1. Should hospital nurses be working 12-hour shifts?

Hospital leaders have bemoaned a nationwide scarcity of nurses, and nursing leaders argue that extra versatile scheduling would assist maintain nurses from strolling away.

More and more, some nursing leaders say it’s time to maneuver away from the 12-hour shifts employed by many hospitals. Whereas some youthful nurses desire working 12-hour shifts, enabling them to work a couple of days per week, nursing business leaders and advocates say well being techniques should develop different scheduling choices.

Advocates for transferring away from 12-hour shifts make a number of factors. These shifts are extraordinarily tough for nurses who’ve youngsters. Some advocates say many nurses who’ve younger youngsters go away the career, or no less than get out of full-time roles, as a result of it’s too tough to handle 12-hour shifts when elevating school-age children. As nurses become old, the 12-hour shifts get tougher, nursing leaders say.

Some say transferring to shorter nursing shifts would enhance affected person security, and federal officers have voiced considerations over declines in patient safety throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vicki Good, govt director of nursing for Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Missouri, strongly advocates for transferring away from 12-hour shifts. She’s a previous president of the American Affiliation of Important-Care Nurses board of administrators.

“It’s the worst factor from a security perspective and from a long-term workforce perspective that we may have ever performed in nursing,” Good stated.

Hospitals have been dealing with a scarcity of nurses earlier than COVID-19 ever appeared, however the pandemic has pushed extra nurses to go away the career as a result of stress and fatigue. Many nurses say they plan to leave their practice within the next two years.

“We have now to take a look at various staffing fashions,” Good stated. “The standard staffing fashions aren’t going to chop it sooner or later, except we will take a look at another method to get extra nurses.”

2. Oracle Cerner touts big plan to transform healthcare

Expertise corporations have made daring claims about their capacity to repair the healthcare business.

Mike Sicilia, the manager vice chairman of Oracle’s enterprise models, stated there’s a motive others have stubbed their toes, as he put it.

Talking on the Oracle Cerner Well being Convention in Kansas Metropolis in October, Sicilia stated tech companies have stumbled up to now as a result of “they haven’t taken on sufficient of the issue.”

Oracle Cerner gained’t make the error of considering too small, Sicilia stated.

Oracle Cerner goals to deal with the data know-how challenges of healthcare, from enhancing digital well being information to revamping again workplace techniques, fee and declare techniques. He stated that’s the differentiator in Oracle Cerner’s method.

The well being convention occurred a couple of months after Oracle accomplished its $28-billion acquisition of Cerner, the nation’s second largest digital well being information firm .

In a June occasion, Larry Ellison, Oracle chairman of the board and chief know-how officer, positioned healthcare as the main target of the corporate.

Sicilia and different Oracle Cerner executives actually hammered house that message on the convention Monday, which was streamed on-line.

“That is crucial factor we’ve ever performed within the historical past of Oracle,” Sicilia stated.

David Feinberg, chairman of Oracle Well being, touted the promise of one of many world’s main know-how corporations with a pacesetter in digital well being information.

“Oracle and Cerner are going to let you care in your sufferers and communities like by no means earlier than,” Feinberg stated.

3. How hospitals can improve their sustainability, and why they should get moving

Hospitals and well being techniques are dealing with extra calls for to scale back their environmental influence, and the strain is coming from a number of areas.

The federal authorities is taking a higher curiosity in seeing hospitals scale back their emissions. The healthcare business is chargeable for 8.5{a71e702d8dd75cbe32444ad6fd3ab85fcf42dda4a9e89e7ffa9d236a5143b97a} of America’s carbon emissions, federal officers say.

Home Methods and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., despatched a letter to hospital techniques asking them what they’re doing to scale back emissions. As well as, well being system boards, staff, environmental advocates, and bond score businesses need to know what hospitals are doing to deal with sustainability.

Well being leaders addressed sustainability throughout a panel dialogue on the American Hospital Affiliation Management Summit final month.

The well being ecosystem have to be constructed round making the correct selections from an environmental and sustainability perspective, stated Simrit Sandhu, Vizient’s govt vice chairman for strategic transformation and scientific provide options.

“This can’t be an initiative,” Sandhu stated. “This needs to be the brand new regular.”

Shelly L. Schlenker, CommonSpirit Well being’s govt vice chairman and chief advocacy officer, careworn the significance of getting well being leaders to see the monetary advantages of sustainability efforts.

“In each occasion, you may make the enterprise case,” she stated.

By lowering power prices, Schlenker stated, “That’s cash in your pocket.”

4. How digital transformation is reshaping the healthcare supply chain | Steve Jackson

It’s no secret that healthcare organizations are below immense strain as working margins decline, budgets shrink and employees battle with fatigue and burnout, wrote Steve Jackson, common supervisor, trade providers for GHX, a software-as-a-service firm.

To assist tackle these challenges, many are taking a better take a look at the place and the way they will scale back prices and decrease the influence of worker vacancies whereas delivering higher affected person outcomes. One viable path ahead is thru the digital transformation of the healthcare provide chain.

COVID-19 confirmed many healthcare organizations simply how limiting their legacy IT techniques are. These techniques can not help the necessity for correct and real-time forecasting nor administration and re-allocation of provides throughout their group.

Enterprise choice makers at healthcare organizations additionally discovered their legacy techniques have been conserving necessary information trapped in silos, leading to numerous discrepancies.

That is difficult, at finest, when merchandise information is just not simply accessible all through the group. Including to this, merchandise information that’s trapped in silos could not synchronize with the most recent contract, inflicting discrepancies and incorrectly priced orders between the hospital and its suppliers. This leads to extra administrative work, resulting in delays and potential impacts to affected person expertise and care.

In a digital-first future, well being techniques ought to be capable of dynamically establish the place stock exists and reallocate it to the areas with the very best demand. When info stays in particular person techniques, or is just not simply obtainable to choice makers, it holds again the complete business.

5. Ochsner Health CEO Warner Thomas talks about merger with Rush Health Systems

Whereas the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed the pace of hospital consolidation, Ochsner Well being bucked the development.

Ochsner Well being accomplished its merger with Rush Health Systems, saying Aug. 1 that the deal was performed. Rush is now Ochsner Rush Well being. The deal brings seven extra hospitals into Ochsner Well being, which is predicated in Louisiana and operates 40 hospitals within the Gulf South.

Warner Thomas, president and CEO of Ochsner Well being, spoke with Chief Healthcare Government in regards to the merger, the work to finish the deal, and the plans to increase healthcare providers in Mississippi.

“We’re actually excited at Ochsner about merging Rush Well being into Ochsner Well being,” Thomas says. “I feel it’s going to be nice for the residents in that neighborhood and nice for that group. We’ve been engaged on this for a very long time. This has been a very long time coming.”

The 2 techniques introduced their intention to merge in June 2021.

“The group’s performed an incredible job on this, and we’re simply excited to have it accomplished,” Thomas says. “And now we’ll work on the mixing. Now the onerous work comes.”

Thomas, who led Ochsner Well being for a decade, recently left the organization to become the chief executive officer of Sutter Health in California. Pete November, Ochsner’s govt vice chairman and chief monetary officer, took over as CEO of the Louisiana-based system on Nov. 1, appropriately sufficient.