Susan Dentzer: Do we need a Department of Healthcare Sanity to eliminate low-value healthcare?
Zoe Chance, who teaches at Yale’s School of Management, tells students that they should ask a “magic question” when they are faced with a difficult situation: “What would it take?” That question can open their thinking “to ditch conventional ideas and consider a new approach,” Chance writes in her book, Influence is your superpower.a I…
Real-world solutions in primary care
Zeev Neuwirth, MD discusses the challenges in primary care and potential strategies to address them.
Commitment and path required in change management to create a sustainable impact
In 2021, Carilion Clinic, a $2 billion revenue, eight-hospital integrated health system in Roanoke, Va., was facing a problem familiar to many health systems around the country: stubbornly high average length of stay (ALOS) that was hurting Carilion’s efforts to serve its community. The pandemic had exacerbated operational challenges and mitigated the effectiveness of previous…
AP automation can help alleviate healthcare workforce shortages and optimize cashflow
Labor shortages will not abate anytime soon, and healthcare leaders must have a strategy in place to leverage automation to generate savings and promote operational stability. AP automation is one area ripe for opportunity.
Providence’s Deepak Sadagopan on value-based care and health system sustainability
Deepak Sadagopan of Renton, Wash.-based Providence has highlighted the ongoing labor crisis in healthcare, and the need for healthcare systems to reduce agency and increase network caregivers, while also focusing on reducing administrative needs in value-based care.
What the site-of-care shift for joint replacement means for hospitals
Hospital patient volumes mostly have been on an upswing since the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, but certain trends represent cautionary tales for long-term finances. For example, the latest report (registration required) from Strata Decision Technology shows a year-over-year decline in August of more than 21% for inpatient primary knee replacement procedures. A shift to…
Purchased services are a mystery worth solving
Hospitals and health systems have made significant strides in supply purchasing. Supplies typically go through a standard purchase order process, are easily benchmarked and, at many organizations, have been centralized to take advantage of bulk, leveraged and consolidated discount opportunities. In contrast, purchased services are typically characterized as follows. Fragmented. They are typically not centralized…
Supply chain challenges could mount for hospitals amid extensive hurricane damage to a key facility (updated-11)
Updates Click on the dates to see updates at the bottom of this article page as follows: Jan. 29: First update of 2025 Dec. 19: An end-of-the-year update Nov. 27: An increase in allocations for customers Nov. 12: An update on when allocations will return to 100% Oct. 30: Insights on the changes to saline…
Reports on healthcare labor trends indicate an improved outlook for hospitals
The labor picture continues to stabilize for hospitals even amid sustained high demand for healthcare services, according to new insights. In its latest labor tracker, Fitch Ratings reported that hospital staff payrolls have been steadily expanding and now represent a 6.7% increase relative to the pre-pandemic month of February 2020. Hospitals added 18,650 jobs per…
How to re-engage hospitalists, rebuild care teams and improve LOS in the post-COVID environment
Healthcare teams are facing disrupted communication pathways and relationships due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to increased length of stay (LOS) and financial performance issues, but a back-to-basics approach with hospitalists leading care team rebuilding can help overcome these challenges.