Vizient Newsroom

The COVID-19 pandemic, rampant since March, has interrupted life in ways not seen in our country in over a century. With vaccines in development, we just may have a light at the end of the tunnel. The spread of misinformation, the other pandemic, has serious implications for healthcare and no cure in sight. 

With the major league baseball playoffs underway, Vizient Research Institute executive director Tom Robertson draws parallels between the national pastime and the typical medical center or health system’s financial business model. In this latest essay, Tom shares findings from the Institute’s last major study, pointing to opportunities to enhance the bottom line while improving the lives of our most vulnerable patients.

With a shortage of roughly 140,000 physicians projected to impact health care in the U.S. by 2033, health system leaders are beginning to consider how much the advanced practice provider (APP) workforce, which includes nurse practitioners and physician assistants, could mitigate this shortage. One thing is for sure, the success of this strategy will rely on organizational structures, processes, and the deeply rooted, physician-centric culture evolving to fully embrace the APP workforce.

One of the most common ways a hospitalized patient can be injured is by falling and, those that sustain an injury from a fall have a higher risk of complications that negatively impact their outcome.