.

The post 30 states seek to hire more foreign-trained physicians: 5 notes appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Nearly 15,000 nurses at hospitals in New York City went on strike Jan. 12 after months of negotiations, marking the largest nurses strike in the city’s history.

Six things to know:

1. The New York State Nurses Association has been negotiating contracts that would guarantee safe staffing, healthcare benefits and protections against workplace violence, according to a Jan. 12 union news release. 

2. Nurses went on strike at the following hospitals:

• Montefiore’s Jack D. Weiler Hospital, Einstein Campus; Montefiore Einstein Hospital, Moses Campus; Montefiore Einstein Hutchinson Campus; and Children’s Hospital at Montefiore

• Mount Sinai Hospital; Mount Sinai Morningside; and Mount Sinai West

• NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center; NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital; and NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital

3. The union delivered strike notices to 12 hospitals Jan. 2, then later rescinded them at eight safety-net hospitals after reaching tentative agreements. The tentative agreements include stronger safe staffing measures and enforcement remedies, protections from workplace violence, pension continuity without cuts, and language related to artificial intelligence to ensure a nurse is always present at the bedside, the union said.

4. The union also reached tentative agreements and canceled strike notices at New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health’s Huntington, Plainview and Syosset hospitals, according to a Jan. 10 LinkedIn post from President and CEO John D’Angelo, MD.

5. The organizations employing striking workers shared the following statements with Becker’s Jan. 12:

• A NewYork-Presbyterian spokesperson said the system has taken steps to ensure patient care throughout the strike. “We’re ready to keep negotiating a fair and reasonable contract that reflects our respect for our nurses and the critical role they play, and also recognizes the challenging realities of today’s healthcare environment,” the spokesperson said. “We have proposed significant wage increases that keep our nurses among the highest paid in the city, enhancements to their outstanding employer-funded benefits and new measures that reflect our shared commitment to safe staffing and workplace safety. However, good faith bargaining requires compromise from both sides.”

• “Unfortunately, NYSNA decided to move forward with its strike while refusing to move on from its extreme economic demands, which we cannot agree to,” a Mount Sinai spokesperson said. “[B]ut we are ready with 1,400 qualified and specialized nurses — and prepared to continue to provide safe patient care for as long as this strike lasts.”

• “NYSNA’s leaders continue to double down on their $3.6 billion in reckless demands, including nearly 40% wage increases, and their troubling proposals like demanding that a nurse not be terminated if found to be compromised by drugs or alcohol while on the job,” said Joe Solmonese, senior vice president of strategic communications at Montefiore. “We remain resolute in our commitment to providing safe and seamless care, regardless of how long the strike may last.”

6. The union said hospital management has threatened to discontinue or reduce health benefits for nurses, which could affect nearly 27,000 nurses at more than 50 hospitals across the state who are enrolled in the union’s health benefit plan, the release said.

“It is shameful that the city’s richest hospitals refuse to continue healthcare benefits for frontline nurses, refuse to staff safely for our patients, and refuse to protect us from workplace violence,” NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, RN, BSN, said in the union release. “It is deeply offensive that they would rather use their billions to fight against their own nurses than settle a fair contract. Nurses do not want to strike, but our bosses have forced us out on strike.”  

The union represents more than 42,000 members and is affiliated with National Nurses United, which has more than 225,000 members nationwide.

The post Nearly 15,000 nurses strike in NYC: 6 things to know appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Rural hospital leaders are raising concerns that some of the new federal rural health transformation funding could flow through state governments without ever reaching the hospitals the program was designed to support.

CMS awarded $50 billion across all 50 states through the Rural Health Transformation Program, a five-year initiative running from 2026 through 2030. The program is intended to strengthen access, infrastructure and workforce capacity in rural communities. But states are not legally required to pass the funds directly to rural hospitals and early signals from legislators in some states have hospital CEOs worried.

Hospital executives say that gap between federal intent and state discretion is creating unease as rural providers face continued financial pressure, including looming Medicaid cuts tied to the same legislation that authorized the program.

Funds aren’t guaranteed to hospitals
Under the program, $10 billion will be distributed annually, with half of the funding allocated equally across states and the remainder awarded based on factors such as rural population, land mass, facility needs and proposed policy actions. While states must submit annual reports to CMS, funding is not contingent on performance, and there is no mandate that dollars be directed to rural hospitals.

That structure has prompted concern among rural leaders who say the funds could be absorbed into state-run initiatives, new administrative departments or competitive grant programs that may offer limited near-term relief to struggling providers. Jeremiah Hodshire, president and CEO of Hillsdale (Mich.) Hospital, said rural hospitals in Michigan spent months advising the state on how to deploy the funds, particularly in anticipation of Medicaid cuts.

“I chaired the Michigan Hospital Association task force which prepared detailed recommendations to the State of Michigan Department of Health & Human Services, for which they did not accept any of our recommendations,” Mr. Hodshire said.

The task force included rural hospital leaders from across the state who focused on what they viewed as immediate needs for rural community hospitals.

“MDHHS is funding a new department complete with over a dozen staff members, and I don’t expect to see much for our hospital,” he said, later adding, “I am extremely disappointed that MDHHS did not utilize the experience, expertise and needs of rural hospitals when submitting the application, which we had to FOIA for review.”

Michigan ranked 43rd among state awards and was among the seven lowest-funded applications nationally, according to Mr. Hodshire. While outcomes vary by state, he said the broader issue is the lack of guardrails ensuring funds reach providers.

“This will have little impact on rural community hospitals, for which it was designed, and will create statewide programs and grant applications while dozens of hospitals in the state of Michigan are at risk of closure,” he said.

State-led models limit hospital control
Leaders in other states echoed concerns that hospitals may have less influence over how the funds are ultimately used than they initially expected. Brian Sponseller, CEO of Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center in Hartsville, S.C., said his state asked hospitals to submit proposed uses for the funding on a compressed timeline, with little clarity on how those ideas would be evaluated or funded.

“The way the federal government did this was left up to the states on how they want to allocate it,” Mr. Sponseller said.

South Carolina gave rural hospital leaders five days to propose ideas on how to use the funds and then submitted them to the federal government. The state’s plan to have Medicaid administer funds was approved, and now the Medicaid program is collecting proposals for individual program funding.

“We gave them a bunch of ideas, and we don’t know yet what the state got the funds or programs for. The state hasn’t made up its mind on the funds,” said Mr. Sponseller.

He said the proposals focused on areas such as rural maternal health, family medicine residency training with obstetrics experience, and remote monitoring technology to support pregnant patients in counties without local OB services.

“They’re listening to rural hospitals,” Mr. Sponseller said. “But they’re waiting for feedback from the federal government.”

That dynamic, he said, has left hospitals advancing concepts without certainty that funding will materialize or align with what they proposed.

“We don’t have as much control as we thought we’d have,” he said.

Some leaders say there are early signs that at least a portion of the funds could reach rural hospitals, depending on how states structure administration. William Davis, president of Deaconess Illinois in Marion, said Illinois has announced that the Illinois Critical Access Network will administer a subset of the funds, which could create a clearer pathway to rural providers.

“When you read the legislation, the funds don’t have to flow to rural hospitals,” he said. “If you’re an administrator, we’ve got a responsibility to continue to advocate to make sure that funding makes it to rural health, because it absolutely can be transformative.”

Rural hospitals have operated on shoestring budgets for years and changes to the Medicaid program and ACA coverage will likely mean more uncompensated care while expenses continue to rise. Mr. Davis sits on the Illinois Hospital Association board and is working closely with the state to develop the application process and decide how to administer the awards. The Illinois Critical Access Network will be one administer for a particular subset of funds.

“Because of that, we do think that some of the funds will flow to rural hospitals, and I’m at least optimistic on that front,” said Mr. Davis. “I don’t think every state’s doing that, or can, but we did a lot of advocacy efforts when all of this was being formed to position the organization as an administrator because they already administer grants to other rural hospitals and critical access hospitals in rural areas, so they have a structure in place to execute quickly.”

A broader policy tension
The concerns come as rural hospitals face sustained financial strain. The legislation that created the Rural Health Transformation Program also includes long-term Medicaid cuts projected to reduce rural funding by $155 billion over 10 years, according to policy experts.

Some states have framed the funds as catalytic capital meant to support care model redesign, workforce pipelines, data infrastructure and regional collaboration — rather than backfilling operating losses. While many rural leaders support that long-term vision, they worry that hospitals already operating on razor-thin margins may not be positioned to compete for or sustain those investments.

Rural leaders said the next year will be critical in determining whether the program delivers meaningful support to providers. CMS completed its first-round awards in December, but many states are still awaiting federal approval of their implementation plans. Until those plans are finalized, hospitals say they have little visibility into timelines, eligibility criteria or funding mechanisms.

For now, many rural hospitals are planning cautiously — developing project concepts, exploring partnerships and advocating for more direct provider funding — while recognizing that ultimate decisions rest with state agencies.

The post Rural hospital CEOs fear losing out on transformation funds appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

The majority of primary care physicians report that drug shortages affect the quality of patient care and increase administrative burdens, according to new research published in JAMA Network Open.

The cross-sectional survey, conducted by researchers from the American Medical Association, collected responses from 902 U.S. primary care physicians between July and August 2024. Eighty-eight percent of respondents said they had experienced a drug shortage in the past six months.

Three key findings from the survey: 

1. Eighty-seven percent said drug shortages negatively affected care quality. Among this group, 92% reported responding by altering the drug of choice, while 63% said they postponed prescribing.
2. Drug categories linked to the highest rates of severe outcomes included endocrinologic drugs (54%), stimulants (52%) and infectious disease treatments (26%).
3. Most physicians said drug shortages added administrative burden. Seventy-three percent of respondents reported an increase in prior authorization paperwork related to substitute medications.

“New care plan formulations caused by drug shortages are challenging for physicians, with multiple factors considered to ensure appropriate care alternatives and an increased staff workload with limited reimbursement,” researchers said. “Drug shortages result in more prior authorization requests because alternate medications may differ from the standard of care or may not have included a patient’s formulary. This workplace stress caused most participants to feel frustrated by drug shortages.”

The post Most primary care physicians say drug shortages hurt care quality: Survey appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

AI scribes most help physicians who document more to begin with, according to research in the American Journal of Managed Care.

Here are five takeaways from the Jan. 8 study by researchers affiliated with University of California San Francisco and UCSF Health:

1. Most physicians (86.5%) felt that using an AI scribe reduced their documentation time, but there was no strong statistical association between perceived and objectively measured documentation time reductions.

2. For every 10% increase in the proportion of encounters where the AI scribe was used, documentation time dropped by just over 30 seconds per scheduled clinical hour — a modest but measurable improvement.

3. Physicians who were less efficient at documentation before using the AI scribe saw larger reductions in documentation time compared with their more efficient peers.

4. The results suggest that focusing AI scribe use on clinicians with high documentation time could produce a positive return on investment, since those providers realized the most time savings.

5. While subjective impressions were overwhelmingly positive regarding time saved, the actual measured time savings were relatively modest on average, indicating that benefits may be more nuanced than perceptions suggest.

The post AI scribes save more time for high-documenting physicians: Study appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Flu activity remained elevated nationwide during the week ending Jan. 3, with pediatric deaths and overall hospitalizations continuing to climb, according to recent data from the CDC. 

The latest flu report comes as some hospitals have begun postponing procedures and pharmacies face spot shortages of Tamiflu — developments that reflect the sustained severity of this year’s flu season.

CDC officials expect elevated activity to persist for several more weeks.

Here are four things to know from the CDC’s latest FluView report:

1. Flu positivity dipped but remains high.

Clinical labs reported a 24.7% influenza positivity rate — down from the previous week. The CDC said the decline may reflect changes in testing or reporting over the holidays rather than a true drop in transmission.

2. Pediatric deaths increased.

Eight influenza-associated pediatric deaths were reported during the week, bringing the season total to 17. The CDC estimates at least 15 million illnesses, 180,000 hospitalizations and 7,400 deaths from flu so far this season.

3. A(H3N2) continues to dominate.

Among influenza A viruses subtyped by public health labs, 92.3% were A(H3N2). Respiratory illness accounted for 7.2% of outpatient visits nationwide. Forty-four jurisdictions reported high or very high activity.

4. Hospitalizations continue to climb.

The cumulative flu hospitalization rate rose to 40.6 per 100,000 — the second highest for this point in the season since 2010-11. Adults 65 and older and children younger than 5 had the highest rates.

The post CDC: Flu-related pediatric deaths, hospitalizations rise appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Hospital and health systems are reimagining paid time off not simply as a benefit, but as a proactive tool for combatting burnout, retaining talent and fostering a healthier workplace culture.

While PTO is typically positioned as offering employees flexibility, some organizations have found traditional models may have the opposite effect — encouraging workers to stockpile time rather than use it. 

Hospital and health system human resources leaders told Becker’s how they are removing barriers that prevent employees from using PTO and managing related costs.

Louisville, Ky.-based UofL Health is reviewing its PTO strategy for 2026 with a focus on encouraging utilization. 

“Currently, we have 150% carryover for their balance year over year, and team members regularly reach the maximum limit,” said Chrissy Rogers, system director of strategic talent and rewards. “We recognize that staffing shortages can make taking PTO difficult, so we are introducing a new technology platform to optimize float staff scheduling.”

The tool will help ensure patient coverage while supporting time-off requests, Ms. Rogers said.

Oklahoma City-based Integris Health is planning to preserve the revamped PTO model it rolled out in 2024. The shift included increased PTO for most caregivers, paid family leave for all caregivers, and employer-funded short-term disability coverage from day one, according to Wendy Chandler, senior vice president and chief human resources officer.

The system moved away from accrual-based PTO, which may unintentionally contribute to burnout by encouraging employees to save time off in exchange for a future cash payment.

“Our non-accrual-based plans, which have no cash value and reset annually, promote well-being by empowering our caregivers to advocate for their own well-being and take the necessary time off to rest and refresh,” Ms. Chandler said.

The operational challenge prompted leaders to plan more intentionally for employee time off and reassess staffing to accommodate the increase in requests.

“We approached this knowing we had a lot of education to do with our caregivers, who initially perceived the loss of the cash benefit, did not immediately see that the new plans encouraged them to take time off,” Ms. Chandler said. “Several years later, our workforce is more rested, and turnover is down, and leaders have learned to anticipate and plan ahead to accommodate time off without increasing labor costs.”

Balancing cost, staffing and employee expectations

Ms. Rogers noted that culturally, UofL Health is committed to promoting flexibility and wellness for its team members.

“At the same time, healthcare organizations nationwide are facing significant financial challenges,” she said. “These realities require us to focus on delivering the highest quality care in the most efficient way possible while controlling costs. Technology plays a critical role in achieving this goal, which is why we are implementing the new float staff scheduling capabilities to better manage staffing across the system.”

UofL Health’s plan includes vacation accrual plus up to 32 personal hours annually, which are paid upfront in January and designated as “use-it-or-lose-it” to encourage employees to take time off as needed, reinforcing flexibility without increasing long-term costs.

The system also pairs PTO with wellness initiatives such as employee assistant program access, low-cost therapy visits and a wellness stipend.

Tampa, Fla.-based Moffitt Cancer Center is not planning changes to its PTO policy in 2026 after increasing accrual for long-tenured staff in 2023. The organization prioritizes work-life support through work-from-home opportunities and market-competitive PTO, according to Jack McKenna, executive vice president and chief human resources officer. 

“Labor costs, patient care staffing needs, and work-life programs are all factors that must be balanced,” Mr. McKenna said. “We believe a sustainable PTO model must support the organization and the people who make our work possible.”

Grand Blanc, Mich.-based McLaren Health Care uses proactive planning and flexibility to meet employee expectations around PTO, Carissa Burton, senior vice president of human resources, said.

“Flexible work options reduce reliance on PTO, advance scheduling helps manage coverage and costs, and managers encourage healthy PTO usage to prevent burnout and turnover,” Ms. Burton said.

The post Hospitals rethink PTO to combat burnout appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Since December 2025, the following hospitals and health systems have said they plan to raise their workers’ pay. 

Editor note: This webpage was created Jan. 9, and will continue to be updated regularly.

January

1. Members of the Maine State Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee at Portland-based Maine Medical Center approved a three-year labor contract. The agreement includes a 21% wage increase over the life of the deal, according to the union.

2. Renton, Wash.-based Providence is committing more than $600 million in merit and market adjustments for staff in 2026. The health system, which employs 125,000 caregivers across 51 hospitals, 1,014 clinics and a range of health and social services in seven states, announced the investment as part of its strategic overview.

December 2025

3. Emergency medical services workers at University Hospital in Newark, N.J., ratified their first labor contract as a distinct collective bargaining unit represented by Teamsters Local 97. The contract includes “improved wages and benefits to account for the increased cost of living in the area, as well as better vacation and holiday pay,” according to the union.

4. Members of Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 40 at Henry Ford Rochester (Mich.) Hospital ratified new labor agreements for nurses and radiology technicians. The radiology technicians’ contract includes pay raises of 6% to 15%, along with guaranteed wage increases and incentives throughout the three-year term, according to the union. The nurses’ contract includes an average 11% pay raise in the first year, staffing committee language and health and safety protections. 

5. Daviess Community Hospital in Washington, Ind., is investing $1.6 million in employee wage increases. The initiative includes raising the inpatient registered nurse pay scale from $33 to $45 per hour, along with other systemwide adjustments.

The post 5 hospitals, health systems raising workers’ pay appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Healthcare employment continued to grow in December, with the industry adding 21,100 jobs, according to the latest report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

BLS released the December jobs report Jan. 9.

Here are three more takeaways:

1. December’s healthcare job growth fell below the industry’s average monthly gain of 34,000 in 2025 — and below the 2024 average of 56,000.

2. Hospitals accounted for the bulk of December’s growth, adding 16,300 jobs. Ambulatory healthcare services added 4,600.

3. The U.S. economy added 50,000 jobs in December, driven by gains in healthcare, food services and drinking places, and social assistance.

The post Healthcare job growth slows: 4 notes appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

States are beginning to sketch out plans to deploy billions of dollars in new federal funding aimed at stabilizing and transforming rural healthcare, but early signals point to wide variation in approach and persistent uncertainty for rural hospitals waiting to understand when, how and whether funds will reach local providers.

CMS awarded $50 billion across all 50 states through its new Rural Health Transformation Program, a five-year initiative running from 2026 through 2030. The program will distribute $10 billion annually, with half of the funds allocated equally across states and the remainder awarded based on factors such as rural population, land mass, facility needs and proposed policy actions.

While first-year awards were finalized Dec. 29, many states have not yet received federal approval for their implementation plans. Rural hospital leaders say that lack of clarity has fragmented planning at a time when financial pressure on rural providers continues to intensify.

Few guarantees for hospitals
The Rural Health Transformation Program is designed to support access, infrastructure modernization, workforce capacity and new care delivery models in rural communities. States must submit annual updates to CMS and participate in oversight processes, but funding is not contingent on performance.

Notably, states are not legally required to pass funds directly to rural hospitals, a point that has emerged as a central concern among provider leaders.

That uncertainty is compounded by the broader legislative context. The same federal package funding the program includes long-term Medicaid cuts projected to reduce rural funding by $155 billion over the next decade, according to policy experts. For many rural hospitals, the transformation dollars represent a potential offset, but only if they flow to providers in a timely and meaningful way.

“We’re all waiting to hear more,” said David Lubarsky, MD, president and CEO of Westchester Medical Center Health Network in Valhalla, N.Y. “In the meantime, we are moving ahead with our plans to strengthen rural healthcare for our patients. We serve an area roughly the size of Connecticut in New York’s Hudson Valley, including many rural miles into the Catskill Mountains. Our patients there can’t wait.”

Dr. Lubarsky said one-third of the system’s strategic plan is Creating Care Everywhere, which will be rolled out soon and aligns with New York State’s rural health transformation plan to strengthen partnerships, advance technology-enhanced primary care, develop a sustainable workforce and build a technological infrastructure.

Early hospital engagement varies widely
States differ sharply in how much they are engaging rural providers in shaping priorities and processes. Some have involved hospitals early through surveys, workgroups and preliminary applications, while others have moved quickly with limited provider input. Raymond Hino, CEO of Bandon, Ore.-based Southern Coos Hospital & Health Center, said Oregon has taken a more collaborative approach, engaging eligible rural facilities to identify needs and gauge readiness before finalizing allocations.

“The state has been working with facilities eligible to apply for the funds with surveys for identified needs,” Mr. Hino said.

Oregon also created a nonbinding application process to help state officials understand the volume and type of funding requests it may receive. Each eligible facility was allowed to submit up to two proposed projects, a process that gave rural hospitals an early opportunity to shape how the funds might be used. Oregon has also outlined a phased distribution strategy. The first phase, covering 2026 and 2027, will focus on “catalyst” grants for shovel-ready projects in areas such as behavioral health, maternal health, aging in place and chronic disease management. A second phase will support larger, regional initiatives aimed at shared infrastructure and long-term sustainability.

Southern Coos plans to apply in the first phase for startup funding to support a new clinically integrated network, part of an effort led by independent rural hospitals with support from the Oregon Office of Rural Health. Much of the planning is already in place.

“The Oregon Office of Rural Health and a group of our independent (non-system affiliated) hospitals applied for start-up funding for an Oregon CIN,” said Mr. Hino. “Our hospital is one of the hospitals. We believe that we have an excellent chance to get the CIN start-up funded with RHTP dollars.”

Oregon intends to administer the program through its Rural Health Coordinating Council, which includes representation from rural hospitals, EMS, primary care providers and clinics. Many others will likely apply for funding to keep their obstetrics and women’s health programs afloat.

“I serve as one of the rural hospital representatives on the RHCC,” said Mr. Hino. “We are encouraged that rural stakeholders will be involved to ensure that funds are used for areas of need for our rural providers and patients.”

In other states, hospital executives feel less heard.

Many states are signaling that the dollars will be deployed through state-led initiatives, competitive grant programs, pilot projects and regional partnerships rather than direct, formula-based distributions to rural hospitals. Jeremiah Hodshire, president and CEO of Hillsdale (Mich.) Hospital, said that approach risks diluting the program’s impact on hospitals facing immediate financial distress.

He chaired a Michigan Hospital Association task force composed of rural hospital leaders from across the state that submitted recommendations to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

“The committee was representative of rural hospital leaders from across the state who spent months working on priorities that our hospitals viewed as immediate needs given the Medicaid cuts under OBBBA,” Mr. Hodshire said. But, he noted, the MDHHS didn’t accept any of the recommendations.

“I don’t expect to see much for our hospital,” he said.

Michigan ranked 43rd among state awards and was among the seven lowest-funded applications nationally. Mr. Hodshire said he was “disappointed” by the decision.

“This will have little impact on rural community hospitals, for which it was designed, and will create statewide programs and grant applications while dozens of hospitals in the state are at risk of closure,” he said.

MDHHS submitted an application for funds to strengthen rural hospital partnerships with community organizations, healthcare professional recruitment and retention, chronic disease prevention, integrated behavioral care access, technology implementation, interoperability and the establishment of a digital referral network.

“Michigan continues to support a resilient and innovative rural health system where every resident has access to high-quality care close to home,” said Elizabeth Hertel, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services director in a news release. “Our approved proposal for these federal funds focuses on enhancing the long-term sustainability of rural providers while supporting their growth and continued service to their communities.”

Other hospital executives echoed concerns that funds could be absorbed into state initiatives with long timelines and indirect benefits, rather than stabilizing fragile providers. The federal government approved South Carolina’s plans to have the funding administered through the health department’s Healthy Connections Medicaid program, but the state hasn’t decided yet who will receive funds or what programs would have priority.

“We don’t have as much control as we thought we’d have,” said Brian Sponseller, CEO of Carolina Pines Regional Medical Center in Hartsville, S.C. “We are in active conversations and calls with Eunis Medina, director of the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. They are listening to rural hospitals and they are waiting for feedback from the federal government.”

States want ‘system building,’ not short-term relief
In many states, leaders signaled a preference for long-term transformation over near-term financial relief, a shift that aligns with federal intent but may clash with the realities facing rural hospitals. Tom Vasko, CEO of Shattuck, Okla.-based Newman Memorial Hospital, said Oklahoma’s early messaging has emphasized sustainability, accountability and structural change rather than one-time infusions of cash.

“While certain operational details continue to be refined, the strategic intent of Oklahoma’s Rural Health Transformation Fund is coming into sharp focus,” said Mr. Vasko. “The state has deliberately organized this unprecedented investment around six foundational initiatives: innovating the care model, moving upstream, facilitating regional collaboration, shifting to value, growing next generation rural talent and building health data utility. Each is designed to address the structural realities facing rural healthcare across Oklahoma through disciplined, long-term transformation rather than episodic funding.”

States are increasingly framing the funds as support for care model redesign, workforce pipelines, data infrastructure and regional collaboration rather than backfilling operating losses. Rural providers with a proven record of success and with the capacity to execute transformational programs and track results are most likely considered responsible stewards of public funds.

“Across all six initiatives, Oklahoma is unmistakably positioning itself to invest in operational leaders and early implementers, rural hospitals and providers prepared not only to innovate but to scale thoughtfully, report transparently and translate transformation dollars into lasting access, quality and financial stability,” said Mr. Vasko.

That philosophy is shaping rural hospital strategic planning. At Newman Memorial, leaders anticipate pursuing targeted, initiative-aligned funding over multiple years rather than a single lump-sum award.

Potential investments include expanding specialty access and telehealth, launching preventive and chronic disease management programs, facilitating regional collaboration to reduce service duplication, strengthening workforce recruitment and retention, investing in data and analytics, and continuing the transition toward value-based care.

“At Newman Memorial, we view the Rural Health Transformation Fund as a catalytic opportunity to accelerate work that is already underway, such as strengthening access, sustainability and quality of care for the communities we serve across Northwest Oklahoma,” said Mr. Vasko. “While final allocations have not yet been determined, we anticipate pursuing targeted, initiative aligned funding rather than a single lump-sum award, with potential support spanning several million dollars over multiple years, as programs are phased and scaled.”

Rather than committing to single, large projects, many are developing modular proposals that can be scaled depending on funding structure, timing and approval. Kelly Macken-Marble, CEO of Osceola (Wis.) Medical Center, said hospitals are closely watching how grant processes evolve, particularly around workforce, technology and partnership-based initiatives.

“We are encouraged about the opportunity, specifically in the area of technology and innovation,” she said. “Grants for workforce and rural partnerships look to be focused on bringing together multisector partners. I am hopeful that we will have the opportunity to be included in those partnerships as the grant process develops.”

The post Rural health’s $50B moment – or missed opportunity? appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

The United Health Foundation released its 2025 “America’s Health Rankings Annual Report,” Jan. 8, presenting a wave of optimistic health signals, but disparities persist.

The organization analyzed 99 measures from 31 sources, relying on the most recent data, as of Oct. 17, 2025, except for data from the National Survey of Children’s Health, which was released Dec. 2, 2025. The report based rankings for the “healthiest” and “least healthy” states on “social and economic factors, physical environment, clinical care and behaviors and health outcomes.”

Here are the five healthiest states:

1. New Hampshire

2. Massachusetts

3. Vermont

4. Connecticut

5. Utah

Here are the five least healthy states:

1. Louisiana

2. Arkansas

3. Mississippi

4. Alabama

5. West Virginia

And here are seven other things to know from the report:

1. Between 2022 and 2023, life expectancy improved, with premature deaths dropping 8%. This resulted in 7,862 years lost before age 75 per 100,000 people, down from 8,522 in 2022.

2. The number of mental health providers increased 57% between September 2018 and September 2025, with a 5% increase from 2024 to 2025.

3. Preventive cancer screening rates have been improving in 47 states and Washington, D.C.

4. The percentage of adults with at least three chronic conditions have increased across age ranges. Adults ages 18 to 44 years old were hit the hardest, though, presenting a 17% increase between 2023 and 2024. The most common documented chronic condition was arthritis, followed by depression.

5. The homeless population increased 16% between 2023 and 2024. Illinois saw a 114% increase, the steepest nationwide.

6. Drug death rates improved for the first time since 2018. However, rates were still significantly higher among the American Indian/Alaska Native population, those in West Virginia, the 35- to 44-year-old population and males.

7. While rural communities saw significant boosts across some clinical care and behavioral measures, the improvement in cancer screenings was more minimal compared to metropolitan areas. A lack of physical activity was still greater in rural communities, but the percentage of adults reporting no activity beyond their jobs decreased more substantially.

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Women account for 50.2% of all U.S. medical residents, achieving a majority share for the first time, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges’ 2025 “Report on Residents.”

Women make up the majority of residents in obstetrics and gynecology at 88.8%, pediatrics at 75.8%, family medicine at 56.3% and psychiatry at 53.9%. Men are the majority of residents in orthopaedic surgery at 76.3%, neurological surgery at 72.9% and anesthesiology at 61.8%, the report said. 

The AAMC’s 2025 “Report on Residents” highlighted 10 additional trends: 

Pre-residency:

1. Less than one-third of graduating medical students have the same residency specialty preference as they did in their first year of medical school. In 2025, 29.4% of students graduating from U.S. medical schools indicated the same specialty preference as their first-year choice. 

2. Specialties with the highest continuity of preference between first-year of medical school to graduation were orthopaedic surgery, neurological surgery and pediatrics. 

Residency: 

3. First-year residents in neurological surgery report participating in the highest average number of abstracts, presentations and publications.  

4. Since 2019, the number of active residents has annually increased by about 4,000. In 2025, the AAMC recorded 163,189 medical residents in the U.S. 

5. Across all specialties and subspecialties, women — for the first time — accounted for the majority of residents and fellows. In 2024-25, 50.2% of residents were women, compared to 49.1% in 2023, 48.3% in 2022 and 47.3% in 2021. 

6. By race and ethnicity, 45.9% of U.S.-citizen MD residents reported white, 23.6% reported Asian, 9.3% Hispanic or Latino, 7.1% Black, 0.6% American Indian or Alaska Native, 0.5% Middle Eastern or North African, and 0.2% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.

Post-residency: 

7. More than half, or 55.7%, of physicians who completed their residencies between 2015 and 2024 are practicing in the state where their residency training took place. 

8. Women are more likely than men, by a difference of 58.7% and 53.2%, respectively, to practice in the state where they completed their residency training between 2015 and 2024. 

9. California has the highest retention rate, with 75.7% of physicians practicing in that state after completing their residency there. The District of Columbia has the lowest retention rate at 66.4%. 

10. Among those who completed residency training between 2015 and 2024 and now hold a full-time faculty position, 78.5% are at the assistant professor level.

The post 10 medical residency trends appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

The healthcare sector is facing a decisive moment. While nursing shortages continue to dominate national conversations and pressure patient care teams, an equally destabilizing challenge sits upstream: instability within the clinical faculty model responsible for preparing the next generation of nurses. As clinical complexity accelerates and instructional capacity is strained, traditional approaches to academic preparation and clinical onboarding are no longer sufficient to meet workforce demands.

Temporary, part-time clinical instructors remain common across schools of nursing. Many balance multiple jobs, unpredictable schedules, and limited institutional support for their instructional responsibilities. The result is fragmented student experiences, increased faculty workload, and significant operational disruption at both the academic and clinical level.  These challenges ultimately translate to decreased workforce readiness and higher early-career turnover as new graduates struggle to transition into frontline nursing. 

Nursing education and healthcare delivery can no longer operate as separate systems. A sustainable workforce pipeline strategy requires aligned priorities and intentional partnership between Academic institutions and health systems. 

At Emory Healthcare and the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, we are demonstrating what this collaboration looks like in practice.

A Model Built on Systemness

To establish a practice-aligned and sustainable pipeline, Emory launched Emory ALIGN – Academic Learning Integrated with Guided Nursing Practice. This collaborative model embeds full-time, master’s-prepared nurses into dual-role positions within Emory Healthcare, where they serve as both clinical instructors for nursing students and clinical nurses contributing directly to patient care  

Unlike traditional adjunct or shared-appointment models, Emory ALIGN instructors are employed by the health system, while receiving academic oversight, training, and mentorship from the School of Nursing. This structure ensures instruction is grounded in current standards of care while remaining consistent with academic expectations and curricular goals.

By replacing external, temporary instructors with fully integrated clinicians, students learn within the same workflows, technologies, and interprofessional environments where they will eventually practice. This approach also reinforces organizational culture early, building familiarity, confidence, and commitment before graduation.

Simulation-Driven Faculty Development

A cornerstone of the Emory ALIGN model is a comprehensive faculty development program grounded in the Healthcare Simulation Standards of Best Practice™. Clinical instructors are not only clinically competent but also prepared as effective educators equipped to support learning in increasingly complex care environments.

The development process includes structured onboarding, simulation-based training i:

– Asynchronous modules introducing clinical instruction and simulation standards  

– Hands-on workshops covering the clinical instructor role, simulation facilitation, pre-briefing, and debriefing  

– Guided observation and co-teaching with experienced faculty  

– Ongoing mentorship supported by standardized competency evaluation  

Simulation prepares clinical instructors to lead learning effectively by strengthening facilitation, communication, and clinical judgment assessment within real-world care direct-care environments. This elevates instructional quality and student confidence.

Workforce Impact: Growing Talent from Within

Emory ALIGN directly supports workforce development by growing and retaining talent well before licensure:

– Students experience consistent, high-quality instruction aligned with practice  

– Nurses expand their career pathways within the organization, strengthening retention  

– Clinical leaders gain visibility into a pipeline of graduates prepared to succeed  

Early outcomes demonstrate a measurable impact. Since January 2025, 55 Emory ALIGN instructors have been recruited and trained to support learning and direct patient care. They have covered more than 600 bedside shifts, supporting staffing flexibility, while maintaining instructional continuity. Student evaluations across clinical and simulation settings exceed benchmark means with feedback consistently highlighting instructor engagement, clarity, and support. The program has also reduced absenteeism and reliance on multiple instructors per course, improving operational stability across clinical placements. 

These improvements strengthen outcomes at the bedside by ensuring graduates arrive ready to contribute safely and effectively.

Shared Value Through Collaboration

Emory ALIGN represents a balanced distribution of responsibility:

The School of Nursing contributes:

– Faculty oversight and instructional training  

– Curriculum alignment and academic evaluation  

– Simulation standards and mentoring  

Emory Healthcare contributes:

– Employment, supervision, and compensation  

– Clinical integration and workload support  

– Strategic workforce placement based on care needs  

Both partners benefit from an aligned vision of workforce growth that supports nursing practice and learning simultaneously.

Scaling for Systemwide Integration

The long-term success of the Emory ALIGN model relies on scale, consistency, and continued partnership integration. Emory Healthcare aims to deploy 62 clinical instructors by the start of the 2026 Spring semester, ensuring broad coverage and sustained instructional quality across multiple campuses and specialties.

As the model expands, we will continue monitoring:

– Workforce retention and hiring outcomes  

– Student learning and satisfaction  

– Clinical performance measures among new graduates  

– Financial impact related to reduced temporary labor use  

This data will refine the model and support replication within other academic health systems.

A Blueprint for the Future of Nursing Education

The workforce crisis is a shared challenge, and its solutions must also be shared. 

Academic medical systems are uniquely positioned to lead not only in patient care and research, but in shaping the next generation of nurses who will sustain and advance that care. Emory ALIGN demonstrates that when education and clinical service operate as a unified ecosystem, outcomes improve for students, instructors, health systems, and patients alike.

This model emphasizes the power of intentional partnership:

– Aligned goals between school and system  

– Integrated roles blending learning and practice  

– Co-owned outcomes that strengthen the pipeline  

Nursing excellence begins long before a graduate’s first independent shift. By investing at the beginning of the professional journey, we are ensuring workforce strength and resiliency far into the future.

Emory ALIGN is more than a staffing strategy; it is a commitment to sustaining the profession, protecting patient care, and advancing the mission of academic nursing through partnership and innovation.

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As the U.S. confronts one of its most severe flu seasons, Tamiflu, a common antiviral medication to treat influenza, is in shortage in pockets across the country, Bloomberg reported Jan. 7. 

In Utah, where flu activity is high, pharmacists are not yet reporting supply issues. But in Georgia, where flu activity is very high, drugstores are scrambling for Tamiflu (oseltamivir). 

“Hospitals are also asking if we have it,” Parth Patel, PharmD, a pharmacist at an independent pharmacy in Georgia, told Bloomberg. 

Prescription fills for Tamiflu seem to have peaked during the last week of December, according to GoodRx. 

The FDA does not include oseltamivir in its drug shortage list, but the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists’ drug shortage database does. According to the ASHP, 10 presentations are in short supply, including two discontinued Tamiflu presentations from Genentech, four generics from Alvogen, three from Novadoz Pharmaceuticals and one from Amneal Pharmaceuticals. 

The drug companies said they could not estimate a resupply date. Twenty-one other presentations of oseltamivir are available, according to the ASHP. 

The post Tamiflu in shortage appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

San Diego-based Rady Children’s Health has created its own private generative AI platform to answer questions and perform administrative tasks for employees.

For example, a staffer might write, “I need to take these two days off,” and the GPT would complete the PTO request in Workday. The hope is to create efficiencies at Rady, which merged with Orange, Calif.-based Children’s Hospital of Orange County in 2025 to create a roughly $3 billion health system.

“You know the saying: ‘No margin, no mission,’” John Henderson, vice president and chief information and digital officer of Rady Children’s Health, told Becker’s. “As technology leaders, we have to drive value, and we have to do it in the most efficient way to help drive the outcomes that we want for our patients and patient families. And this is one of the areas we think we can make a big impact.”

The merger, which effectively doubled the organization’s size, helped spur the creation of the platform. And it made more financial sense for the health system to build its own GPT — using Claude from AI startup Anthropic through an existing partnership with Amazon Web Services — rather than buying what was available commercially. Rady is starting with administrative use cases but plans to eventually pivot to clinical.

“What we want to be able to accomplish is really eliminating inefficiencies and eliminating burden, whether it’s human resources, whether it’s the finance group, whether it’s our strategy group, who create a lot of content and have to research a lot of information,” Mr. Henderson said.

Prompts might include, “Send me a profile of this vendor,” or “Create a description for this new job.” Employees will no longer have to log into individual platforms that they might not be familiar with.

“So you have your ERPs, you have your core systems of record, and we have great partners when it comes to those,” Mr. Henderson said. “But my goal is to make them irrelevant in the context of how we interact with them. I want to be able to give us the opportunity where, whatever we need our employees and associates to do in those systems, they just tell the GPT, ‘Here’s what I need for you to do.’”

The GPT can now summarize files and access Rady’s intranet, which has a bevy of customized information. The three-hospital system intends to next introduce a feature called “Ask the Data,” where employees can query Rady’s various dashboards and analytics applications, including patient censuses, quality measures and financials.

“We want to make this broadly used across the entire health system,” Mr. Henderson said. “There’s pressure in the healthcare industry — regulations, CMS guidelines changing — and the one thing we want to make sure we do is be as efficient as we possibly can with the capabilities we have available to us, improving our outcomes and helping support the bottom line that we have to achieve.”

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Two healthcare roles made LinkedIn’s 2026 “Jobs on the Rise” list, which highlights the fastest-growing jobs across the U.S.

Healthcare reimbursement specialists ranked No. 6, while psychiatric nurse practitioners came in at No. 19.

Several other roles on the list are also found within hospitals and health systems, including fundraising officers, data center technicians, construction project leads and public affairs specialists.

More than half of U.S. professionals plan to search for a new job in 2026, but 76% report feeling unprepared, according to LinkedIn research.

The list was compiled by analyzing millions of jobs started by LinkedIn members between Jan. 1, 2023, and July 31, 2025, to calculate growth rates for each job title. Internships, volunteer roles, interim roles and student roles jobs were not included.

Here are the 25 fastest-growing jobs in the U.S., according to LinkedIn:

1. Artificial intelligence engineers

2. AI consultants and strategists

3. New home sales specialists

4. Data annotators

5. AI/machine learning researchers

6. Healthcare reimbursement specialists

7. Strategic advisers and independent consultants

8. Advertising sales specialists

9. Founders 

10. Sales executives

11. Commissioning managers

12. Venture partners

13. Field marketing representatives

14. Fundraising officers

15. Background investigators

16. Business development executives

17. Datacenter technicians

18. Travel advisers

19. Psychiatric nurse practitioners

20. Quantitative researchers and analysts

21. Financial advisers and planners

22. Construction project leads

23. Legal researchers

24. Public affairs specialists

25. Benefits advisers

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Honolulu is 2026’s best city for an active lifestyle, while Garland, Texas, is the worst, according to an annual WalletHub analysis published Jan. 7.

The personal finance company compared the 100 most populated U.S. cities across two dimensions: budget and participation, and sports and outdoors. WalletHub examined these dimensions using 35 metrics, ranging from the city’s bike score to the share of physically inactive adults.

Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with 100 indicating the most favorable conditions for a physically active population. WalletHub calculated a weighted average across all metrics for each city to determine an overall score, which was then used to rank the cities. Read more about the methodology here.

Best cities for an active lifestyle in 2026: 

1. Honolulu — 65.79

2. New York City — 62.03

3. San Francisco — 59.31

4. Chicago — 59.03

5. Los Angeles — 58.91

6. Las Vegas — 58.09

7. Atlanta — 57.32

8. Cincinnati — 56.65

9. Denver — 56.36

10. Madison, Wis. — 55.83

Worst cities for an active lifestyle: 

1. Garland, Texas — 29.53

2. Irving, Texas — 29.88

3. Fort Wayne, Ind. — 30.50

4. Fresno, Calif. — 31.12

5. San Bernardino, Calif. — 31.84

6. Hialeah, Fla. — 31.94

7. Corpus Christi, Texas — 32.20

8. Newark, N.J. — 32.21     

9. Winston-Salem, N.C. — 32.44

10. North Las Vegas, Nev. — 32.77

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ChatGPT is rapidly emerging as a new waypoint in the patient journey, with millions of Americans using the generative AI tool to research symptoms, prepare for appointments, navigate insurance and seek answers when providers are unavailable.

More than 40 million people in the U.S. now use ChatGPT daily for healthcare-related questions, according to a new OpenAI report shared with Becker’s. Healthcare prompts account for more than 5% of all messages on the platform globally, with one in four users submitting a health-related question each week.

The data suggests patients are increasingly turning to AI as the healthcare system grows more complex and harder to access. In the U.S., 1.6 million to 1.9 million ChatGPT messages each week focus on insurance issues such as billing, claims and plan comparisons, OpenAI reported.

Much of that activity occurs outside the clinic. Seven in 10 healthcare conversations on ChatGPT happen after hours, pointing to demand for real-time guidance when physicians’ offices are closed.

Use is especially pronounced in rural and underserved areas. Users in rural communities send nearly 600,000 healthcare-related messages each week, while areas more than 30 minutes from a hospital averaged more than 580,000 messages weekly during a four-week period in late 2025. Wyoming, Oregon, Montana, South Dakota and Vermont ranked highest for healthcare-related messages originating from hospital deserts.

Patients are also beginning to use ChatGPT more deeply in their care journeys. Some are uploading test results, medical images and physicians’ notes to the chatbot in search of faster explanations or second opinions, The New York Times reported in December.

That behavior has prompted warnings from clinicians and privacy experts, who say generative AI tools can produce inaccurate responses and are not subject to HIPAA protections.

“Just because you’re providing all of this information to language models doesn’t mean they’re effectively using that information in the same way that a physician would,” Danielle Bitterman, MD, clinical lead for data science and AI at Mass General Brigham, told The New York Times.

At the same time, clinicians themselves are increasingly using AI, further normalizing its role in healthcare. Sixty-six percent of U.S. physicians reported using AI for at least one use case in 2024, up from 38% the year before, according to data cited in the OpenAI report. Nearly half of U.S. nurses reported using AI weekly.

Together, the findings show ChatGPT is no longer just a search tool for health questions. It is increasingly woven into how patients move through the healthcare system, filling access gaps, answering administrative questions and shaping how people interpret medical information.

For health systems, the trend raises new questions about accuracy, privacy and trust as generative AI becomes a parallel source of healthcare guidance, often outside providers’ visibility or control.

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Marietta, Ga.-based Wellstar Health System has named a COO for its new $272 million hospital set to open in August.

Nelson So was appointed COO of Wellstar Columbia County Medical Center in Augusta, Ga.,  in September. A retired colonel with the Army Medical Service Corps, he brings more than 25 years of healthcare leadership experience and oversees all aspects of the hospital, according to a Sept. 8 Wellstar news release shared with Becker’s.

The hospital will expand services, teams and career pathways, according to a Jan. 1 LinkedIn post from Wellstar.

The hospital will include 100 inpatient beds, six operating rooms and a 19-room emergency department. The campus will also feature a medical office building with 11 outpatient clinics. 

Construction began in April 2024.

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Jacksonville, Fla.-based Nemours Children’s Health Executive Vice President and CFO Caswell Samms III is urging hospital and health system financial leaders to evolve beyond their traditional roles in 2026 as the industry navigates increasingly challenging circumstances. 

“I don’t think we can continue to operate as financial scorekeepers,” he said during a Becker’s CFO+Revenue Cycle Podcast episode. “We’re going to have to be more strategically engaged and fluent in clinical operations, technology, artificial intelligence, quality and workforce dynamics. As a financial leader, a little bit of rigor and empathy is going to create a lot of longevity for your organization.”

Nemours Children’s Health is the sole multi-state pediatric health system in the country. It comprises two hospitals with more than 10,000 staff and 1,100 employed physicians operating in 80 different locations, Mr. Samms said.

On the technology front, Mr. Samms said Nemours is heavily investing in its Center for Advanced Care at Home program, a telemedicine model that’s shown early success in the system’s Florida market and was recently launched in Delaware. 

The program helps keep patients out of the emergency room and allows for earlier discharges from pediatric ICUs. 

“Because of the reach we have and people seeking specialized services, we have families who may travel 70 to 90 miles,” he said. “Imagine, as a mother or father, not having to travel and you can just log into a telemedicine system to have a discussion with a nurse and be able to alleviate any concerns, instead of having an unnecessary visit in the emergency room. We’re significantly invested in seeing that continue to grow.”

Looking back on 2025, Mr. Samms said learning to move faster was a crucial lesson he’s bringing into the new year, with Nemours doubling down on fundamentals to be as agile as possible amid industry changes. 

“We trust our leadership team to make informed decisions,” he said. “We’re going to have the appropriate financial durability that we need …  I think that’ll continue to help us make sure we serve our mission in a way that we want to serve.”

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New Jersey has forgiven more than $86 million in medical debt for more than 53,000 residents, marking the sixth round of relief under the state’s partnership with national nonprofit Undue Medical Debt.

Six things to know:

1. The state used about $600,000 in American Rescue Plan funds to facilitate the latest debt purchase, which Undue completed through participating providers. Undue-branded letters notifying affected residents began arriving Dec. 27, according to a Jan. 2 news release from Gov. Phil Murphy’s office.

2. With this round included, the state has now erased nearly $1.4 billion in medical debt for more than 828,000 residents.

3. To qualify, individuals must earn at or below 400% of the federal poverty level or hold medical debt totaling at least 5% of their annual income. There is no application process; debt is purchased in bulk and forgiven for eligible residents.

4. New Jersey is among the few states to both fund direct medical debt relief and ban most medical debt from appearing on credit reports. More than 3 in 4 voters support policies protecting consumers from medical debt, according to recent polling cited by the governor’s office.

5. Arizona has also partnered with Undue Medical Debt, eliminating $642 million in medical debt for 485,000 residents as of December.

6. The debt purchases come as legislators in several states are advancing medical debt protections, while the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau maintains that states cannot regulate consumer credit reports.

The post New Jersey eliminates $86 million in medical debt  appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

The New York State Nurses Association delivered 10-day strike notices Jan. 2 to 12 hospitals in New York City.

Here are seven things to know:

1. If agreements are not reached, as many as 20,000 nurses could strike Jan. 12. This would mark the largest nurse strike in city history, according to a Jan. 2 union news release. 

2. The notices followed the expiration of union contracts on Dec. 31. Nurses voted Dec. 22 to authorize a strike.

3. The union is seeking contracts that guarantee healthcare benefits, safe staffing standards and protections from workplace violence. 

“Management is refusing to guarantee our healthcare benefits and trying to roll back the safe staffing standards we fought for and won,” NYSNA President Nancy Hagans, BSN, RN, said in the release. “We have been bargaining for months, but hospitals have not done nearly enough to settle fair contracts that protect patient care. Striking is always a last resort; however, nurses will not stop until we win contracts that deliver patient and nurse safety. The future of care in this city is far too important to compromise on our values as nurses.”

4. The following hospitals in New York City received strike notices:

• BronxCare Health System

• The Brooklyn Hospital Center

• Flushing Hospital Medical Center

• Interfaith Medical Center / One Brooklyn Health

• Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center / One Brooklyn Health

• Maimonides Medical Center

• Montefiore Medical Center

• Mount Sinai Hospital

• Mount Sinai Morningside and Mount Sinai West

• NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia University Medical Center

• Richmond University Medical Center

• Wyckoff Heights Medical Center

5. Union members also voted to authorize a strike three years ago, with about 7,000 nurses at two hospitals walking off the job in January 2023. The union represents 42,000 members across New York and is affiliated with National Nurses United, which has more than 225,000 members nationwide.

6. One Brooklyn Health CEO Sandra Scott, MD, said in a Jan. 2 LinkedIn post that the system is taking proactive steps to ensure uninterrupted patient care, including contingency plans for additional staffing support and training.

“We deeply value our nurses and the essential role they play in caring for our patients,” Dr. Scott said. “We are committed to reaching a fair and sustainable resolution that supports our staff while ensuring continued access to the healthcare services our communities depend on.”

7. The following hospitals shared Jan. 2 statements with Becker’s in response to the strike notice:

• A Maimonides spokesperson said the system is preparing to hire contract nurses and redeploy staff to ensure high-quality care. “Our nurses are critical to our success at Maimonides,” the spokesperson said. “We remain hopeful that we can avoid a strike and negotiate a fair contract that rewards nurses for their important work and recognizes the increasingly difficult financial challenges that we and other hospitals face.”

• A Montefiore spokesperson said union leaders have presented the hospital with demands that would cost $3.6 billion over the length of the contract’s duration. “Additionally, NYSNA leadership’s demands will clearly impact patient safety, like nurses not being terminated if found to be compromised by drugs or alcohol while on the job, and taking issue with our reasonable effort to roll out panic buttons for frontline staff in the emergency department,” the spokesperson said. “While Montefiore will continue to bargain in good faith, we are preparing for what we anticipate could be a multi-week strike.”

• A Mount Sinai spokesperson said it is continuing to work in good faith toward an agreement but is prepared for any outcome to maintain high-quality patient care. “NYSNA has acknowledged that federal funding cuts will cost New York hospitals $8 billion and 35,000 jobs, but just three years after its last strike the union is showing once again it is willing to use patients as bargaining chips this time while pushing billions of dollars in economic demands that would compromise the financial health of our entire system and threaten the financial stability of hospitals across New York City,” the spokesperson said.

• A NewYork-Presbyterian spokesperson said the system is taking necessary steps to ensure safe patient care. “We have proposed significant wage increases that keep our nurses among the highest paid in the region, enhancements to their already outstanding benefits, and new strategies that demonstrate our shared commitment to safe staffing,” the spokesperson said. “So far, NYSNA hasn’t moved off from its unrealistic demand of nearly 30% wage increases over three years. Collective bargaining requires compromise from both parties in order to reach an agreement.”

• A Richmond University Medical Center spokesperson said the hospital is committed to negotiating in good faith. “While discussions are ongoing, we cannot comment on specific details,” the spokesperson said. “We want to emphasize that we deeply value and appreciate our nurses for the exceptional care they provide to our patients and community every day.” 

Becker’s has reached out to all 12 hospitals and will update this story if more information becomes available.

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Health system C-suites across the U.S. are targeting ambulatory care expansion for 2026 as pressure mounts to lower cost of care and deliver on value-based promises.

Even the nation’s largest health systems are strengthening their ambulatory footprints. Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health, which operates in 28 states, is focused on outpatient growth.

“Our best growth opportunities are in our ambulatory footprint and enhancing our patient care access,” said Shelly Schorer, CFO of the California Division of CommonSpirit Health, which already includes 125 ambulatory sites. “There’s still a need for the acute care setting, but we are seeing more and more services and healthcare procedures moving to the outpatient setting and I think we need to expand our ambulatory care footprint.”

That ambulatory footprint includes outpatient clinics, surgery centers and urgent care facilities as well as digital health and telehealth for multiple convenient access points. Patient experience and satisfaction with their care journey has become increasingly important to hospitals and health systems as they’re competing with traditional and nontraditional care delivery sources.

“We are not only serving our communities better, but we’re positioning CommonSpirit for sustainable growth in a rapidly evolving healthcare landscape,” she said. “I think that’s where you’re going to see us really succeed in the next year or two.”

Expanding outpatient centers and telehealth can create more local access points for care delivery, but it’s expensive to build. Outpatient service and virtual care are also reimbursed at a lower rate than inpatient services, challenging the balance sheet. C-suite executives are carefully identifying the right transformational vision to provide the best quality of care for their patients with minimal disruption to financial sustainability.

“If we start investing in ambulatory care, yes it’s a lower overhead, but it’s also lower reimbursement,” said Ms. Schorer. “We have to make sure that we don’t over-invest in our acute care. We have to balance that setting. If we’re getting it right in the acute care setting, that’s fine, but if we start to see a shift to outpatient, then we have to adjust our overhead and our support for the acute care setting. It’s all about balance and making sure that we are where we need to be.”

That balance is critical for CFOs and strategic leaders to keep top of mind as they’re planning for the future. Ms. Schorer also cautioned that health systems can’t invest in everything at the same time; they need to divert resources into the spaces most beneficial for patients and the system as a whole.

“When we start to expand our ambulatory care footprint, or our urgent care, then we have to look at whether there are other acute care settings that we need to come up with a partner for to fill that space,” she said. “It’s really about constantly having those conversations and managing how we care for our patients and looking ahead, because there is a need for the acute care space. But we can’t sustain everything and still grow in our ambulatory care setting. We have to start to adjust our focus and our spending to make sure that it still makes sense for the communities we serve.”

The post The business case for ambulatory growth, despite lower pay appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

Patients in Washington, D.C., had the highest median time spent in the emergency department, while patients in North Dakota had the lowest, CMS data shows.

The agency’s “Timely and Effective Care” dataset, updated Nov. 26, tracks the average median time patients spend in the emergency department before leaving. The measures apply to children and adults treated at hospitals paid under the Inpatient Prospective Payment System or the Outpatient Prospective Payment System, as well as those that voluntarily report data on relevant measures for Medicare patients, Medicare managed care patients and non-Medicare patients. 

Data was collected in the calendar year 2024. Averages include data for Veterans Health Administration and Department of Defense hospitals. Learn more about the methodology here.

Nationwide, the median time patients spent in the ED was 161 minutes, down from 163 minutes in 2023, according to CMS data. 

Here’s how each state and Washington, D.C., stacks up.

District of Columbia — 301 minutes

Maryland — 246

Massachusetts — 220

Rhode Island — 220

Delaware — 216

Connecticut — 196

New York — 192

North Carolina — 190

Vermont — 185

New Jersey — 183

Pennsylvania — 182

Arizona — 179

California — 178

Illinois — 167

Virginia — 162

Georgia — 160

Michigan — 160

New Mexico — 159

South Carolina — 159

Tennessee — 159

Maine — 158

Ohio — 157

Florida — 156

Missouri — 153

Kentucky — 150

Washington — 149

Indiana — 146

Alabama — 145

Texas — 144

West Virginia — 143

Idaho — 142

Nevada — 142

Oregon — 140

Alaska — 137

Wisconsin — 136

Arkansas — 133

Colorado — 133

New Hampshire — 133

Wyoming — 133

Louisiana — 130

Utah — 130

Minnesota — 129

Mississippi — 129

Montana — 125

Iowa — 124

Kansas — 122

Oklahoma — 117

South Dakota — 114

Hawaii — 113

Nebraska — 112

North Dakota — 110

The post ED visit times, by state appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.

The disease burden of chronic conditions has been rising dramatically—a Milken Institute report estimated that 30.8 million people in the U.S. had three or more chronic diseases in 2015; projections suggest that approximately 83.4 million people in the U.S. will have three or more chronic diseases by 2030. These “polychronic” patients have complex care needs that strain resources and negatively impact quality of life.

Multiple factors drive these trends. Longer lifespans and lifestyle choices increase the chances of developing multiple chronic conditions; for example, the rise in obesity is linked to a higher risk of having several metabolic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and hypertension. This trend not only contributes to poor health outcomes it is also places financial strain on the industry, as 90% of the $5 trillion spent on U.S. healthcare annually involves people with chronic conditions.

Unfortunately, our healthcare system has not been adjusted to the changing demographics in the U.S. Diagnosing and treating a person’s health in a silo, organ by organ, is an expensive, ineffective, and antiquated way of delivering care. For positive outcomes, a comprehensive and personalized approach, simultaneously evaluating and treating the whole person and all chronic conditions, is required.

The current healthcare model misses the “big picture” by focusing on each chronic condition separately. There are three major problems with this historic approach:

• Patients quickly experience “specialist fatigue,” juggling appointments with multiple physicians and care plans that are not coordinated. This leads to conflicting instructions, multiple prescriptions that are not managed effectively, and confusion
• Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) barriers – such as lack of financial resources, food insecurity, and housing instability – are not considered when treating patients’ whole health. In fact, 30–55% of health outcomes entail SDOH factors.
• More time for the patient, but not more time with the patient. The average duration of a consultation with a primary care doctor is about 18 minutes – which is not sufficient to fully understand the patient. Not to mention the time spent scheduling, traveling to/from the appointment, waiting in the waiting room, or picking up prescriptions.

The solution to these challenges is holistic, in-home, patient-directed care.

Monogram Health’s patient-directed treatment model empowers patients to make their own health decisions by sending clinicians directly to their homes and giving them an integrated care plan personalized to their individual needs.

Monogram’s operations are physician-led and supported by local Advanced Practice Providers (APPs), registered nurses, as well as social workers, dieticians, and pharmacists. At the top of Monogram’s innovative model are multi-specialty physicians (i.e. cardiologists, nephrologists, pulmonologists, endocrinologists, palliative care and behavioral health) who have developed Monogram’s integrated clinical interventions, order sets, and protocols which are then carried out by the regional care team that goes into the patient’s home and performs behavioral, mental health, medical, and SDOH assessments used to create a personalized care plan that is continuously reevaluated. Monogram’s unique approach offers powerful benefits:

• Drive care in unique and powerful ways. The multispecialty-trained team can diagnose, treat, order tests, and prescribe medication through a specialty lens. Monogram’s innovative, integrated approach simultaneously evaluates and treats the whole person and all chronic conditions that are present.

• Forge a relationship with the patient, caregivers, and family members. The team offers support, education, and agency in a way that brief office visits cannot achieve. Family members and caregivers, in addition to the patient, can contact and instantly get connected with a Monogram clinician twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

• 360-degree view of the patient’s health. Being in the home provides a unique perspective for the clinician. Monogram clinicians can evaluate and review all medications, SDOH barriers, and conduct interdisciplinary assessments, such as behavioral and mental health—which cannot be effectively diagnosed on an intake form.

In fact, accessing mental health treatment can be burdensome, and 30% of Monogram’s patients have mental and behavioral health issues. That is why Monogram weaves these services into the fabric of all in-home visits, leveraging face-to-face interactions as well as tools like patient health questionnaires (i.e., PHQ-2 and PHQ-9) to deploy the right clinicians and treatments. Monogram has a chief psychiatrist as part of its multispecialty model who develops protocols and order sets to include this scope of services for patients.

Monogram’s model “bakes in” all aspects of a patient’s care that are often treated as “add-ons” or just not available elsewhere. For example, Monogram treats palliative care equitably and is embedded into every one of its clinical interventions and protocols. Similarly, Monogram’s pharmacy services are embedded into patients’ care plans; in which comprehensive medication reviews are given to all patients.

The number of conditions an average Monogram patient has is around 8. When taking a holistic approach to a person’s treatment and care, with all treatment options considered equitably, patients and partners alike experience:

• Better Outcomes. Monogram patients have 44% fewer hospital admissions and 52% fewer emergency room visits. Validating that their conditions are stable and managed.
• Affordability and Reduced Costs. Our partners have seen cost savings of $160M in 2024 and $375M in 2025.
• Better Patient Satisfaction and Experience. Monogram has a track record of improving NPS scores as well as a plan’s Star Ratings by +0.77 (on average).

In future articles, we will detail how Monogram expands the scope of care beyond traditional methods to treat a patient’s whole health, under one care plan, by employing an integrated team of clinicians and specialists across multiple disciplines:

• Cardiology. Integrated with other specialties, our in-home capabilities reduce stress and burden on patients’ hearts and lead to better cross disciplinary outcomes and a better quality of life.

• Pulmonology. Respiratory diseases like COPD and asthma intersect with and exacerbate other conditions. Our model focuses on early symptom relief through palliative principles and a holistic view to improve all aspects of a patient’s life.

• Endocrinology. Our in-home approach to endocrinology goes beyond treating diabetes and connects with all the other specialties to foster improved control and fewer complications.

• Nephrology. We do not just treat the symptoms of kidney disease but also the conditions that cause it.

• Palliative care. Palliative care is threaded through all the specialties; applying it early has a tremendous positive impact on a patient’s overall health.

Shifting away from fractured, siloed care that costs more and puts the burden on patients, Monogram is working to improve the patient experience and revolutionize the standard and delivery of treatment in the U.S.

The post Revolutionizing the Standard of Care and Patient Experience: A Holistic Approach to Chronic Conditions appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.