By Peter O’Connor, IT Director, Eastern Region, Inova Health System The surgical environment is a beautiful collage of talented human hands, rigorous clinical processes, delicate tools, sophisticated medical devices, and technology that push and pull critical information to a wide variety of places with countless integrations. Where does “traditional IT” start and stop in this incredibly complex environment? The answer is traditional IT is fluid throughout the surgical environment. I have been envisioning, planning, and designing technology for hospitals with a specialty in perioperative spac ..read more

Talent shortage and burnout are common issues in the healthcare industry. Healthcare facilities and hospitals struggle to optimize their medical staff while keeping operating and administrative costs reasonable. Moreover, the mental load on clinicians to make accurate clinical decisions based on patient data is the most challenging issue on both the personnel and business front. The Etiometry platform is built to resolve real-world challenges of care teams by providing a holistic view of patient data from the bedside or remotely and enabling clinical staff with a data-driven approach to commun ..read more

By Anneleah Williams-Bridges MS, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P, CCDS, RH-CBS, ACDIS Leadership Council, AHIMA Approved ICD-10 Trainer Hospital executives and leadership are actively seeking ways to increase revenue flow and optimize their organization’s bottom line. We will explore five essential revenue-boosting strategies that hospitals can employ to further increase their revenue in 2024. These strategies focus on optimizing existing resources, improving patient satisfaction, mid-revenue cycle improvement, and exploring new revenue streams. The first revenue-boosting strategy is to ramp up Clinical Doc ..read more

By Karina Checo, Director of Revenue Cycle, Bergen New Bridge Medical Center The revenue cycle sector of healthcare has seen a dramatic evolution in roles over the last decade. Daily tasks have changed to accommodate regulatory, technological, and payer behavior changes. To stay ahead of this ever-changing landscape, we have had to shift our perspective and approach toward operational strategies. This change begins with a transformative leadership style. A successful revenue cycle leader must also be an effective change manager. Being a transformative leader requires early diagnosis of issues ..read more

By Kris Seymour, Director, Revenue Cycle Transformation and PMO, WellStar Health System In the ever-evolving healthcare landscape, RCM stands as a critical aspect that ensures financial stability for healthcare providers. However, the journey of optimizing revenue cycles is fraught with challenges, and one of the most pressing concerns is the need for automation.  The Need for Automation in RCM The healthcare industry has recognized the urgency of embracing automation to enhance efficiency, reduce errors and address other day-to-day challenges. However, the path to automation is often o ..read more

By Seth Jeremy Katz, VP of HIM and Revenue Cycle, Finance, University Health of Kansas City Medicaid serves as a vital lifeline for millions of Americans, offering essential support during health-related challenges. Despite its indispensable role, the program has often faced the ebbs and flows of political and funding uncertainties in recent years. However, the government has taken significant steps over the years to strengthen this safety net resource. First, they created the ability for states to expand Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which, as of summer 2023, 41 state ..read more

In the current healthcare ecosystem of providers, payors, industry, and (last but not least!) patients, fragmented data creates tremendous friction, inefficiency, and negatively impacts quality of care. Recent decades have seen health tech companies develop data solutions across the patient journey, mainly outside the operating theater. As marginal improvements diminish in pre-and post-op care delivery, the ecosystem has turned its attention to the final “black box” of surgery. To create a sustainable healthcare system of the future, healthcare providers are turning to vendor partners who can ..read more

By Dr. Alexis Burnett, VP of Surgical & Procedural Services, Medical City Healthcare The post-pandemic staffing crisis, combined with high healthcare costs, has intensified the focus on waste reduction. Waste significantly impacts patients, hospitals, and health systems. Leveraging technology is one way for surgery leaders and hospital administrators to reduce waste in the operating room (OR). There are three types of technologies that should be considered for maximizing efficiency in all hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). Technology increases automated documentation Any tec ..read more

By Surya Ravulaparthy, VP of Revenue Cycle, Marshfield Clinic Health System Health care providers continue to experience financial pressures due to various internal and external factors, like declining reimbursement rates, rising inflation, declining workforce availability and complex regulatory requirements. Marshfield Clinic Health System has not been immune to these factors and has been focused on a Financial Improvement Plan throughout 2023. As part of this Financial Improvement Plan, the health system embarked on a comprehensive revenue cycle optimization effort that looked at traditional ..read more

By Kimberly Corriveau, Director of Patient Financial Services, North Texas Medical Center After the 2022 financial healthcare struggle, many healthcare systems have faced the challenge of creating a profitable revenue cycle. According to Becker’s Healthcare, expenses increased while revenue growth fell to 5.1 percent last year from 11.3 percent in 2021. With this new challenge, healthcare systems are identifying ways to not only provide the best quality of healthcare to each of their patients but also how to optimize the current revenue cash flow.  The COVID-19 economic crisis played a ke ..read more