Author: dianawinder

New Whitepaper: Thriving under pressure: An efficiency blueprint for mid-sized systems

May 5, 2025

New Whitepaper: Thriving under pressure: An efficiency blueprint for mid-sized systems

Mid-sized health systems are under extraordinary pressure. Tight margins, limited buying power and fierce competition for talent leave little room for error – especially as labor shortages and rising costs escalate. But some are turning these constraints into opportunities.

Eighteen months ago, Mary Lanning Healthcare struggled to manage finances and allocate resources efficiently. Since then, the rural system has transformed its budget process, reduced administrative burdens on staff and uncovered new growth opportunities. Their approach offers replicable strategies for leaders navigating similar pressures.

Readers will learn:

  • Enhancing financial transparency with technology to drive smarter decisions,
  • Strategies to control costs and unlock growth opportunities, and
  • Simplify HR operations to boost staff satisfaction.

Click Here to Download this Whitepaper

Grant Funding Freeze Webinar Series, Starts May 8

May 5, 2025

Grant Funding Freeze Webinar Series, Starts May 8

Join Forvis Mazars for this three-part webinar series on the impact of grant funding freezes, strategies for navigating them, and how to prepare for the future. Gain insights to help your entity plan financially for potential disruptions and challenges in light of current funding freezes.

Schedule of Webinars:

  • Understanding the Impact of the Federal Freeze on Grant Funding, May 8, 1:00 p.m.
    • This informative webinar focuses on the current federal grant climate, the history of funding freezes, lawsuits, and their effects on various industry entities. Topics covered will include:
      • An overview of recent funding freezes and their implications,
      • Historical context and comparison with past funding freezes,
      • The immediate effects on nonprofits, educational institutions, and other organizations, and
      • Case studies of organizations affected by funding freezes.
      • Click Here to Register
  • Strategies for Navigating Funding Freezes, May 20, 3:00 p.m.
    • This webinar will discuss ways to identify funding opportunities. In addition, we’ll explore strategies for financial planning and mitigating risks during these uncertain times. Topics covered will include:
      • Identifying alternative funding sources (state, foundation, corporate grants),
      • Strengthening donor engagement and diversifying funding streams,
      • Best practices for financial planning and risk management during shifting conditions, and
      • Leveraging technology and innovation to help mitigate funding challenges.
      • Click Here to Register
  • Preparing for Future Funding Challenges, May 28, 1:00 p.m.
    • This webinar provides an overview of funding lawsuits that have occurred since the new administration has been in office, the forecasting of future funding trends, and potential issues organizations may face. In addition, this presentation will focus on an entity’s financial portfolio and financial planning strategies for possible disruptions and challenges.

Learning Objectives:

      • Discuss forecasting future funding trends and potential challenges,
      • Outline steps for building organizational resilience and adaptability,
      • Describe advocacy and policy engagement to help influence funding decisions, and
      • Identify ways to create internal efficiencies and fine-tune resource allocation.
      • Click Here to Register

On-Demand Webinar: Creating Capacity with AI: How Sarasota Memorial Streamlined Discharges

May 5, 2025

On-Demand Webinar: Creating Capacity with AI: How Sarasota Memorial Streamlined Discharges

With inpatient patient volumes rising, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System faced a critical challenge: how to sccale without expanding its physical footprint or burning out staff. The solution? A systemwide shift to AIU-enabled discharge prioritization.

By leveraging predictive analytics to proactively address inpatient bottlenecks, Sarasota Memorial freed up capacity, reduced delays and standardized flow – all without adding beds.

In this webinar, you’ll learn how to:

  • Proactively identify and prioritize discharges using predictive AI,
  • Drive measurable improvements in throughput and care team collaboration, and
  • Create a repeatable, data-driven discharge process that scales with demand.

Cost: Free

When: This is an on-demand webinar, you can view at your convenience

Click Here to Access Webinar

On-Demand Webinar: How OSU Wexner is Building a Stronger, Safer Workforce

May 5, 2025

On-Demand Webinar: How OSU Wexner is Building a Stronger, Safer Workforce

Healthcare is under pressure: staffing shortages and rising costs combined with everyday challenges of care delivery are pushing some hospitals into chronic instability.

Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center – ranked a “Best Hospital” for 30-plus years – is proving it’s possible to rise above these challenges. This webinar shares how the organization is closing performance gaps, empowering nursing leaders and creating measurable improvement in safety and outcomes.

Key Takeaways:

  • How to boost workforce engagement and retention through targeted training and leadership development,
  • Strategies for managing change and improving hospital operations, and
  • A practical 2025 roadmap to drive meaningful clinical and financial impact.

Cost: Free

When: This webinar is on-demand, you can view it at a time that is convenient for your schedule.

Click Here to access webinar

Webinar: Ensuring Reviews Reflect Reality: How to Build an Award-Winning Reputation and Patient Experience, May 13

May 5, 2025

Webinar: Ensuring Reviews Reflect Reality: How to Build an Award-Winning Reputation and Patient Experience, May 13

After acquiring a neighboring health system, New Jersey-based Virtua Health implemented a strategic campaign to ensure the online reputation of its hospital in Willingboro (NJ) reflected its high quality of care. But by operationalizing patient feedback and adopting a more collaborative, data-driven approach, the hospital transformed its reputation – both online and in the community.

Join this webinar to uncover Virtua Health’s playbook for success and leave with proven strategies to elevate your organization’s reputation and patient experience.

Key Takeaways:

  • How Virtua Health aligned marketing and patient experience to improve satisfaction,
  • The role of online review in shaping hospital reputation and culture, and
  • Strategies to break down data silos and operationalize patient feedback.

Cost: Free

When: Tuesday, May 13, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

Clinical Preparedness Workshops

May 2, 2025

Clinical Preparedness Workshops             

The Clinical Emergency Preparedness Workshops are designed to equip front-line clinicians with the knowledge, skills, and strategies necessary to effectively respond to large-scale emergencies and disasters. Developed in collaboration with health care coalition members, these workshops will focus on key areas essential to patient care continuity during crises.

Topics include:

  • Managing orthopedic injuries,
  • Utilizing laboratory and imaging services,
  • Addressing the needs of long-term care facilities,
  • Ensuring patient care during cyber events and extended outages,
  • Treating complex medical patients,
  • Responding to infectious disease outbreaks, and
  • Caring for pediatric patients in emergency scenarios.

Each session is tailored for clinicians across all patient care roles, ensuring a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to emergency preparedness and response.

Participants will have opportunities for hands-on skills learning, allowing them to practice critical techniques and decision-making in realistic emergency scenarios. These interactive sessions will enhance confidence and competence in responding to diverse clinical challenges during disasters.

Clinical Preparedness Workshop Dates:

  • May 15, 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. – Preparedness for Imaging and Laboratory Services
    • Focuses on optimizing diagnostics in resource-limited environments, ensuring efficient blood supply management and transfusion protocols, and improving the use of imaging technologies such as X-ray, CT, and ultrasound for trauma and mass casualty triage.
  • May 20, 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. – Long-term Care in Disasters
    • Designed to enhance collaboration between long-term care clinicians, hospital providers and EMS in managing long-term care patients during disasters.
  • May 29, 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. – Orthopedic Injuries in Disasters
    • Designed to prepare front-line clinicians to assess, stabilize and manage musculoskeletal injuries during large-scale emergencies. The session will provide clinicians with the knowledge and hands-on experience needed to deliver effective orthopedic care in large-scale and resource limited environments.
  • June 3, 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. – Pediatric Clinical Preparedness
    • Designed to equip frontline hospital and EMS clinicians with the knowledge, skills and confidence to effectively manage pediatric patients during disasters.
    • Participants will engage in real-world case scenarios and interactive sessions to enhance their ability to provide high-quality pediatric care in mass casualty incidents, natural disasters and other emergency situations.

Cost: Free

Click Here to Register for Workshops

Webinar: How Lee Health Solved Cancer Center Staffing Imbalances, May 13

May 1, 2025

Webinar: How Lee Health Solved Cancer Center Staffing Imbalances, May 13

Cancer centers nationwide are struggling with staffing shortages and workload imbalances that threaten both nurse retention and patient care. At Lee Health, leaders recognized that manual patient assignment methods were falling short and recently adopted a smarter approach that ensures fairer assignments and eases administrative strain.

As a result, workload imbalances dropped by 10%, staff productivity improved 11% and 90% of nurses report they can now effectively manage their patient loads.

Join this session to learn how Lee Health reworked patient assignments to improve efficiency and nurse satisfaction.

Key Learning Points:

  • Implement data-driven patient assignments to improve workload balance,
  • Reduce administrative burden in infusion centers with streamlined processes, and
  • Novel strategies to boost staff productivity while maintaining high-quality care.

Cost: Free

When: Tuesday, May 13, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

CMS Proposes Revision to FY 2026 Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System – Comment by June 10

May 1, 2025

CMS Proposes Revision to FY 2026 Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System – Comment by June 10

This proposed rule would revise the Medicare hospital inpatient prospective payment systems (IPPS) for

  • operating and capital-related costs of acute care hospitals;
  • make changes relating to Medicare graduate medical education (GME) for teaching hospitals;
  • update the payment policies and the annual payment rates for the Medicare prospective payment system (PPS) for inpatient hospital services provided by long-term care hospitals (LTCHs);
  • update and make changes to requirements for certain quality programs; and
  • make other policy-related changes.

To be assured consideration, comments must be received no later than 5 p.m. EDT on June 10, 2025.

In commenting, please refer to file code CMS-1833-P. Because of staff and resource limitations, comments cannot be accepted by facsimile transmission.

Comments, including mass comment submissions, must be submitted in one of the following ways:

  • Electronically – You may submit electronic comments on this regulation to: https://www.regulations.gov.
  • Regular Mail – You may mail written comments to the following address ONLY: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Department of Health and Human Services, Attention: CMS-1833-P, PO Box 8013, Baltimore, MD 21244-8013.
  • Be sure to allow sufficient time for mailed comments to be received before the close of the comment period.
  • Express or Overnight Mail – You may send written comments vi express or overnight mail to the following address ONLY: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Department of Health and Human Services, Attention: CMS-1833-P, Mail Stop C4-26-05, 7500 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21244-1850

Click Here to View CMS Fact Sheet on Proposed Rule

Click Here to Learn More

Rural Health Research: Federal and State Reimbursement for Youth Behavioral Health Services

May 1, 2025

Rural Health Research: Federal and State Reimbursement for Youth Behavioral Health Services

The prevalence of behavioral health conditions, including depression, suicidal ideation, and substance use continue to increase among young people in the United States (U.S.). Medicaid is an important source of health coverage for youth in the rural U.S., covering 47% of youth. Because Medicaid is jointly funded by states and the federal government and is administered by each state within federal guidelines, reimbursement policies for behavioral health care vary across states.

This brief provides a structured review of the state-level policies and federal and state funding mechanisms that may affect the supply of behavioral health services for children and youth through 24 years of age.

Among the findings:

  • Medicaid reimbursement and coverage policies for behavioral health professionals vary across and within states.
  • A review of individual state Medicaid manuals indicates that social workers and psychologists are eligible for Medicaid manuals indicates that social workers and psychologists are eligible for Medicaid reimbursement for behavioral health services in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Marriage and family therapists (MFTs) are eligible for reimbursement by all but two state Medicaid programs.
  • All 50 states and the District of Columbia allow reimbursement of social workers and psychologists for behavioral health services provided through school-based Medicaid programs, while approximately one-third of states omit MFTs from the list of providers eligible for reimbursement within school-based Medicaid programs.

Click Here to Read Full Brief

Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week is May 5 – 11

May 1, 2025

Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week is May 5 – 11

Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week is May 5 – 11, help spread the word about the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) National Maternal Mental Health Hotline (1-833-TLS-MAMA).

  • This free and confidential service offers 24/7 support via call or text to new and expecting moms and their loved ones.
  • The Hotline’s trained counselors help thousands of women and their families needing emotional support during or after pregnancy.
  • The Hotline is available in English and Spanish and offers interpreters in more than 60 languages.

Take advantage of HRSA’s promotional toolkit or order a limited number of printed products for free to share the Hotline with someone who is currently pregnant or postpartum, their loved ones, or caregivers – the Hotline is here for them.

Click Here to go to HRSA’s National Maternal Mental Health Hotline

Click Here to access HRSA’s Free Promotional Toolkit/Order printed products