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

August 25, 2025

MRHA Webinar: Total Case Management, September 25

Join the Missouri Rural Health Association (MRHA) for an engaging session introducing a new model of Case Management designed specifically for rural healthcare. Total Case Management emphasizes intentional patient navigation to ensure patients receive the right care, at the right time, in the right place – while also improving hospital revenue and operational efficiency.

This webinar will guide rural health leaders through strategies to identify barriers in traditional case management, strengthen ER-to-inpatient service utilization, and ultimately repair and transform broken case management models. By adopting the Total Case Management Model, organizations can deliver better care, increase patient satisfaction, reduce insurance denials, and strengthen their bottom line.

Cost: Free

When: Thursday, September 25, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

August 20, 2025

Whitepaper: How Health System CFOs Can Build Accountability-driven Improvement Strategies: 5 Steps

Struggling to translate improvement plans into real results? You’re not alone. Many hospitals set goals but fail to create accountability systems to meet them.

Without a structured approach, teams lose focus, metrics multiply and real ROI slips away.

This executive guide outlines five proven steps for continuous improvement. The strategies are drawn from systems achieving lasting financial performance improvement through better alignment, transparent governance and progress monitoring.

Inside the Report:

• The most common reason performance improvement plans fall short – and how to fix it,
• How to identify and prioritize the right improvement opportunities across departments, and
• A blueprint for progress tracking that enhances accountability and strategic planning.

Click Here to download the Whitepaper

August 18, 2025

48 Health Systems Call for Telehealth Extension

Several dozen healthcare organizations, including 48 health systems, have written a letter to Congress, urging lawmakers to extend telehealth coverage for Medicare beneficiaries.

The pandemic-era telehealth flexibilities are set to expire September 30 without an extension. “While we strongly support making Medicare telehealth access permanent, if that’s not achievable at this time, we urge Congress to approve the longest possible extension,” the signatories wrote in the August 11 letter. “At a minimum, a two-year extension is needed to ensure stability and provide clarity for patients, providers and the healthcare system as a whole.”

Click Here to Read Letter

Click Here to See List of Healthcare Systems that signed on to the letter

August 12, 2025

Policy Update: Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: Electronic Prescribing, Real-Time Prescription Benefit and Electronic Prior Authorization (HTI-4) Final Rule, Effective October 1, 2025

On July 31, 2025, the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ASTP/ONC) finalized the HTI-4 final rule. The new rule adds several new certification criteria and related standards to the ONC Health IT Certification Program.

Specifically, the rule finalizes the use of certified EHRs to submit prior authorizations, select drugs consistent with a patient’s insurance coverage, and exchange electronic prescription information with pharmacies and insurance plans.

These updates were originally proposed in the HTI-2 NPRM released in August 2024 and were finalized as part of the FY2026 CMS Hospital Inpatient Prospective System (IPPS) final rule (CMS-1833-F). This regulation is effective October 1, 2025.

Click Here to Learn More

July 15, 2025

Access and Quality of Mental Health Services in Rural and Urban America

Among the key findings in this brief from the University of South Carolina Rural Health Research Center:

• Digital Divide Exacerbating Access: Both rural and urban Zip Code Tabulation Areas located more than 30 minutes away from the nearest mental health facility have a higher proportion of households without access to essential telecommunication devices.
• Quality of Rural Mental Health Facilities: Rural facilities generally demonstrate better performance compared to urban facilities in terms of continuity of care measures and lower rates of physical restraint and seclusion usage.

Click Here to Read More