Ascension Hospital in Kansas Taps New President
Patrick Avila has been named president of Ascension Via Christi Hospital in Manhattan, Kansas, effective April 20, succeeding interim leader Drew Talbott. Avila arrives with more than 25 years of healthcare leadership, most recently as CEO of Northeast Regional Medical Center, part of Community Health Systems, and previously as president and CEO of Merrick Medical Center. The appointment strengthens Ascension Via Christi, a six‑hospital system with 87 care sites and over 5,500 employees, which operates under the larger Ascension network. Talbott will remain interim president until Avila assumes the role.
COOs’ Role Gains Complexity Amid Outpatient Care Shift
Healthcare chief operating officers are confronting a dramatically broader remit as care migrates to outpatient, virtual and community settings. A WittKieffer study shows 80% of COOs say their duties have surged, with 63% adding more direct reports, while operational oversight...
California Hospital CEO to Retire Amid Chapter 11 Process
Oroville Hospital President and CEO Robert Wentz is retiring after more than four decades of service, with the board approving a leadership transition to COO Scott Chapple. The change will take effect once the Chapter 11 reorganization plan receives court...
Montrose Regional, Colorado Hospital Explore Partnership
Montrose Regional Health and Grand Junction’s Community Hospital have signed a letter of intent to explore forming a tax‑exempt nonprofit entity. The partnership would focus on nonclinical functions such as information technology alignment, group purchasing, long‑term planning, and revenue‑cycle optimization....
Lumina Health Partners Joins ECG Management Consultants
Lumina Health Partners has joined ECG Management Consultants, integrating its co‑founders into ECG’s Payer Strategy and Contracting Division. The move deepens ECG’s expertise in value‑based care, combining Lumina’s ten‑year track record advising hospitals with ECG’s national scale and tech‑enabled solutions....
Tennessee OKs $900M Regional One Health Hospital
Regional One Health received a certificate of need from the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission to build a $900 million hospital on the former Commercial Appeal site in Memphis. The project, slated to break ground in late September 2025, is underpinned by a...
Adventist HealthCare to Close Freestanding ER
Adventist HealthCare announced it will close the Germantown Emergency Center, a freestanding ER in Maryland, effective July 1 pending state approval. The decision follows a roughly one‑third drop in patient volume, with many visits for low‑acuity conditions that could be...
10 Drugs Expected to Lead US Sales in 2026
Statista projects that the U.S. pharmaceutical market will be led by ten blockbuster drugs in 2026, with Merck’s Keytruda topping the list at $12.7 billion in sales. Four oncology therapies—Keytruda, Opdivo, Imbruvica and Ibrance—are among the top ten, underscoring cancer’s continued...
Highmark Health Generates $28M in Value with Google AI
Highmark Health, a Pittsburgh‑based payer‑provider, reported $27.9 million in generated value for 2025 from its Google Cloud‑built AI assistant, Sidekick. Employees have prompted the tool more than six million times, expanding active use cases to 74, up from 31 the previous...
Shared IT Model Helps Rural Hospitals Access Technology, Cut Costs
Opelousas General Health System partnered with Triad Executive Advisors to build a shared IT infrastructure that rural hospitals can tap into without raising expenses. The model centralizes network operations, security, EMR management and a new AI‑enabled PACS system, allowing participating...
Why Telehealth Skills Belong at the Core of Clinical Education
Telehealth is moving from an optional service to a routine component of clinical practice, forcing health‑care educators to rethink curricula. The 2024 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Workforce Research Recap highlights soaring telehealth utilization and a skills gap...
FDA Flags Safety Risk with Boston Scientific Stents
The FDA has classified Boston Scientific’s recall of certain Axios Stent and Electrocautery‑Enhanced Delivery Systems as a Class I recall, the agency’s most serious designation. The recall follows multiple reports of deployment and expansion failures during stent placement, resulting in...
University of Utah Health Helps ‘Reimagine’ the EHR
University of Utah Health researchers are leveraging AI and machine learning to "reimagine" electronic health records (EHR) through the federally funded Reimagine EHR initiative. Backed by roughly $35 million in federal grants and corporate partnerships, the program has produced eight AI‑driven...
University of Mississippi Medical Center to Resume Clinic Operations After Cyberattack
University of Mississippi Medical Center announced that its outpatient clinics will resume normal operations statewide on March 2, following a cyberattack that shut down its IT systems on Feb. 21. The center has regained access to patient records and will...
UNC Health Unveils Rare Disease Coding Tool in Epic
UNC Health has launched the world’s first standardized rare‑disease coding tool by embedding the Mondo Disease Ontology into Epic’s EHR through the February 2026 IMO Core update. The integration adds nearly 5,000 new rare‑disease codes and revises more than 25,000...
EHR Strategy Becomes a Recruitment Lever for Health Systems
Chief medical information officers are reframing EHR and AI investments from pure operational upgrades to strategic tools for clinician recruitment, retention, and burnout mitigation. Leaders at Sentara Health report over 75% adoption of AI‑generated discharge summaries, citing significant time savings...
14 Health Systems Extend EHR Contracts with Altera Digital Health
Fourteen health systems have signed multiyear extensions for Altera Digital Health’s Sunrise electronic health record, reinforcing the vendor’s foothold in the acute‑care market. The renewed contracts cover institutions such as Phoenix Children’s, St. Mary’s, Grand Lake Health System and Hospital for...
Health Systems Save Millions by Eliminating IT Applications
Health systems are realizing significant cost savings by consolidating their IT application portfolios. Emplify Health eliminated over 30 applications, cutting $3 million in direct costs and $1.3 million in soft savings, while Providence reduced its portfolio by more than a third, saving...
9 Epic Updates in 30 Days
Epic announced nine significant updates in the past 30 days, ranging from new hospital go‑lives and record‑setting lab data‑exchange deployments to the rollout of its AI Charting tool. Major health systems such as UPMC and Northwell Health are deepening their...
FDA Unveils Pathway for Ultra-Rare Disease Therapies
The FDA released draft guidance introducing the Plausible Mechanism Framework, a new approval pathway for individualized therapies targeting ultra‑rare diseases. The framework permits sponsors to seek clearance for gene‑editing and RNA‑based treatments when traditional randomized trials are infeasible due to...
How Health Systems Are Tackling Behavioral Health Fragmentation
Health systems are confronting fragmented behavioral‑health delivery through multiple tactics, including rapid expansion of telepsychiatry, creation of integrated pediatric health hubs, and the launch of dedicated behavioral‑health urgent‑care sites. In West Virginia, virtual visits now account for just over half...
6 Lessons Shaping Health System Strategic Leaders’ Operational Approach for 2026
Health system leaders are reshaping 2026 operations amid technology, regulation, and labor pressures. Executives from Cedars‑Sinai to Novant Health stress frontline immersion, cost‑control focus, system‑design that simplifies right actions, and building trust through candid dialogue. Prioritizing a narrow set of...
New Mexico Hospital Deploys AI Platform Enterprisewide
San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington, New Mexico, has rolled out Wellsheet’s AI documentation platform across its entire enterprise. The solution, already active in more than 100 U.S. hospitals, promises physicians 90‑120 minutes of daily documentation savings and a...
Telehealth for Primary Care Levels Off: Epic
Epic’s analysis of 411 million primary‑care visits shows telehealth usage has plateaued at roughly 6‑7 % of appointments since mid‑2023, following the pandemic‑driven surge. The share remains highest in metropolitan areas, with lower adoption in micropolitan, rural and small‑town settings. Adults aged...
Fitch Downgrades Missouri Hospital to ‘D’ Rating
Fitch downgraded John Fitzgibbon Memorial Hospital in Marshall, Missouri to a “D” rating from “C” and withdrew its issuer and bond ratings after the hospital defaulted on required debt payments. The default concerns principal and interest on 2010 bonds, and...
Marshfield Clinic to Open 13th Hospital March 1
Marshfield Clinic will open its 13th hospital on March 1 in Wisconsin Rapids, adding a full‑service acute‑care facility to the existing Marshfield Clinic Wisconsin Rapids Center. The new campus features inpatient beds, an emergency department, advanced imaging such as CT...
Central Maine Healthcare Joins Prime
Prime Healthcare Foundation announced the acquisition of Central Maine Healthcare, adding the Lewiston‑based medical center, Bridgton Hospital, Rumford Hospital, a residential care facility, a health‑professionals college, a cancer center and over 40 physician practices to its portfolio. The deal brings...
Cleveland Clinic 1st to Use New Robot for Prostate Surgery
Cleveland Clinic became the first U.S. health system to perform a robotic‑assisted prostatectomy using the newly FDA‑cleared Hugo RAS system. The robot, approved in December, features modular arms and an open‑console that surgeons control with foot pedals and hand inputs....
Building on a Foundation of Culture and Trust: How Jefferson Health Reopened a Hospital Just 9 Days After a Fire
On Feb. 4, a fire engulfed the Orthopedic Institute building at Jefferson Health’s Lehigh Valley Hospital‑Dickson City, prompting the evacuation of more than 70 patients. Thanks to extensive disaster training and coordinated effort among staff, first responders, and local partners, no...
Jefferson Posts $201M Operating Loss in H1
Thomas Jefferson University, owner of Jefferson Health, posted a $201 million operating loss for the first half of fiscal 2026, reflecting a -2.3% operating margin. The loss includes $64.7 million in restructuring expenses tied to a planned layoff of roughly 650 employees....
Reclaiming Nursing Time for Patient Care Through Better Automation
Healthcare faces a looming shortage of over 63,000 full‑time registered nurses by 2030, intensifying pressure on existing staff. Manual tasks such as charting and medication administration divert nurses from bedside care, prompting a push for smarter automation. Omnicell’s new Titan...
Compassionate Leadership in Times of Disruption
Healthcare leaders traditionally separate emotion from decision‑making, but a recent hospital closure in New York demonstrates that compassionate leadership can coexist with operational rigor. The tertiary medical center reduced from 700 to 200 beds, faced financial loss, and ultimately closed...
Fighting the Number One Cause of Death by Approaching Polychronic Conditions Holistically
Cardiovascular disease remains the top U.S. killer, driven by the intertwined cardiovascular‑kidney‑metabolic (CKM) syndrome that links obesity, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease. About one‑third of adults carry three or more CKM risk factors, and 90% meet early‑stage criteria. Monogram Health’s...
Providence Cedars-Sinai Nurses Plan 5-Day Strike
Registered nurses and licensed staff at Providence Cedars‑Sinai Tarzana will begin a five‑day strike on Feb. 16, organized by SEIU Local 121RN, which represents more than 11,000 California healthcare workers. The union’s grievances include unsafe staffing levels, poor environmental conditions, workplace harassment,...
CommonSpirit Posts Break-Even Margin in Q2
CommonSpirit reported a break‑even operating margin of 0% in Q2 FY2026, down from a 1.3% margin a year earlier. Total revenue rose to $10.5 billion, matching higher operating expenses and leaving operating income at $2 million. Net income surged to $456 million, driven...
How a Virtual ICU Saved a Rural Hospital
WVU Medicine’s virtual ICU program, piloted at Potomac Valley Hospital, used daily remote rounds to connect critical‑care physicians with local staff, preventing patient transfers and boosting occupancy. The low‑cost model required roughly $5,400 in startup expenses and quickly raised daily...
U of Minnesota Physicians Taps CEO
University of Minnesota Physicians has appointed Dr. Greg Beilman, a critical‑care surgeon and retired Army Reserve colonel, as its permanent chief executive officer. Beilman, who served as interim CEO since July, will oversee the 4,500‑strong clinical enterprise and guide it...
Tampa General’s M&A Playbook and Why ‘Deeper’ Partnerships Beat Bigger Footprints
Academic health systems are accelerating acquisitions of rural and community hospitals, with 22 deals announced in the past 14 months. Tampa General Hospital exemplifies a new playbook, opting for a deep, long‑term partnership with DeSoto Memorial Hospital that includes a...
Georgia Advances Bill Expanding Pharmacists’ HIV Care Role
Georgia’s House of Representatives approved a bill, 155‑7, that would let pharmacists prescribe and administer HIV prevention drugs such as pre‑exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post‑exposure prophylaxis (PEP). The legislation aims to remove the prerequisite of a primary‑care visit, expanding access...
HCA Texas Hospital Names Chief Medical Officer
DeVry Anderson, MD, has been appointed chief medical officer of St. David’s North Austin Medical Center, a 465‑bed HCA Healthcare facility in Texas. In his new role, Anderson will oversee clinical operations at both the North Austin Medical Center and the...
3 Trends Shaping the GLP-1 Landscape
GLP‑1 therapies are entering a new regulatory phase as the FDA stripped suicide‑ideation warnings from Saxenda, Wegovy and Zepbound and signaled tighter controls on compounded pills. At the same time, Novo Nordisk’s oral Wegovy has become the fastest drug launch...
Renown Health Names VP of Payer Contracting
Renown Health announced the promotion of longtime executive Jenny Juchtzer to vice president of payer contracting. Juchtzer, who has spent nearly two decades at the organization and most recently led payer contracting, will now oversee all hospital and professional managed‑care...
PA Pay by State
The National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants released its 2024 compensation report, showing a mean PA salary of $129,291 nationwide. California tops the list with a mean income of $151,351, while Nevada, Connecticut, Alaska, and Washington round out the...
Humana Approaches $1B Acquisition of Florida Primary Care Company: Bloomberg
Humana is negotiating a roughly $1 billion purchase of Florida‑based MaxHealth, a primary‑care network focused on adults and seniors. MaxHealth is owned by Arsenal Capital Partners’ Best Value Healthcare, and the deal would deepen Humana’s primary‑care footprint after recent growth in...
10 Systems Seeking Supply Chain Leaders
Hospitals are redefining supply chain leadership to encompass enterprise strategy, digital transformation, and resilience. This shift is prompting health systems nationwide to recruit senior supply chain executives with broader, analytics‑driven responsibilities. In the past week, ten systems—including Baptist Memorial, Boston...