Rural Spotlight

March 23, 2026

Webinar: IT Sprawl: The Risks, Costs, and Capital Hiding in Plain Sight, March 27

Healthcare organizations often assume that go-lives are the final step in major technology implementations. In reality, it marks the beginning of a new and more complex challenge: what remains.

At many health systems, legacy applications, redundant tools and unsupported software quietly accumulate over time, each adding incremental cyber exposure, compliance vulnerability and operational costs.

The result is mounting technical debt at a time when margins are compressed, AI investment is accelerating, and boards demand clearer financial accountability from IT leaders.

Application rationalization offers a path forward – but only when it is treated as a strategic discipline rather than a periodic cleanup effort.

In this session, two experts will outline how healthcare organizations can reframe rationalization as a lever for control, capital recovery and risk mitigation.

You will learn:

• The financial, cyber and compliance risks embedded in unmanaged application portfolios,
• How to quantify technical debt and its impact on margins and enterprise liability,
• Why rationalization efforts stall – and how to overcome organizational resistance, and
• How application rationalization supports M&A diligence, board reporting and AI investment capacity.

Cost: Free

When: Friday, March 27, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

March 23, 2026

Webinar: Beyond Cost Centers: Finding Margin Opportunity Through Encounter-level Variation, March 25

Hospital margins remain under pressure, yet most organizations still rely on cost center reporting to understand profitability.

The problem is that cost centers rarely reveal where margin is truly gained or lost. Variation often occurs across providers, sites of care, and individual patient encounters – but traditional financial reporting makes it difficult to see.

In this session, we’ll discuss how external Cost & Margin benchmarks for healthcare organizations across the country connect financial, operational, and reimbursement data to reveal profitability at the encounter level.

With this level of insight, finance teams can uncover variation, identify margin opportunity, and better support strategic and operational decisions.

Insights Include:

• Why cost center reporting often hides meaningful margin variation,
• How encounter-level cost and reimbursement data reveal true profitability drivers,
• Where organizations are uncovering margin opportunities across providers and sites of care, and
• How finance leaders are using these insights to support smarter operational and strategic decisions.

Cost: Free

When: Wednesday, March 25, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

March 23, 2026

Webinar: How One System Realigned Its Fragmented EHR and Helped Improve Care Delivery, March 23

Most health care organizations struggle with fragmented systems that make it difficult to share patient information and operate efficiently. Optum Health faced this challenge head-on – transforming dozens of standalone EHR systems into a single enterprise platform. This transformation unified clinical data and streamlined care delivery by standardizing supporting technologies, third-party applications and end-user devices across the network.

Discover actionable strategies to align technology, improve efficiency and enable growth – all while helping enhance the patient and provider experience.

This webinar will cover 4 key lessons:

• Operational transformation,
• Care team and staff change management,
• Seamless data flow, and
• Technology and workflow alignment.

Cost: Free

When: Wednesday, March 25, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

March 23, 2026

Webinar: Beyond Survival: How Rural Hospitals Can Build Future-Ready IT, Wednesday, March 25

Modernizing IT in rural Healthcare isn’t easy. Tight budgets, difficulty attracting and retaining skilled talent, and escalating cyber risks make it hard for rural hospitals to move beyond day-to-day survival.

This webinar examines how rural hospitals can modernize IT without breaking the bank. The focus is on how strategic partnerships and flexible leadership models can help organizations stabilize core systems, address risk and plan more effectively for the future.

Through real-world examples, attendees will learn how access to experienced IT leadership, enterprise-level capabilities and guidance on funding opportunities can support more sustainable decision-making. The session highlights practical approaches that help rural hospitals move from reactive IT management to more structured, future-ready planning.

Learning points:

• Why a long-term strategic IT partner is essential for rural hospitals,
• How full-time or fractional IT leadership supports expertise and continuity,
• Turning funding opportunities into actionable IT upgrades, and
• Real-world success stories in modernization and cyber resilience.

Cost: Free

When: Wednesday, March 25, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

March 23, 2026

Webinar: Decentralized Pharmacy Procurement is Costing Health Systems Control and Margin, March 24

Pharmacy operations have shifted from a departmental function to a board-level priority as margin pressure and compliance exposure intensify across health systems.

Yet many organizations still operate with fragmented procurement models and legacy oversight approaches that limit control and visibility. As for accountability expectations rise, these structures make it harder for leaders to understand true purchasing performance, manage risk and respond quickly to emerging issues.

This webinar explores how health system leaders can regain visibility, protect margin and strengthen pharmacy governance without adding operational burden. The experts will examine why traditional reliance on GPOs, wholesalers and retrospective reporting no longer meets today’s demands and what is required to support effective, enterprise-level oversight.

You will learn:

• How pharmacy margin and compliance have become enterprise issues,
• Where health systems lose margin and operational control,
• Why traditional procurement models no longer work, and
• What effective pharmacy governance requires now.

Cost: Free

When: Tuesday, March 24, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

March 20, 2026

Webinar: Beyond Cost Centers: Finding Margin Opportunity Through Encounter Level Variation, March 25

Hospital margins remain under pressure, yet most organizations still rely on cost center reporting to understand profitability.

The problem is that cost centers rarely reveal where margin is truly gained or lost. Variation often occurs across providers, sites of care, and individual patient encounters – but traditional financial reporting makes it difficult to see.

In this session, they will discuss how external Cost & Margin benchmarks for healthcare organizations across the country connect financial, operational, and reimbursement data to reveal profitability at the encounter level.

With this level of insight, finance teams can uncover variation, identify margin opportunity, and better support strategic and operational decisions.

Insights include:

• Why cost center reporting often hides meaningful margin variation,
• How encounter-level cost and reimbursement data reveal true profitability drivers,
• Where organizations are uncovering margin opportunities across providers and sites of care, and
• How finance leaders are using these insights to support smarter operational and strategic decisions.

Cost: Free

When: Wednesday, March 25, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

March 20, 2026

Webinar: How One System Realigned Its Fragmented EHR and Helped Improve Care Delivery, March 25

Most health care organizations struggle with fragmented systems that make it difficult to share patient information and operate efficiently. Optum Health faced this challenge head-on – transforming dozens of standalone HER systems into a single enterprise platform. This transformation unified clinical data and streamlined care delivery by standardizing supporting technologies, third-party applications and end-user devices across the network.

Discover actionable strategies to align technology, improve efficiency and enable growth – all while helping enhance the patient and provider experience. This webinar will cover 4 key lessons:

• Operational transformation,
• Care team and staff change management,
• Seamless data flow, and
• Technology and workflow alignment.

Cost: Free

When: Wednesday, March 25, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

March 20, 2026

Webinar: From Anecdote to Evidence: Inside KLAS’ ROI Validation of Ambient AI, March 26

Ambient AI is everywhere. Independent validation is not.

In this Becker’s webinar, KLAS Research shares findings from its ROI validation study examining real-world results from FMOL Health, McLeod Health and Rush University System for Health.

The session will explore how these organizations moved beyond plot anecdotes to measurable outcomes – including a 65% reduction in after-hours documentation time and an average $1,004 monthly revenue lift per provider.

As health systems evaluate ambient AI for broader deployment, understanding independently validated ROI is critical. This session offers an evidence-based look at what measurable impact looks like in practice.

Cost: Free

When: Thursday, March 26, 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register

March 20, 2026

Webinar: Vernon Health’s Connected Pharmacy Strategy, March 23

Pharmacy procurement is no longer just about purchasing medications.

Rising drug costs, persistent shortages, limited staffing and growing 340B complexity are forcing pharmacy leaders into broader financial and operational decisions, often without connected data or workflows to support them.

In this webinar, leaders from Vernon Health share how they are rethinking procurement decision-making to better align cost, supply and compliance. The discussion explores why siloed, manual processes slow purchasing decisions and limit visibility, especially during shortages and staffing constraints.

You will learn:

• The operational risks created by manual, siloed procurement processes,
• How disconnected data limits visibility during shortages, and
• Ways connected insights support compliance and financial oversight.

Cost: Free

When: Monday, March 23, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Click Here to Register