A recent HIMSS forum in Boston highlighted the challenges—some new, some expected-- faced by healthcare executives in managing AI adoption.
Health system and hospital executives looking to embrace AI will need to think long and hard about how they’ll measure ROI. That may include using the technology to actually replace care providers.
Lee Schwamm, MD, senior vice president, chief digital health officer, and associate dean of digital strategy and transformation for the Yale New Haven Health System and Yale School of Medicine, told a busy audience at last week’s HIMSS AI in Healthcare Forum in Boston that the technology will have a profound impact on healthcare delivery. The challenge, he said, will lie in understanding that impact before it happens.
“We’re going to need better financial models to really understand the ROI,” he said, noting that healthcare organizations have so far found only three or four successful use cases for the technology.
Schwamm says the healthcare industry has become “accustomed” and “complacent” in healthcare IT, and Ai is presenting healthcare leaders with issues they haven’t encountered before. The AI evolution, he pointed out, is similar to the development of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, but health systems and hospitals haven’t developed the governance to regulate these tools before they’re used.
“I’ve had e-mails where [doctors] say, ‘I just really enjoy using ChatGPT while in clinic,” she said.
The challenge for hospital leaders like Schwamm and Cunningham is to get ahead of a technology that’s moving faster than anything they’ve seen before, and at a time when the industry is struggling with significant issues that AI could eventually address.
“We have to catch up to that SaaS model,” Schwamm said.
Healthcare leaders across the country are pulling their legal and compliance teams into the conversation, in some cases developing strategies based on hypothetical issues. And they’re trying to educate clinicians who might see just the good in AI and not understand the ramifications of fast adoption without governance.
AI “lowers the bar for non-technologists to use sophisticated technology,” Schwamm said.
Cunningham noted that AI tools are being tested out across the enterprise, often in small programs that show very specific, though limited ROI. Leadership has to find a way to keep track of all these programs and integrate them into a governance structure.
She said health system leadership needs to take a step back and assess the new tools and technology being pitched in healthcare. Many vendors, including those in AI, are aiming at the patient experience and engagement space, with products that promise to improve the clinician-patient relationship. But healthcare organizations are struggling with stress and burnout, to the point that a new tool that offers results “with just one more click” isn’t a good selling point, and products that aim to give clinicians time to take on more patients are just adding to the misery of overloaded workflows.
“There is no more room for one more click,” noted Zeev Neuwirth, an author, podcast host and former chief clinical executive for care transformation at Atrium Health who moderated the HIMSS panel.
Several panelists at the HIMSS forum said AI’s potential to synthesize data and take pressure off of clinicians has to be balanced with an understanding of how healthcare should manage the vast amounts of data coming into the enterprise. That may mean creating a change management strategy devoted solely to AI adoption, to give healthcare leaders an understanding of how AI will take that data and make it useful to clinicians.
AI’s potential to address workforce shortages in healthcare may also mean it can be used to replace people, especially for positions that hospitals are having problems filling. And Schwamm noted that as health systems and hospitals focus on operational factors to improve their financial standing, AI could work its way into labor negotiations.
Cunningham said the industry will eventually have to get its act together and pull all the loose AI threads into one organized strategy.
“What does it all look like five to seven years from now?” she asked. “How will all these things that we’re doing come together?”
Adequate nurse staffing ratios are associated with better patient outcomes, says this CNO.
The nursing shortage impacts other nurses by causing burnout and exhaustion, and inadequate staffing directly affects patient safety and experience.
CNOs must be aware of those risks and consider all possible staffing models and solutions so that they can make the best decision for their hospitals and health systems.
According to the American Nurses Association, proper nurse staffing improves patient outcomes and satisfaction among nurses and patients. One proposed solution for ensuring proper staffing is staffing ratios.
Staffing ratios refer to the number of patients assigned to each nurse during their shift or a specific timeframe, and according to Vicky Tilton, vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at Valley Children’s Healthcare, there are many benefits.
"Adequate nurse staffing ratios are associated with better patient outcomes," Tilton said, "including lower mortality rates, reduced rates of hospital-acquired infections, [and] decreased medication errors."
What are the benefits?
According to Tilton, higher nurse staffing ratios can reduce the likelihood of adverse events, falls, and patient deterioration. In this case, nurses have more time to monitor patients and spot warning signs, and they can intervene quickly when complications arise.
"Optimal staffing ratios enable nurses to conduct thorough assessments, administer medications safely, and implement proper infection control measures," Tilton said, "thereby minimizing the risk of errors and harm to patients."
Proper staffing ratios can also help mitigate burnout and job dissatisfaction, Tilton explained, by lowering workload intensity, stress, and fatigue.
"When nurses are not overwhelmed by excessive patient assignments, they can maintain a healthier work-life balance, experience less emotional exhaustion, and feel more engaged and fulfilled in their roles," Tilton said.
Additionally, staffing ratios can allow nurses to practice at the top of their license, according to Tilton. They provide more time for professional development opportunities as well, such as continuing education, specialty certification, and leadership roles.
"Nurses can collaborate more closely with interdisciplinary team members, participate in care planning, and contribute to quality care initiatives," Tilton said, "when they are not overwhelmed by excessive workload demands."
Financial impact
Just like with any new program or workforce strategy, CNOs need to be able to justify the cost to the rest of the C-Suite.
"While ensuring appropriate nurse staffing ratios may require upfront investment," Tilton said, "it can yield long-term financial benefits for healthcare organizations."
There are several financial benefits to staffing ratios that can lead to saving more time and money for both the nurse and the health system.
"Improved patient outcomes, reduced lengths of stay, lower rates of readmission, and higher patient satisfaction scores associated with optimal staffing ratios can lead to cost savings, enhanced reimbursement rates, and increased revenue generation," Tilton said, "for hospitals and healthcare systems."
Proper staffing ratios also lower nurse turnover rates, according to Tilton, which is an additional financial benefit as well as a solution to the staffing shortage.
"Organizations that prioritize nurse satisfaction and retention by maintaining safe staffing levels can avoid the high costs associated with recruitment, orientation, and turnover of nursing staff," Tilton said.
Overall, Tilton explained, staffing ratios for nurses promote patient safety, quality of care, and better organizational performance.
"By prioritizing adequate staffing levels and workload management," Tilton said, "healthcare organizations can achieve better clinical outcomes, enhance the patient experience, and create a supportive and sustainable work environment for nurses."
Legal implications
While there is no current federal legislation mandating nurse staffing ratios, several states have legislated standards for staffing ratios or have made attempts to do so.
California has had legally mandated staffing ratios since 1999, which according to National Nurses United, are based on individual patient acuity and are designed to fix unsafe staffing in acute-care settings. The California staffing ratios require numerical RN-to-patient ratios as well as a patient classification system. The law also regulates the use of unlicensed assistive personnel and restricts "floating" nursing staff.
Implementing staffing ratios, however, requires levels of nuance depending on the health system.
"It’s important to note that the impact of legislation mandating staffing ratios can vary," Tilton said, "depending on factors such as geographical location, healthcare setting, patient population, and resource availability."
Health systems might run into several implementation challenges, Tilton explained, including budget constraints, potential staffing shortages, and a resistance to change from staff. These roadblocks can impact the effectiveness and outcomes in a mandated ratio scenario.
"Policymakers, healthcare leaders, and stakeholders must carefully consider the unique context and implications of staffing ratio legislation," Tilton said, "to maximize its benefits and address potential challenges effectively."
While wearable devices have gained attention for their use in remote patient monitoring programs, hospitals are finding more value in inpatient programs
Healthcare leaders are going wireless to monitor patients in the hospital, using new technology that can track a wide variety of vital signs and give providers new insights into improving clinical outcomes.
For many health systems, the initial thought is to use wearables to monitor patients who are discharged from the hospital and into a remote patient monitoring program. But Sarah Pletcher, MD, MDHCS, Houston Methodist’s vice president and executive medical director for strategic innovation, says the inpatient setting gives hospitals an opportunity to improve a key element of care management.
“We wanted to use it in the inpatient setting because we've seen the value of continuous algorithm-based monitoring by a dedicated and highly skilled remote clinical team in the virtula ICU space,” she says. “And the idea that we could hack the way vital signs are taken in the hospital setting, which hasn't really been innovated much in the last hundred of years, was a key opportunity area.”
Houston Methodist selected BioIntelliSense's BioButton roughly one year ago, after an exhaustive process during which Pletcher even slept and showered with multiple wearables to make sure they had the form, features, and would function as intended. Pletcher says she wanted an unobtrusive, durable, medical-grade device that would track several vital signs and be scalable.
Houston Methodist is using the wearable to supplement and replace manual collection of vital signs, pushing data hourly into the EMR and continuously to a central team, who respond to algorithm alerts and then alert bedside nurses when their review data suggests something concerning.
“As we began to advance the technology across the system, we also began to redesign how we did routine vitals,” Pletcher says. “We went from every four hours for routine vitals first to every six then to every eight. And we will look for opportunities to stretch it to every 12, especially at night and for stable patients so that the patient gets more rest. The bedside teams get a bunch more time back while at the same time there's a peace of mind that even when they're not in the room with the patient doing a spot check, the technology is there gathering data every minute and flowing it to a central monitoring team that's keeping an extra eye on things.”
While the wearable detects a wide variety of vital signs, Pletcher says she’s most impressed with the value of objective, high-frequency respiratory rate.
“It turns out that changes in respiratory rate are one of the earliest things you start to see in a patient,” she says. “By the time they get to the point where their blood pressure is tanking, you're late in the game, they've likely been deteriorating for a while.”
And that’s where wearables might prove their ROI in clinical outcomes. The ability to track vital signs in real time means clinicians can identify patients in distress much earlier, rather than waiting for a nurse or doctor to come to the bedside. In many cases clinicians can intervene even before a patient shows any outward signs of distress—and with AI tools on the horizon, the opportunity to collect and analyze data in the blink of an eye offers more potential for early detection.
Pletcher sees a more immediate ROI in workflow improvements, especially for nurses.
“The ROI is solid just based on the workforce savings,” she says. "Not having to send staff wheeling that vitals cart in there for every patient every four hours no matter what, can offset the cost of using the technology. And that doesn't factor in quality/safety catches, patient experience and nursing and physician satisfaction that there's more in place helping to look after their patients. Every day there are moments where we're catching patients earlier and hopefully avoiding them needing more intensive intervention.”
She’s also noticed the ability for wearables to pick up on heart rate arrythmias, giving hospital officials new insight into whether the wearables can reduce the demand for telemetry. And she’s looking forward to the ability to monitor pulse oximetry, blood pressure, and heart function and to differentiate between surface and core body temperature.
“Sometimes it's a case of we already are getting the data,” she says. “We've never had it before, not at this frequency and scope, so we're still learning how to use it.”
Aside from teaching clinicians how to be comfortable with the wearables and understand the data coming in—a common element of change management that comes with almost any new technology—Pletcher says one the biggest issues they’re having with wearables is remembering to collect them when a patient goes home. Sometimes, she says, the small devices are forgotten and thrown away or accidentally go home with the patient.
Using Wearables to Address One Specific Care Concern
While some hospitals see wearables as a means of improving inpatient monitoring, others are starting with one use case, such as monitoring cardiac care patients or trying to reduce sepsis cases.
At Sutter Health, hospital leaders are using a wearable that attaches to the neck and takes an ultrasound of the patient’s carotid artery and jugular vein. The Flopatch Doppler ultrasound patch, developed by Flosonics Medical, enables care teams to identify signs of sepsis, hypertension/shock, and renal failure earlier and take action.
“We’re losing a lot of people [to sepsis] every year,” Kristina Kury, MD, medical director of critical care at Sutter Health’s Eden Medical Center, says of the deadly infection, which is the primary cause of death in hospitals, killing almost 40% of the 1.7 million patients each year who get sepsis.
Kury says the patch focuses on carotid artery flow time, creating a waveform that’s similar to an echocardiograph. That measurement changes when IV fluids are administered—too much fluid causes heart failure and respiratory distress, while too little fluid takes out the kidneys and other organs.
“it's extraordinarily easy and practical, and that device can stay with the patient for a week while they're in the hospital because we know things are dynamic,” she says of the patch, which is now being integrated into care pathways in four hospitals. “It's another tool that you can use to incorporate into that clinical scenario, and it's a much more accurate vital sign than heart rate.”
Kury says Sutter Health has reduced its sepsis rate to 20% through other improvements, but seems to have hit a plateau. One option was a non-invasive cardiac output monitor, which consists of a console that has to be wheeled into each patient room and electrode patches that have to be applied to the patient and which isn’t ideal for patients with structural heart disease and vascular replacements. Other options were cardiac catheters and central venous pressure monitors, both invasive and imperfect.
A wearable, Kury says, addresses a specific care gap but won’t make the patient any more uncomfortable.
“We have people at the outset who are going to be sensitive to giving any kind of intravenous volume because the heart muscle is not healthy [through] heart failure or their kidneys have failed, and they’re on dialysis,” she notes. “They have no way of intrinsically removing fluid from their body, so they quickly could get into trouble. That’s a vexing population to our clinicians, especially in the ER, where they're coming in with an undifferentiated person in shock.”
The Bluetooth-enabled platform, which isn’t yet integrated into the EHR, enables clinicians to monitor six patients through one dashboard in real time.
As a doctor, Kury says, “I would want to see the data myself, the curve, the waveform, the spikes, and I would want to see that myself and then have the interpretation.”
The Rise of Connected Care
Influenced by consumer-facing technology like activity bands, smartwatches and sensor-embedded clothing and jewelry, healthcare organizations have long studied the use of wearables in RPM programs outside the hospital setting. But with more sophisticated medical-grade devices on the market and a desire to create a “hospital room of the future” that places a premium on wireless technology, healthcare executives are now interested in bringing wearables inside the hospital.
Julia Strandberg, chief business leader of connected care and monitoring for Philips, says the next three to five years will see a fundamental shift in how health systems and hospitals view patient monitoring.
“Scalable, integrated and optimized patient monitoring and management system for the hospital” will become more popular, she says, as decision-makers see the value in keeping a continuous eye on patients rather than relying on spot checks or scheduled vital signs monitoring.
The benefits are numerous. Many hospitals struggled with patient monitoring during the pandemic, when infected patients were isolated and staff and clinicians had to step into bulky PPE to see them. In addition, hospitals have long struggled with the number of wires, leads and other devices attached to the patient, hindering patient movement (a key metric for clinical improvement) and prone to tangles and trips. Add to that the stress and burnout rate for clinicians and staff and the propensity to use loud sounds to demonstrate a monitor’s effectiveness or an emergency health concern.
“Beeps and dings and alarms and alerts and are very burdensome, not only on the patient but also the care [team],” says Strandberg, who notes that wireless technology is now being developed to send data and alerts into the EHR or onto dashboards. Philips is also working on an avatar that can give clinicians a whole-patient view, using cues like a blue color to indicate the patient is cold.
The key to success for health systems and hospitals is what Strandberg calls the pitcher-catcher relationship. Healthcare leaders need to make sure the EHR is catching all the data being transmitted and connecting that information to the right providers.
“How do you synthesize all that data that we brought in and stratify it such that we can help enable more rapid clinical decision making and intervention if it's required?” she asks.
Nurse educators and nurse leaders must come together to be the unified voice and advocate for the nursing profession, says this nurse educator.
HealthLeaders spoke to Jason Dunne, chief academic officer at the Arizona College of Nursing, about the current landscape of nursing education and how CNOs can partner with academic institutions to create pipelines into the industry. Tune in to hear his insights.
New graduate nurses coming out of nursing school should have these qualities, says this nurse educator.
Amidst one of the largest workforce shortages in healthcare history, CNOs are looking for ways to recruit new graduate nurses now more than ever. Nursing schools must provide the proper curriculum for new graduate nurses so that they can enter the clinical environment equipped with the necessary skills for modern nursing.
According to Dr. Jason Dunne, chief academic officer at the Arizona College of Nursing (AZCN), there are a number of qualities that nurses must learn to ensure career longevity.
Here are the four qualities of a career-ready nurse.
Advocates are once again lobbying the White House and Congress to extend a waiver on using telemedicine to prescribe controlled medications, while the DEA prepares a new rule that could cause even more discord.
Telehealth advocates are gearing up for yet another battle with the federal government over the use of telemedicine to prescribe controlled medications, particularly in treatments for mental health and substance use disorders.
The Alliance for Connected Care is preparing stakeholder letters to the White House and Senate and House leadership urging them to put pressure on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to extend for two years a pandemic-era waiver allowing providers to use telemedicine. Extending the waiver, currently set to end this year, would give the DEA time to create a long-sought registration process for those prescriptions.
“The ongoing challenges in accessing mental health and substance use treatment services, particularly in rural and underserved areas, underscores the importance of maintaining these flexibilities,” the letter states. “Telemedicine has proven to be an effective tool in bridging the gap between patients and providers, reducing barriers to care, and supporting those most in need.”
The fight over a pathway to use virtual care dates back to 2008, when the Ryan Haight Online Pharmacy Consumer Protection Act prohibited the use of telemedicine for drug prescription unless providers completed a special registration that the DEA was supposed to set up. That hasn’t happened yet, despite pressure on the DEA from lawmakers and others to create that process.
According to telehealth advocates, the DEA hasn’t been helpful. The agency had proposed long-term guidelines for telemedicine prescriptions in 2023, but that draft was widely condemned as being too complex and restrictive. A revised draft is now awaiting White House review, but reports indicate that draft, if approved, “would be a significant blow to the telemedicine industry … and hundreds of thousands of patients who have come to rely on virtual prescribing.”
In their letter to lawmakers and the White House, stakeholders say there isn’t enough time left before the end of the year for the DEA to release its new draft, allow time for public comment, review those comments and make any changes. Hence the request for a two-year extension on the waiver.
“Under the current waiver, controlled substances have been prescribed in a clinically appropriate manner to treat a variety of conditions—always by licensed medical professions with prescribing authority,” the letter states. “Given the widespread provider shortage across medical professions and specialties, this flexibility has been essential in ensuring that patients receive timely and necessary care. Continuing these practices is vital to sustaining access to treatment and addressing the ongoing healthcare challenges in underserved areas.”
Nursing education is evolving to accommodate new generations of nurses, says this nurse educator.
Amidst one of the largest workforce shortages in healthcare history, CNOs are looking for ways to recruit new graduate nurses now more than ever.
Many health systems are partnering with nursing schools and other academic institutions to help raise the next generation of nurses and create pipelines into the industry. CNOs need to stay up to date on the current state of nursing education to maximize the potential of incoming new graduate nurses.
There are several reasons for the nursing shortage, and according to Dr. Jason Dunne, chief academic officer at the Arizona College of Nursing (AZCN), the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) anticipates that 1,000,000 nurses will retire by 2030.
“At the same time, I think our population is aging and living longer, creating higher demands for nurses,” Dunne said, “and in recent years, the pandemic only exacerbated the situation, and many nurses opted to leave the profession early, unfortunately.”
Additionally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) expects the nursing workforce to expand by 6% over the next 10 years, Dunne explained. Nurses are also experiencing high levels of burnout, which is also causing them to leave the profession.
“The other piece that’s near and dear to my heart is nursing school enrollment is not keeping pace with the demand for new nurses,” Dunne said. “So even with the high interest in the profession, many qualified applicants across the country are just not being admitted because there’s not enough spots for nursing program applicants.”
Several factors are blocking students from enrolling in nursing programs, according to Dunne, including funding from the federal and state governments, and clinical availability. Nursing schools also struggle with recruiting faculty, specifically those who have at minimum a master’s degree.
“As students progress to the nursing program, they actually need clinical experiences and health systems to hone skills and be competent, so those are not as readily available as we’ve been moving forward,” Dunne said. “It sounds like a perfect storm as you think about the future of nursing.”
Preparing career-ready nurses
Nursing schools must provide the proper curriculum for new graduate nurses so that they can enter the clinical environment equipped with the necessary skills for modern nursing.
To Dunne, there are a number of qualities that nurses must learn to ensure career longevity.
“One of the things that’s top of mind for me is critical thinking skills, which really forms the basis of how we approach situations in terms of analysis, integration, [and] prioritization,” Dunne said, “and that forms the foundation of this term called clinical judgment, which is an essential component of safe clinical practice.”
Nurses also need to understand the burnout risks associated with the position. According to Dunne, 52% of nurses are considering leaving their current position due to insufficient staffing. To combat burnout, it is essential that nurses learn self-care.
“[Nursing educators must help] new nurses understand what [self-care] means and really intentionally build it into a nursing curriculum,” Dunne said, “so folks out of the gate are understanding how to take care of themselves, [and] how to fill their cup.”
New graduate nurses must have an awareness and appreciation for patient diversity as well, said Dunne, since the world is diverse and culturally rich.
“That creates a level of complexity for nursing that nurses need to possess cultural competency,” Dunne said, “meaning having the skills and abilities and skillset to really take care of patients and their families from a variety of cultural backgrounds and settings.”
Communication and multitasking are other key components for new nurses as the industry continues to evolve.
“You don’t have to change careers to change your job,” Dunne said. “There’s so many diverse opportunities for nurses, you may get tired of one spot, [but] there’s so many opportunities for nurses to pursue other experiences.”
Evolving with new generations
CNOs also must be aware of how nursing education is changing to accommodate the viewpoints and expectations of new generations. The integration of technology has shifted nursing education just as much as it has revolutionized the rest of the healthcare industry.
Dunne explained how the use of high-fidelity simulation and new mannequins alone has shifted nursing education tremendously by mimicking human situations and experiences. Online learning, virtual reality, AI, and virtual science labs are also on the rise, which warrants an increase in data literacy education.
“Having these experiences for our students allows them to engage in patient care scenarios in a safe environment,” Dunne said, “really helping them to build the necessary clinical judgment skills that are essential for safe practice.”
Competency-based education is a concept that has gained momentum, according to Dunne.
“Now it’s [about] the demonstration of specific competencies, [and if] students are gaining the learning they need as they move forward,” Dunne said, “and many programs actually tailor education experiences to the individual student needs where they are.”
Interprofessional education has become front and center as well. Working with other members of the healthcare team has proved to be extremely beneficial, Dunne explained.
“Learning alongside each other, understanding roles [and] responsibilities as you get out into the healthcare world really helps to create great patient outcomes,” Dunne said.
Mental health and a focus on holistic patient care are also priorities in current nursing practice, along with the idea of lifelong learning. Generational differences also need to be addressed in nursing education, since new nurses prefer more collaborative and technological approaches to learning, Dunne explained. There is also a much stronger focus on ethics and social justice, in both nursing education and patient care.
“Healthcare continues to evolve and become more complex,” said Dunne, “so we’ve got to keep pace in order to provide safe, effective care to our patients.”
Bridging the gaps
To fill spots in nursing programs, nursing schools need to tailor the academic experience to better suit the students as they move through the curriculum, Dunne said. Academic institutions must provide resources and remove obstacles, and remember that being a student is not as traditional as it used to be.
“The folks that we serve, they have families, jobs, children, other priorities, and it’s really important for nursing schools to help students navigate life so they can be successful academically,” Dunne said. “If we don’t help them build those life skills, academics is not even on the priority list.”
Nurse educators need to see the whole student, Dunne explained, and align their program’s mission values with the social justice values that nursing students care about.
“We at Arizona College sponsor students to be part of the National Black Nurses Association, the National Association of Hispanic Nurses,” Dunne said, “and we just want to create a culture where students are engaged and active members of the learning process.”
For CNOs, partnering with nurse educators and academic institutions to create pipelines into the industry is an essential component of sustaining the nursing workforce, Dunne stated.
“I believe schools need to work closely with clinical partners to ensure that curriculum and training aligns closely with the needs of the workforce,” Dunne said. “Nursing education, programs, [and] schools need to keep pace, so our students are workforce relevant.”
AZCN offers a BSN program at 20 campuses across 13 states, and is designed to prepare students for their careers as registered nurses. At each of these campuses across the country, they have community advisory boards that include the healthcare partners in each campus’ local community.
“These advisory boards are essential to creating those synergies between academic teams and the practice teams,” Dunne said, “to ensure lines of communication are open and also that we’re able to be responsive to the needs of our practice partners [with] how quickly health and health information [are] changing.”
Nurse residency programs, joint faculty appointments, mentorship between academia and practice, scholarships and grants, and tuition reimbursement programs are all ways that academic institutions and health systems can partner to recruit and retain more nurses.
Lastly, Dunne recommended that nurse educators and nurse leaders come together to be the unified voice and advocate for the nursing profession.
“As we know, nursing is a trusted profession,” Dunne said, “and we really need to continue to advocate for the needs of our nurses, short term as well as long term.”
Federal officials have decided not to appeal a court order that shut down the rule, saying it exceeded HHS authority under HIPAA.
Federal officials have withdrawn a plan to restrict hospitals from using tracking technology to collect data from consumers visiting their web portals.
The Health and Human Services Department (HHS) has withdrawn its appeal of a district court vacating the federal rule, which was outlined in a December 2022 bulletin from the HHS Office for Civil Rights. The rule stated that entities covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) “are not permitted to use tracking technologies in a manner that would result in impermissible disclosures of PHI to tracking technology vendors or any other violations of HIPAA Rules.”
The American Hospital Association and several other groups filed suit against HHS in late 2023, charging that the federal agency exceeded its statutory authority in preventing healthcare providers from collecting the IP addresses of people visiting public-facing websites. On June 20 of this year, a federal district court in the Northern District of Texas ruled that the federal order “was promulgated in clear excess of HHS’s authority under HIPAA.”
The AHA and others had argued that the rule could have been interpreted to prevent hospitals from using common technologies, such as analytics software, video, translation and accessibility services and digital maps to access IP addresses, assess the usability of their portals and communicate with patients.
HHS’ decision to drop its appeal was hailed by the AHA.
“The American Hospital Association is pleased that the Office for Civil Rights has decided not to appeal the district court’s decision vacating the new rule adopted in its Online Tracking Technologies Bulletin,” AHA General Counsel Chad Golden said in a statement. “As the AHA repeatedly explained to OCR—both before and after OCR forced the AHA to file its lawsuit—this rule was a gross overreach by the federal government, imposed without any input from healthcare providers or the general public. Now that the Bulletin’s illegal rule has been vacated once and for all, hospitals can safely share reliable, accurate health care information with the communities they serve without the fear of federal civil and criminal penalties.”
CFOs have their priorities in certain areas of their organization.
The 2024 HealthLeaders CFO Exchange brought about several insightful discussions for CFOs from across the nation and showed where their main focuses lie.
From virtual care to physician collaboration, see where the event attendees are prioritizing their time (and money).
The HealthLeaders Exchange is an exclusive, executive community for sharing ideas, solutions, and insights.
Please join the community at our LinkedIn page. To inquire about attending a HealthLeaders Exchange event and becoming a member, email us at exchange@healthleadersmedia.com.
