There are several opportunities to introduce AI tools into operating rooms.
Up to this point, AI tools are not being widely used during surgical procedures. The technology has made more of a splash in the pre-operative and post-operative settings.
However, Miami Cardiac and Vascular Institute, part of Baptist Health South Florida, is examining ways to introduce AI tools into the operating room. Tom Nguyen, MD, chief medical executive of Miami Cardiac and Vascular Institute, says his surgeons are using an AI tool to generate risk profiles for their patients.
Historically, according to Nguyen, they had risk calculators that could use the patient's age, comorbid conditions, and other factors to determine a risk profile after the patient had surgery.
"Those risk calculators did not take into account the patient's Zip code, the particular surgeon, the time of the surgery, and a host of other factors," Nguyen says. "AI can use machine learning to predict more outcomes."
Risk calculators that use regression analysis to generate risk profiles have been available for more than a decade, but the AI tool that Miami Cardiac and Vascular Institute is using is more powerful, according to Nguyen.
"Unlike regression models," Nguyen says, "AI can add more variables and personalize the predictive risk for each individual patient."
AI has taken hold in the perioperative arena, according to James Blum, MD, chief health information officer at The University of Iowa.
Ahead of surgery, some surgeons are using AI for imaging to look for defects or tumors that have metastasized, Blum says.
"After surgery, there is monitoring in the hospital with predictive algorithms for people suffering deterioration," Blum says. "There is also remote patient monitoring that is being used after sending surgical patients home with algorithms that can show when they are getting into trouble."
AI opportunities in the operating room
In the future, AI will assist surgeons during procedures, according to Blum and Nguyen.
"We have worked with a company that uses AI to make surgeries safer," Blum says. "Essentially, this AI tool monitors things that are going on during an operation and provides feedback."
AI will help anesthesiologists in the operating room as well, Blum explains.
"There are technologies being used in Europe to maintain the blood level of the anesthetic and calculations for individual patients," Blum says, "particularly if an anesthetic is being given as an IV infusion."
In the future, the da Vinci robot will likely have AI features that could make it a better assistant to the surgeon, according to Blum.
Nguyen is bullish on the future of AI tools in the operating room, particularly in robotics.
"Just as with automated driving, you could have AI do almost automated procedures," Nguyen says. "There have been studies to use AI to watch an operation then alert the surgeon not to take a certain action or alert the surgeon that they are doing something out of sequence."
One of Nguyen's responsibilities is looking for opportunities to improve operational efficiency, which could be a near-term application of AI at Baptist Health South Florida.
"We are working with some companies that have AI technology that will help us understand our current operational efficiency, understand where the gaps are, and help guide us to become more efficient," Nyugen says.
Miami Cardiac and Vascular Institute is exploring AI technology that could manage the counting of supplies in the operating room, where every single sponge and needle must be accounted for. The concern is that an object could be inadvertently left inside a patient.
"Those counts are done by people," Nguyen says. "Every time you rely on a person, you are subject to variability and subject to inaccuracy."
According to Nguyen, there is a piece of AI technology that involves using a camera that takes pictures of all the needles and counts them. In complex cases that can have as many as 300 needles, the technology can be a big help.
"If your count is wrong, you must go around the room and try to find the missing needles," Nguyen says. "You may have to take an X-ray to make sure you did not leave a needle in the patient's body."
Nguyen is excited about AI, and he believes it will transform medicine.
"We need to approach it with cautious optimism," Nguyen says. "We need to have components in place to ensure that AI does not spiral out of control."
Considerations for AI adoption in the surgical realm
When adopting AI tools in the surgical setting, healthcare organizations must make sure that patient information is secure, according to Nguyen.
"In using AI, you use many data points for each patient," Nguyen says. "Something we are very cognizant of and have committees adjudicate is how we use patient information."
Additionally, healthcare organizations should not impose AI tools on their surgeons, Blum explains.
"You need to understand your surgeons' needs, and you need to understand their pain points," Blum says. "You should avoid finding a tool, acquiring it, then telling surgeons to use it."
Healthcare organizations should find an AI solution and pair it with a surgeon champion, according to Blum.
"The best way to adopt AI technology in the surgical field is to have the right technology with the right surgeon," Blum says, "who can then champion that technology throughout the organization."
Zehner started at the health system in January, bringing in more than 30 years of healthcare finance and operations experience. Previously a Regional CFO with Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health (RWJBH), he has also held the title of Chief Operating Officer for Newark Beth Israel (NBIMC). On top of this, Zehner has also held CFO positions at Washington Hospital Center, and HCA Healthcare.
Zehner says one factor that influenced his decision to join Holy Name was its size.
Coming from positions at large organizations, Zehner shared that often, in independent health systems, decisions can be made more rapidly, more nimbly.
“One of the calling cards of the health system is its ability to react to situations and move quickly to solve problems or to create opportunities, and that's appealing to me, “ he says.
Curious and Collaborative
Zehner was a COO for a number of years, adding to his knowledge of what can and cannot work for a health system. Now, he’s taking his leadership skills to Holy Name and applying them to finance.
“My style is curious and collaborative, and so [I like] to understand what problems are out there and what we're trying to solve,” he says. “I've learned a lot about how these types of organizations and hospitals work and how people attack issues, and where some of the blind spots exist in organizations. And so I think for me, to bring that operational experience in, it gives me credibility in the room.”
Zehner says it’s difficult for finance leaders to know which new solutions or new hires are the right ones to prioritize. Sometimes, they can feel like they wasted time, money and resources on investments that didn’t bring the kind of value to the community and organization as expected. This is why it’s imperative for CFOs to not make decisions in isolation.
Zehner says it’s important to allow the people that are going to be affected by decisions to participate in the dialogue, which helps to avoid missteps.
In terms of leadership style, Zehner knows collaboration is key.
“That's what I've learned from working with robust medical staff: Leadership is bringing folks into the conversation,” he says.
“We have to take that nimbleness that we've got and make sure that it's an asset for us and not a liability. Make sure that we move quickly when we're ready to strike, but [also], we want to make sure that we're making the right decision, and we're thinking about all the affected parties. So that's what collaboration kind of looks like to me.”
Zehner created the financial planning division at his previous health system, which, in a nutshell, took financial analysts and tasked them with deep dives on major decisions. From acquisitions to partnerships, this team examined it all in detail, preparing every decision for retrospective analysis.
Zehner says this team also examined the pathway of new initiatives to the community and the impact made there.
“It does slow things down a little bit to do that, but it makes the organization a little bit smarter about what it's doing,” he says.
Looking Ahead
What’s up next in Zehner’s playbook for Holy Name? Staying competitive, he says. Being in a smaller health system, Zehner knows the organization won’t have all the same financial advantages as its competitors, so it will be important to look at operations through an innovative lens.
“I want to look at whatever we can to try to make sure we can stay hyper competitive,” he says.
As Gen Z and new technologies arrive simultaneously in the nursing industry, CNOs need to take a hard look at their recruitment strategies.
Nurse recruitment remains a priority for CNOs and healthcare executives everywhere in 2025 as the workforce shortage continues.
In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the number of registered nurses to grow by 6% before 2033. According to the Health Resources and Service Administration workforce projections, between 2025 and 2037, show the demand for registered nurses is going to continue to outpace the supply.
First and foremost, recruitment and retention go hand in hand and are inseparable processes. According to the panelists, health systems must be ready to offer new nurses enticing hiring packages with benefits, and check in with them throughout their first year of employment. CNOs should focus on improving transition to practice programs as well to better acclimate new nurses to the fast-paced hospital environment.
Additionally, CNOs and talent acquisition staff should streamline the job application and hiring process. Shortening the length of time it takes to reach out and communicate with an applicant can greatly improve the chances of the candidate wanting to work with that particular health system. Applications should be as accessible as possible, even on mobile devices, and their statuses should be updated frequently.
Gen Z will revolutionize recruiting
Right now, only about 6% of the nursing workforce is Gen Z, but that number is expected to grow exponentially. As a generation, Gen Z values social justice, equity and inclusion, work-life balance, and having a strong sense of purpose and connection to the work they do. They also have higher expectations of technology and flexibility in the workplace.
Gen Z grew up online and will use technology to research organizations and decide whether they want to be a part of them. They also deeply care about being part of something bigger than themselves. Because of this, the panelists emphasized that CNOs have a responsibility to be transparent about their positions on social issues. Health systems should provide volunteering and community outreach opportunities as well.
Also, nurses in all generations, not just Gen Z, don't want to feel burnt out at their jobs. To combat this, CNOs should set up robust mental health and wellness programs to care for their workforce. Flexible staffing opportunities and work-life balance values are also a must, as Gen Z nurses tend to set hard boundaries about taking their work home with them.
CNOs must leverage social media
By the time many new graduate nurses are out of school, they already have a good idea of where they want to go based on the reputation of different organizations. Overall, CNOs and health systems need to invest in social media presence and branding to help nurses decide where they want to begin their careers.
Social media is a great platform to recognize nurses for all the hard work they do, and to applaud nurses for their achievements. It can be a tool to display the diversity and inclusivity of a health system, which can improve the organization's public reputation and build trust with potential nursing candidates.
According to the panelists, it's critical that real, authentic stories about nursing are being told online. Nursing can be extremely difficult at times, and nurses as well as the public know that. Some health systems are even partnering with nurse influencers to help showcase nursing as a career. It is essential to share both the positive and not-so-positive sides of the profession, with the goal of showing nurses why what they are doing is important, and how they can help change the trajectory of the industry.
HealthLeaders Senior Editor for Innovation and Technology Eric Wicklund speaks with Dr. Robert (Bob) Murry, Chief Medical Officer at NextGen Healthcare, about the potential for ambient AI technology, also known as AI scribes, to improve the healthcare experience for both patients and their doctors.
As the nursing shortage looms, new expectations give way to new recruiting strategies.
In the face of a daunting workforce shortage, health systems are struggling to recruit and retain the best talent.
Nurse leaders everywhere are brainstorming innovative ways to attract new graduate nurses from a new generation with new expectations, and it isn't always easy.
Right now in the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics expects the number of registered nurses to grow by 6% before 2033. According to the Health Resources and Service Administrationworkforce projections, between 2025 and 2037, the demand for registered nurses is going to continue to outpace the supply.
CNOs and other healthcare leaders must brainstorm ways to bridge that gap and to provide avenues for nurses to have safe, lifelong careers in their health systems.
The obstacles
Nurse leaders are facing many recruiting challenges.
As the workforce ages, more seasoned nurses are retiring, leaving a gap in both knowledge and skill in their wake. According to a 2023 study, there are around a million nurses over the age of 50, which means a third of the nursing workforce could retire within the next 10 to 15 years. Nurse faculty are also included, and the study states this can lead to issues with enrollment and graduation rates.
On the other hand, there are new generational demands from new graduate nurses who are entering the workforce for the first time. Gen Z values diversity, social justice, and work-life balance and prefers their job to align with their morals. Additionally, the cost of living is higher than ever now compared to wages, which impacts new graduate nurses' ability to cover educational and living expenses.
Record workplace violence and burnout rates are also deterrents when it comes to people wanting to pursue nursing. According to a National Nurses United report that measured data from the entirety of 2023, eight in 10 nurses experienced at least one type of workplace violence, and 45.5% reported an increase in workplace violence on their unit. The American Nurses Association reports that 62% of nurses experience burnout, with 69% of nurses under 25 reporting burnout.
All of these issues are major cause for concern for CNOs and other nurse leaders everywhere. CNOs need to strategize and implement robust programs that prevent workplace violence and create both physically and psychologically safe environments for nurses.
What's the solution?
In 2025, attracting nurses of all types means having benefits such as flexible scheduling, opportunities for professional growth and development, and having up-to-date technologies that cut down administrative burdens.
The next webinar in our Winning Edge series will explore ways to utilize technology, gain departmental buy-in, and streamline other resources to recruit the best nurses so health systems can put their best foot forward.
The Washington-based health system is reorganizing its leadership under new CEO Erik Wexler, and is putting Sara Vaezy in charge of AI strategy, digital health, innovation and sustainable partnerships.
Providence is restructuring its executive leadership and creating an Office of Transformation to oversee, among other things, AI strategy.
"To serve our communities today and into the future, we are organizing our system executive leadership team to ensure we are well-positioned to support our local ministries and advance our strategic priorities," Providence President and CEO Erik Wexler said in a press release.
With the announcement, the Washington-based health system joins scores of healthcare organizations that are singling out AI for C-level governance, either by creating an AI executive or adding those responsibilities to the chief innovation, chief transformation or chief digital health officer’s role.
Wexler stepped into the CEO’s role earlier this month, and the health system is looking for a chief information officer, a position now held on an interim basis by Ivette de Rubin.
Sara Vaezy, currently the EVP, chief strategy and digital officer, will become the chief transformation officer. She’ll focus on “the responsible adoption of AI, developing next-generation innovations, and forging partnerships to scale sustainable technology solutions,” as well as digital care and marketing.
Among other moves, Prub “PK” Khurana, currently chief strategy officer for care delivery, will become chief strategy and growth officer, also overseeing the health system’s technology center in Hyderabad, India. Susan Huang, currently chief executive for the Providence Clinical Network, will add the title of chief physician executive.
As a result of the changes, which take effect February 1, Chief Clinical Officer Hoda Asmar is leaving the health system.
Healthcare leaders must adress burnout before the gaps in the workforce widen, according to these two thought leaders.
Editor’s note: Bethany Friedlander is president and CEO of New Bridge Cleveland, a workforce development program and school that provides tuition-free training for in-demand healthcare careers. Erin Slay, DNP, MHA, RN is the assistant dean of Central School of Practical Nursing, Inc., Ohio's oldest practical nursing program.
The healthcare sector is in a crisis, but not just because of staffing shortages. The real emergency is burnout—a pervasive issue that is devastating the workforce, particularly for women. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 80% of healthcare workers are women. They experience burnout at disproportionately high rates. A 2023 survey by the National Academy of Medicine found that 56% of female healthcare workers reported feeling exhausted, emotionally drained, and unable to meet job demands. The consequence? High turnover, increased patient safety risks, and overburdened healthcare systems.
Yet, while the healthcare industry urgently needs to address this, it simply cannot shoulder the responsibility alone. Hospitals and healthcare employers are already stretched thin, scrambling to fill positions. The notion that they can tack on comprehensive professional development around burnout and resiliency training is both unrealistic and unfair. Instead, educational institutions must step up.
The realities of burnout for women in healthcare
Women in healthcare face unique stressors, often compounded by caregiving responsibilities at home. A 2023 survey found that women, especially those in nursing, are compared to their male counterparts. Moreover, a 2022 study by the American Medical Association highlighted that women physicians were 50% more likely to experience burnout than men, with contributing factors including long hours, lack of control over scheduling, and a culture that stigmatizes vulnerability.
This is more than an individual problem; it's a system-wide crisis. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that we will need more than 275,000 additional nurses by 2030 to meet the growing demand. If nothing is done to mitigate burnout, this gap will widen, exacerbating the healthcare workforce shortage and adversely affecting patient care.
Schools as the frontline of resilience training in healthcare
As employers in the healthcare sector grapple with recruitment and retention challenges, schools and training programs must take a proactive role in preparing students for the emotional demands of the profession. This is especially crucial for women and other marginalized groups, who often face disproportionate pressures in the healthcare field. To ensure the next generation of healthcare professionals is equipped to handle the emotional and psychological rigors of the job, we must prioritize resilience training and burnout prevention before students enter the workforce.
Several educational programs are already leading the way in integrating these essential tools. Some schools and training facilities are incorporating mental health resources, peer support groups, and resilience workshops into their curricula. Others have developed "trauma-informed care" modules to help students manage the secondary trauma they might experience from patient interactions. While these efforts are a positive step forward, they remain too limited in scope to address the scale of the problem.
A notable example of progress in this area comes from the Central School for Practical Nursing (CSPN), which was acquired by New Bridge in 2023. Once a century-old institution with a strong community focus, CSPN had lost its sense of connection and student well-being, largely due to a transition to remote learning during the pandemic. New leadership reintroduced campus life, activated the Student Nurses Association, hired a Student Success Coordinator, and implemented emotional regulation and burnout prevention curriculum. These changes led to an immediate improvement in both graduation rates and NCLEX pass rates.
Today, CSPN has an extensive waitlist, a testament to the success of its holistic approach. Students now know that they will find not only academic support but a campus culture that prioritizes their emotional and professional resilience. This model demonstrates that when schools focus on students' emotional well-being, the benefits extend far beyond graduation—it can create healthcare professionals who are not only competent but also well-prepared to thrive in a demanding career.
As the healthcare industry continues to evolve, we must recognize that resilience is not a skill that can be learned on the job—it must be cultivated early on. Schools are uniquely positioned to serve as the frontline in building grit, ensuring that students are ready not just to enter the workforce, but to endure and excel in it.
Why healthcare employers can’t do it all
The reality is that hospitals and healthcare employers are overwhelmed. Many organizations are dealing with unprecedented patient loads, staffing shortages, and budget constraints. Adding resiliency training or burnout prevention into an already strained system is not sustainable. It’s not that employers don't care—they simply don't have the capacity to manage this burden on top of other, patient-centric priorities.
Moreover, if hospitals are expected to take on the task of educating workers on burnout after they've entered the workforce, it might already be too late. Early intervention is key. Studies in the Journal of Nursing Education and Practice indicate that nursing students face significant levels of burnout, with as many as 36% reporting high stress and anxiety due to the demanding curriculum and the pressure to perform professionally during clinical rotations. If we don't equip students with effective burnout prevention strategies, we miss a crucial opportunity to help them manage stress both during their education and throughout their careers.
The case for immediate action
Educational institutions need to build comprehensive wellness programs that include burnout prevention, emotional intelligence training, and resilience-building skills as core elements of healthcare training programs. These programs must go beyond simple self-care tips and instead integrate evidence-based strategies like mindfulness, peer support, and coping skills into daily practice. This will not only benefit students as they transition into the workforce, but it will also alleviate pressure on employers who are already at their breaking point.
The healthcare sector cannot afford to ignore this issue. The stakes are too high—for patients, healthcare workers, and the future of healthcare delivery. By embedding resiliency training into educational programs, we can give future caregivers, especially women, the tools they need to thrive, not just survive, in this demanding field.
In doing so, we will not only help reduce burnout but also create a more effective and sustainable healthcare workforce for the future.
Educational institutions have a moral and professional obligation to protect the next generation of caregivers, and it starts with giving them the emotional and psychological tools they need long before they walk into a patient’s room.
Editor's note: Care to share your view? HealthLeaders accepts original thought leadership articles from healthcare industry leaders in active executive roles at payer and provider organizations. These may include case studies, research, and guest editorials. We neither accept payment nor offer compensation for contributed content.
Allina Health is using technology and new ideas to reduce the time a patient spends in the hospital. They're seeing improved outcomes, reduced costs and more capacity to treat patients who need to be hospitalized.
One of the key metrics in clinical care is patient length of stay (LOS), traditionally defined as the time between a patient's admittance and discharge from a hospital. LOS is a critical factor in everything from reimbursement and accreditation to patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes.
New technologies like AI and concepts like remote patient monitoring (RPM) and Hospital at Home are helping healthcare executives gain a better understanding of LOS, and in turn they're reducing costs and improving care management.
"We usually think about length of stay as an inpatient issue, but it really isn't," says Hsieng Su, SVP and Chief Medical Executive at Allina Health. The Minnesota-based health system has seen double-digit reductions in average LOS by improving care coordination between its 12 hospitals and various care sites, improving outcomes and opening up beds for new patients.
The key, Su says, is to understand the relationship between hospitals and other care sites, like skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), rehab centers and even the home, and developing a care management plan for the patient that makes the best use of those sites, rather than adhering to old protocols or patterns. That means collecting and analyzing data on the patient and various sites of care outside the hospital and finding the best care pathway.
"This needs to be a very deliberate and focused strategy," she says.
While the LOS issue reached its peak with the pandemic, when hospitals were swamped with patients and struggling to find places to care for them, its roots go much farther back, to when healthcare organizations began setting expectations on how long a patient would have to be in a hospital to receive treatment for certain health concerns. Arrayed against those expectations were the costs of keeping a patient in the hospital and the amount that a health plan or payer would pay for that care.
Nowadays, those assumptions are being upended. Patients can be admitted to a hospital for surgery and discharged within a day to another care site. Healthcare organizations are using RPM and telehealth to monitor patients at home (or another facility) who might otherwise spend an extra day or two in the hospital.
That's why it's critical for healthcare executives to have a clear understanding of their options to the inpatient stay.
Su says the push to develop a better LOS strategy came out of the COVID-19 pandemic, when inpatient beds were at a premium and more than 100 patients each day were ready to be discharged, but hospital staff couldn't find the right facility to take them.
"They couldn't deliver care, so we were just hosting them while they were waiting," she says. "And that is not satisfactory for our patients or our community."
Allina launched a partnership with Navvis to reduce those bottlenecks and backlogs through improvements in "patient throughput". In the first 12 months of that partnership, the health system was able to reduce average LOS for discharge to an SNF by 1.61 days and by .89 days for discharge to a home health program. The health system also saw reductions in ALOS to hospice care and LTACH facilities.
This, in turn, enabled the health system to free up 25,000 days of capacity, or room for an additional 5,000 patients.
"Nobody really wants to be in a hospital unnecessarily," Su points out. So it's in the best interests of both the patient and the health system to find the right resources to reduce that LOS.
She says traditional care huddles have focused on clinical care, but now the conversations are more holistic, centered on what the patient wants as well as needs. Care managers and social workers are incorporated into the conversations, and plans are to add caregivers and even family members.
"This is a very clear conversation," she says, about the patient's care journey, with data to back up the various care pathways. For example, she says, a patient admitted with pneumonia should be hospitalized for three to five days depending on current protocols, but that LOS can change depending on factors like the patient's response to treatment, availability of rehab beds or even the hospital's ability to use RPM or telehealth to care for that patient at home.
That includes asking hard questions about the alternatives.
"I'm seeing in so many programs now that in many cases, these clinical programs don't really think about what happens in the home when these things move to the homes," Su says. "They have to be thought out."
"We want to make sure they don't end up coming back to the hospital," she adds.
At the end of the day, Su says, Allina is reducing the time that patients spend in a hospital by giving them better options, and the health system is using technology to make sure those options are safe and effective. This reduces the cost of care, improves the patient's outcomes and outlook, and enables the hospital to care for more patients who need to occupy those inpatient beds.
Healthcare executives are calling on the Trump Administration to nullify a DEA proposal to create a special registration for virtual prescribing of controlled drugs, saying the proposed rule ‘would be a major setback.’
Healthcare executives who have lobbied the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to create a special registration for providers to prescribe controlled medications via telemedicine are now asking the Trump Administration to withdraw that proposed rule.
The 17-year wait for the registration, originally mandated in the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act of 2008, seemingly came to fruition last week with the DEA’s proposed rule, unveiled in the last days of the Biden Administration. But those advocating for that rule quickly cried foul, saying the proposal is worse than no registration at all.
“Upon careful review of the DEA’s draft Special Registration for remote prescribing of controlled substances, we have serious concerns about the feasibility of this proposal,” Kyle Zebley, senior vice president of public policy for the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) and executive director of ATA Action, said in a press release issued on January 16—the second such press release issued by the ATA that day on the DEA’s proposal. “As written, the draft framework creates unworkable restrictions and could not be operationalized, which would be a major setback, should this become the final rule.As such, we implore President Trump to make it his urgent priority to withdraw this proposal immediately following his inauguration on January 20.”
“If allowed to become final, this would undo the important work President Trump put in place in 2020 with the waiver of the in-person requirement allowing for the remote prescribing of controlled substances,” Zebley continued. “We stand ready to work with President Trump and his incoming administration to make essential refinements, taking the time necessary and in consultation with key stakeholders, to create an appropriate and effective Special Registration that will protect the American people while allowing patients the care they so urgently need.”
In an analysis of the proposed rule, Nathan Beaver, a partner with the Foley & Lardner law firm, and Marika Miller, an associate with Foley & Lardner and a member of its telemedicine & digital health advisory team, said “widespread frustration” with the DEA’s efforts to craft a special registration over the past year make it unlikely that this proposed rule will be OK’d in its current form.
One of the biggest complaints is the requirement that providers qualifying for a special registration check their patient’s prescription history for the past year in state Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs) before prescribing via telemedicine.
Providers would be required to check PDMPs in the state where the patient is located, the state where the provider is located, and any other PDMPs in states that have reciprocity agreements with either of the first two states. Three years after passage of the proposed DEA rule, that requirement would be expanded so that a provider would have to check PDMPs in every state.
Beaver and Miller wrote that the PDMP requirement “is seen as overly burdensome given the absence of a nationwide PDMP database—a burden the DEA continues to underestimate.”
In urging the Trump Administration to withdraw the DEA proposal, Zebley said advocates hope to work with the DEA on a new version of the special registration—something the DEA has avoided doing for years.
“This is often a life-or-death issue and has understandably been a lightning rod for public comment due to the extraordinary stakes involved,” he said in the press release. “The DEA must implement a permanent framework for remote prescribing of controlled substances that strikes the right balance, ensuring necessary access while safeguarding against diversion.”
Nurse practitioners may soon be able to classify chest radiographs, according to the CDC.
Nurse practitioners' (NPs) scope of practice will potentially be expanded once again as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) considers allowing NPs to try their hand at reading a specific type of X-ray.
The CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) submitted a request for information regarding the B Reader Program from interested parties to determine whether or not they should allow nurse practitioners and physician assistants (PAs) to become B Readers.
Here's the rundown on what it would mean for nurse practitioners to become B Readers.
