- Operations & Quality
Improving Your Hospital Profile with National Quality Scorecards
A perspective on why hospital public and private quality ratings are important and steps to improve both public perception and patient outcomes.
- Operations & Quality
Three Years In – and the End of the PHE Declaration is in Sight
After three years of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency determination, Emily Jones outlines what healthcare providers need to know about deadlines, flexibilities, and the path ahead.
- Operations & Quality
Why Start Now? Care at Home Provides Value Beyond Cost Savings
As healthcare organizations consider care at home options, Brianna Motley explains the value of starting with less complex types of care.
- Operations & Quality
Health Heavy Omnibus Bill Closes Out 117th Congress While the 118th Congress Faces Uncertain Future and Possible Gridlock
Steve Rixen outlines the biggest impact on healthcare providers of the recent passing of the $1.7 trillion omnibus.
- Operations & Quality
Physician Fee Schedule and Outpatient Prospective Payment System: COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Flexibilities Changes
Emily Jones details recent final rulings by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to updates to the Physician Fee Schedule and Outpatient Prospective Payment System.
- Operations & Quality
Three Steps to Maximize Effective Strategy Deployment in your Healthcare Organization
Leveraging insights from the Japanese strategic planning method known as “Hoshin Kanri,” here are three steps to maximize the effectiveness of strategy deployment in your healthcare organization.
- Operations & Quality
Empathetic and Effective Response to Sentinel Events and Root Cause Analysis
Vizient’s Patient Safety Organization (PSO) recently convened experts across the nation to identify leading practices to support an empathetic, effective and sustainable hospital response after a sentinel event.
- Operations & Quality
Look Beyond MSSP Policy Changes for Long-term Success in Value-Based Care
CMS changes to the largest alternative payment model, the Medicare Shared Savings Program, mean new considerations for value-based care strategies.
- Operations & Quality
Divided Government in Washington? Political Fights Ahead, but Areas of Agreement Not Impossible to Imagine
A look at what to expect in the November elections, and what it may mean for providers and health policy in the next Congress.
- Operations & Quality
Hope in Precedence: Pandemics Bring Innovation and New Perspective
A few weeks ago, we held our annual Vizient Connections Summit and celebrated the theme “Stronger.” With over 3,400 healthcare providers and suppliers gathered in one place, this theme certainly fit the occasion.
- Operations & Quality
Contract Labor is Here to Stay: Three Strategies for Long-Term Success
Shifting our mindset to approach contract labor as a strategic advantage can bolster employee retention and promote a culture of flexibility and help mitigate costs
- Operations & Quality
Three Things That May Be Slowing Your Hospital’s Progress Toward its Strategic Plan
Hospitals and health systems are developing strategic plans that outline the path and steps needed to meet their communities’ needs in the future. Embedding high-reliability principles—such as management systems that proactively engage employees—is essenti...
- Operations & Quality
Walk the Talk: How Gemba Walks Can Help Improve Data Collection to Support Health Equity
When it comes to advancing health equity, having comprehensive data about race, ethnicity and language are essential, but obtaining complete and reliable data can be challenging. Leveraging the process improvement technique of a Gemba Walk may help your ho...
- Operations & Quality
Should Your Organization Participate in Medicare’s New Enhancing Oncology Model?
Medicare’s new Enhancing Oncology Model is an important opportunity for oncology practices to participate in a voluntary alternative payment model designed to increase the value of care for Medicare fee-for-service patients undergoing chemotherapy. Wonderi...
- Operations & Quality
- Supply Chain
Cool Approach to Healthcare Design Can Help Deter Effects of Heat
While climate change is an undeniably complex problem, health systems can be part of the solution with some relatively simple design considerations that can help reduce the effects of a warming planet.
- Operations & Quality
CMS Issues FY 2023 IPPS Final Rule: What Hospitals Need to Know
On August 1 CMS issued its Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) final rule. Here’s key takeaways and what hospitals need to know for the rule which will generally take effect on October 1, 2022.
- Operations & Quality
How Adapting the Five Rights of Medication Administration (5Rs) to Your Hospital Laboratory Provides a Structured Framework for Test Selection in Demand Management
In order to face the variety of challenges in meeting the demand for hospital laboratory services, a better test selection process is needed. Adapting the 5Rs to your demand management program can support enhanced patient care while improving laboratory ca...
- Operations & Quality
- Supply Chain
ESG: What It Is and What It Means for Healthcare
Environmental, Social and Governance is generating buzz (and confusion) across the industry — but at its core, it’s about improving human health.
- Operations & Quality
How the Expiration of MACRA’s aAPM Bonus Will Impact ACO Decision Making
Without congressional intervention, a significant financial incentive for physicians to participate in value-based payment models will disappear at the end of 2022. Learn what providers should be thinking about amid financial uncertainty.
- Operations & Quality
Getting Started with a Demand Management Assessment of Your Hospital Laboratory: Three Areas to Strengthen Operations and Reduce Costs
Laboratory testing is the largest medical activity in terms of volume and has a significant impact on care outcomes and costs. Hospital leaders that shift cost savings efforts to demand management can help improve quality and reduce costs. The first step i...
- Operations & Quality
Ed Sullivan, the Beatles and Healthcare Strategy
The intolerance for health disparities calls into question the long-term sustainability of the traditional financing system. Our blog considers the challenges facing health systems that must optimize their performance under the existing system while keepin...
- Operations & Quality
Key Themes from the FY 2023 IPPS Proposed Rule and What’s Coming Next
In April, CMS issued its annual proposed rule to update the IPPS for fiscal year 2023. Based upon the policy changes and circumstances described in the proposed rule, CMS estimates acute care hospitals will experience a decrease of approximately $263 milli...
- Operations & Quality
How a Demand Management Assessment of Your Hospital Laboratory Can Help Improve Quality, Reduce Costs
Laboratory testing is used across all care settings and specialties for screening, diagnosis and disease management, and has a significant impact on care outcomes and costs.While hospitals work to improve the health of their patients and communities, they ...
- Operations & Quality
Beyond Leadership: Five Factors to Sustaining Health Care Improvement
Many health care organizations can achieve top performance across multiple domains for a short period of time. However, sustaining those achievements year after year has often proven elusive. For the past 15 years, Vizient has evaluated the performance ach...