March 23, 2026

Upcoming Webinars: Expert to Expert webinars – Joint Commission, CMS, Medicaid, and eCQM Stewards, Starting March 26

Register now to attend the following Expert to Expert webinars offered in collaboration by Joint Commission, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and eCQM stewards. These free, publicly available webinars offer CE credit for the live broadcasts. The eCQM annual update webinars provide an overview of the featured eCQM(s) and highlight changes for 2026 implementation.

The new measure review webinars address new eCQMs for 2026 implementation and provide a review of measure intent and specifications, including the initial patient population, denominator, exclusions, numerator, data elements, and logic.

During each webinar, frequently asked questions will be addressed, and the audience can submit questions for response during a Q&A segment. Slides, Recordings, and Transcripts will be available here following each webinar: Quality Measurement Webinars & Videos | Joint Commission, scroll down the page and use the checkbox to sort for Expert to Expert webinars.

Registration is now open for these 7 webinars offered March – May:

• Annual Updates for Safe Use of Opioids – Concurrent Prescribing eCQM for 2026 Reporting Year, March 26, Click Here to Register

• Annual Updates for Hospital Harm Hyper and Hypo Glycemia eCQMs for 2026 Reporting Year, April 2, Click Here to Register

• Annual Updates for Malnutrition Care Score eCQM for 2026 Reporting Year, April 9, Click Here to Register

• 2026 New Measure Review Webinar for Hospital Harm – Falls with Injury, April 16, Click Here to Register

• 2026 New Measure Review Webinar for Hospital Harm – Postoperative Respiratory Failure, April 23, Click Here to Register

• Annual Updates for Excessive Radiation Dose of Inadequate Image Quality for Diagnostic Computed Tomography (CT) in Adults eCQM (for both Inpatient and Outpatient Settings), April 30, Click Here to Register

• Annual Updates for Hospital Harm – Acute Kidney Injury eCQM, May 7, Click Here to Register

March 10, 2026

Webinar: SEP-1 Is Changing… Are You Prepared for What’s Ahead in 2026? March 19

SEP-1 has moved beyond a quality reporting exercise. As performance tied to Value-Based Purchasing begins to materially impact hospital reimbursement, sepsis-related decisions increasingly carry meaningful financial, operational, and clinical consequences.

Many health systems continue to manage sepsis through a compliance-first lens, aiming to avoid penalties while balancing complex and sometimes competing operational priorities. These approaches can unintentionally increase length of stay, strain emergency department flow, limit inpatient capacity and frustrate clinicians, while introducing reimbursement risk that is not always visible in real time.

This webinar examines how those challenges are showing up across hospitals today and why long-standing sepsis strategies are being re-evaluated as payment realities evolve. Clinical leaders will unpack where organizations often misjudge their exposure, and how early decision – making at triage including emerging approaches that assess the patients’ host response may influence outcomes well beyond SEP-1 checkboxes.

The discussion will also explore how lessons learned from SEP-1 performance are shaping how organizations prepare for what comes next in federal sepsis measurement.

Attendees will learn:

• Where compliance-first sepsis strategies create unintended system strain,
• How early clinical decisions affect throughput and inpatient capacity,
• The relationship between SEP-1 performance, outcomes and reimbursement risk,
• What leaders should consider as Value-Based Purchasing stakes continue to rise, and
• How emerging approaches to early sepsis assessment, including host-response insights, is influencing sepsis strategy.

Cost: Free

When: Thursday, March 19, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

March 4, 2026

2026 Hospital IQR Program Resources

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Inpatient and Outpatient Healthcare Quality Systems Development and Program Support has announce that calendar year 2026 Hospital IQR Program resources are now available.

These resources are available on the QualityNet and/or Quality Reporting Center webpages as noted below:

Hospital IQR Program Measures – Click Here to access these guides:

• Hospital IQR Program Measures
  • Lists the measures included in the Hospital IQR Program, the data source, where data are submitted, and a link to the measure specification.
• Acute Care Hospital Quality Improvement Program Measures
  • Lists the measures in the Hospital Quality Reporting programs and the measurement period, including publicly reported measures.

Web-Based Data Collection – click Here to access these guides:

• Hospital IQR Program Quick Reference Guide: Fiscal Year 2027 Web-Based Measures
  • Provides guidance and helpful tips to submit the Maternal morbidity, Age Friendly Hospital, and Patient Safety Structural measures and the Data Accuracy and Completeness Acknowledgement

The guides listed below provide information and examples to assist and support hospital responses to the statements included in each of the measures.

• Attestation Guide for the Maternal Morbidity Structural Measure
• Patient Safety Structural Measure Specifications and Attestation Guide
• Age Friendly Hospital Measure Specifications and Attestation Guide

Participation Guides – Click Here to access these guides:

• Hospital IQR Program Guide
  • Outlines the Hospital IQR Program participation requirements, including validation, and information about measures, data submission, and public reporting.
• Important Dates and Deadlines
  • Provides the upcoming submission deadlines

Notice of Participation – Click Here to access these guides:

• Notice of Participation (NOP) Quick Reference Guide
  • Explains the NOP requirement and how to complete the form

Resources – Click Here to access these guides:

• Hospital IQR Program: Summary of Fiscal Year 2026 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) Final Rule Changes
  • Provides a high-level overview of the proposed changes that were finalized in the final year 2026 IPPS final rule

Tools and Resources – Click Here to access these guides:

• Submission Requirements and Accessing and Using Your Provider Participation Report (PPR)
  • Provides step-by-step guidance on how to access and navigate through the Hospital IQR Program submissions dashboard and the PPR
• Quick Support Reference Card
  • Provides the different resources that are available for the Hospital IQR Program
• CMS Quality Reporting & Payment Programs Overview
  • Provides a high-level summary of the different CMS Hospital Quality Reporting and Pay-for-Performance Programs

For assistance regarding this information, please contact Inpatient and Outpatient Healthcare Quality Systems Development and Program Support at: https://cmsqualitysupport.servicenowservices.com/qnet_qa?id=ask_a_question

March 3, 2026

HRSA Launches New Data Resources to Support Health Workforce Planning

HRSA’s National Center for Health Workforce Analysis (NCHWA) released three new data resources to support health workforce planning in 2026:

• Health Workforce Explorer: An interactive dashboard with national snapshots of 40 health occupations.
• Updated Health Workforce projections: National and state-level supply and demand estimates for 2023 – 2038.
• Area Health Resources Files (AHRF): Updated data from 1999 – 2024, with a dashboard visualizing workforce trends across key health professions.

February 26, 2026

Webinar: How OHSU Reclaimed 25+ Weekly Hours in Staffing Coordination Across 53 ORs, March 18

Perioperative services generate significant hospital revenue, yet many organizations still rely on manual coordination, fragmented data and limited visibility into staff experience to make staffing decisions.

Oregon Health & Science University faced this reality across 53 operating rooms. Leaders encountered reactive adjustments, time intensive coordination and inconsistent team assignments that constrained staffed room utilization.

In this webinar, OHSU perioperative leaders share how they transitioned to a data driven staffing model – reclaiming more than 25 hours per week previously spent on coordination while strengthening operational performance.

By increasing visibility into clinician experience and applying predictive analytics to guide assignments, the team reduced last-minute changes, improved team consistency and expanded cross-training opportunities.

Attendees will learn:

• How OHSU reclaimed 25-plus hours per week from manual staffing coordination,
• Why visibility into staff experience improves assignment accuracy,
• How predictive analytics reduced last-minute staffing changes, and
• What drove a 5% increase in staffed room utilization and a 30% improvement in cross-training opportunities.

Cost: Free

When: Wednesday, March 18, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

February 24, 2026

Healthcare Readiness Report – A Primer for 2026

Health systems are investing heavily in AI, cloud and digital transformation. Yet many lack the foundational readiness required to make those investments pay off. Nearly two-thirds of healthcare leaders say their IT is not ready to manage future risk, even as AI reshapes care delivery, workflows and workforce expectations.

This report explores why readiness gaps persist and how they directly impact clinician capacity, innovation speed and patient outcomes.

Based on a global survey of healthcare leaders and real-world infrastructure data, this report reveals how technology debt, fragmented cloud strategies and trust gaps are holding organizations back.

Learnings include:

• Why clinicians are losing up to 23 days per year to data inefficiencies,
• Where infrastructure and cloud decisions are quietly increasing risk, and
• How leading organizations are aligning AI, infrastructure and workforce trust to prepare for what’s next.

Click Here to Download this Report

January 7, 2026

Webinar: UAMS’ AI Playbook for Capacity Lift & Fewer Cancellations, January 21

Manual, fragmented pre-admission testing strains perioperative teams and the operating room. Phone tag for histories, missing documents and late risk discovery all drive day-of-surgery delays, idle rooms and staff burnout. Leaders need a faster more reliable way to prepare patients without adding FTEs.

University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) reworked its pre-admission testing model with AI-enabled workflows to give each nurse an assistant for information gathering, risk flagging and follow-up tasks. The result: a 50% increase in PAT nurse capacity, a 25% reduction in surgical cancellations and a 60% drop in manual document processing time.

In this session, Tammy Jones, PhD, RN, chief nursing officer and associate vice chancellor for patient care services and clinical operations at UAMS, will detail how her team changed the work, not just the tools. She will be joined by Andrew Fisher, MD, assistant professor of anesthesiology at the Medical University of South Carolina to discuss perioperative governance, clinical criteria and integration considerations.

Learnings include:

• How to supercharge pre-admission testing programs with AI,
• How to successfully implement an AI solution, ensuring staff and integration into existing workflows, and
• How to use AI to enhance staff productivity and optimize patients before surgery.

Cost: Free

When: Wednesday, January 21, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

January 2, 2026

NIH/NIAAA Healthcare Professional’s Core Resource on Alcohol

Alcohol contributes to more than 200 chronic and acute health conditions and about 178,000 deaths in the U.S. every year. Yet, alcohol-related risks often go unaddressed in healthcare settings. The Core Resource on Alcohol equips healthcare professionals to better recognize alcohol’s impact on patient health and respond with informed, effective care.

• Explore 14 concise articles covering basic science, screening, brief intervention, co-occurring conditions, treatment options, and more.
• Earn FREE EME or CE credit for as few or as many articles as you wish – available for physicians, physician assistants, nurses, psychologists, social workers, and pharmacists.
• Overcome common barriers to care – including training gaps, time constraints, and stigma – to improve patient outcomes.

Explore the Core Resource: www.niaaa.nih.gov/CoreResource

September 3, 2025

Webinar: Optimizing Epic Community Connect – Strategies for Success from Both Sides of the Connection, September 25

For many health systems, Epic Community Connect seems like a win-win: access for affiliates, scale for hosts. But all too often, key issues are overlooked – from governance and readiness to role clarity and long-term support.

The result? Friction, confusion and missed opportunities on both sides of the partnership.

In this webinar, Epic experts share what works – and what doesn’t – based on firsthand experience supporting Community Connect programs nationwide. Whether you’re a host system or an incoming site, this session will help you avoid common pitfalls and build a stronger Epic ecosystem.

Learnings Include:

• Questions to ask before signing a contract and how to set expectations early,
• The role of governance, communication and clinical readiness in long-term success, and
• Lessons from real rollouts – what high-performing programs have in common

Cost: Free

When: Thursday, September 25, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register