Leveraging Technology to Bridge Gaps in Compliance

Leveraging Technology to Bridge Gaps in Compliance

Sean Eaton, Senior Compliance Solutions Specialist at GHXAmerican health systems, hospitals and post-acute care providers are required to comply with hundreds of regulatory requirements. Facilitating this compliance comes with a high cost. According to the American Hospital Association, the average-sized community hospital spends nearly $7.6 million annually on administrative activities to support regulatory compliance. With the impending end of the COVID-19 public health emergency set to shake up healthcare regulations, ongoing healthcare labor shortages, and skyrocketing levels of clinician burnout, a perfect storm for non-compliance is brewing. Even with significant investments in administration to support compliance, overwhelmed providers can inadvertently leave gaps…

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How to Rein in Unpredictability During High-Traffic Respiratory Illness Season

How to Rein in Unpredictability During High-Traffic Respiratory Illness Season

‘Tripledemic’ concerns have been on the rise with the collision of flu, Covid-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) wreaking havoc in clinics and hospitals. Yet staff are expected to provide smooth, fast, and effective care journeys for all, no matter the volume of patients. We know, however, that everything doesn’t always go as planned when patient traffic explodes. Bottlenecks like long wait times and limited appointment options inevitably skyrocket, and staff bear the brunt of patients who (understandably) want to be seen immediately, in conjunction with staff members intermittently being out sick themselves.
Living in an environment of extreme health unpredictability affects…

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RTLS & AI: Solving the Riddle of Healthcare Inefficiency

RTLS & AI: Solving the Riddle of Healthcare Inefficiency

The following is a guest article by Steven Manifold, CMO at Ubisense.
Many healthcare systems around the world are overburdened. Some face the lingering effects of COVID-19, while others lack funding and staff. Healthcare providers are increasingly turning to technology to help shoulder these burdens, but are fancy tech deployments really the cure or just another placebo?   
RTLS
RTLS (Real-time Location Systems) are not new technologies, but they remain uncommon in most healthcare settings. Popular in automotive, aerospace, and general manufacturing and logistics industries, they have paved the way towards smarter, more efficient industrial practices while contributing to the much vaulted “Industry 4.0” revolution….

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Report: Pharma R&D ROI Falls to Lowest Level in 13 Years

Report: Pharma R&D ROI Falls to Lowest Level in 13 Years

What You Should Know:– Deloitte Centre for Health Solutions releases its thirteenth annual report, ‘Seize the Digital Momentum: Measuring the return from pharmaceutical innovation 2022’ that explores the performance of the biopharmaceutical industry (bio Pharma) and its ability to generate returns from investment in innovative new medicines.– Since 2021, much of the world has successfully adjusted to life where COVID-19 is more endemic as vaccines and treatments reduced the risk and severity of illness, however geopolitical turmoil and a global cost-of-living crisis have continued to drive serious instability in the health landscape.Pharmaceutical Innovation – Trends and Insights At a GlanceThis is…

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From Telemedicine to Complete Virtual Care and Beyond

From Telemedicine to Complete Virtual Care and Beyond

Michael Gorton, CEO of Recuro HealthTelemedicine has helped improve the quality of life of patients in every corner of the world and has been successfully utilized to provide convenient care to people with limited or no access to health services. Today, worldwide digital interconnectivity is growing, enabling telehealth to advance health equity, bring access to care for underserved regions and meet the urgent, primary and behavioral healthcare needs of an exploding global population.It has been a remarkable journey for the innovators who pioneered telemedicine. Since its inception, digital health services began the transformation from traditional healthcare — a reactive, disease-focused model…

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EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 2/16/23

EPtalk by Dr. Jayne 2/16/23

As we approach the end of the declared emergency surrounding the COVID pandemic, it will be important to assess how shifts in healthcare policies including those involving payment, access, and prescription medications will impact health outcomes.
A recent article in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology Maternal-Fetal Medicine looked at hos telehealth care impacted racial disparities in visit attendance during the pandemic. As background, the US has a terrible track record for maternal care, with maternal mortality rates that are significantly higher than other high-income countries. Additionally, in the US black woman are more likely to die during pregnancy and…

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How to Leverage Diagnostic Development to Guard Against RSV, Flu and Covid-19 [Sponsored]

How to Leverage Diagnostic Development to Guard Against RSV, Flu and Covid-19 [Sponsored]

For the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals focused on understanding the Covid-19 virus, how best to guard against it, and developing tests to detect it. They also tracked, aggregated, and analyzed health data to assess and monitor the public health threat on a regional, state and country-wide level. In the longer term, vaccine development and distribution were used to slow the spread to avoid a collapse of the health system and to reduce the potency of the virus for the majority of people.
More recently, attention has shifted to the long perceived threat of viruses coming together with…

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Blood Biotech Grifols Cuts Deep in the U.S. to Find €400M in Savings

Blood Biotech Grifols Cuts Deep in the U.S. to Find €400M in Savings

Grifols, a company that turns blood plasma into therapies for immunological disorders and other conditions, is laying off about 2,000 U.S. workers as part of a corporate restructuring projected to yield up to €400 million in annual cost savings, the biotech announced Wednesday.
The layoffs represent about 8% of the Barcelona-based company’s global workforce, but they will happen mainly in its U.S. plasma operations. That’s notable because as a company that relies on plasma, the U.S. is vital to its business. The starting point for Grifols’s therapies is blood plasma. Key to its drug-making process is fractionation, in which the protein components…

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BCBS Tennessee Unveils Health Disparities in First Health Equity Report

BCBS Tennessee Unveils Health Disparities in First Health Equity Report

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee unveiled its first Health Equity Report Tuesday, which analyzed six topics of health disparities: behavioral health, cancer, child and adolescent care, chronic condition management, Covid-19 and maternal health.
The report serves as a way to understand the inequities that exist among its members to determine ways the payer can address the disparities, said Dr. Andrea Willis, chief medical officer of BCBS Tennessee. “We wanted to get a better picture of the health issues and barriers to care faced by our members and Tennesseans as a whole, so that we could more effectively partner with health care providers to…

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The Path Forward for Healthcare’s People Matching Problem

The Path Forward for Healthcare’s People Matching Problem

The following is a guest article by Rachel Podczervinski MS, RHIA, Vice President of Professional Services at Harris Data Integrity Solutions.
Efforts to identify the right path forward for healthcare’s patient matching problem are gaining a foothold as stakeholders from across the spectrum come together to remove obstacles and implement effective solutions. Most notably, in 2022, efforts by industry organizations like Patient ID Now led to the temporary removal of Section 510 from the U.S. House and Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) appropriations bills. While it was ultimately reinserted in the final version, its initial removal…

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