Hospital Management

HFMA’s new chair is a hospital CFO as Medicare reporting gets more detailed and revenue cycle work gets more technical

HFMA’s 2026-27 board slate and new certifications signal heavier cost reporting and revenue cycle analytics work inside hospitals.

Ambient AI is moving from clinician productivity to consent and revenue-cycle controls

Two August 2026 reads, one operational signal: ambient documentation is spreading fast, and hospitals now have to govern microphones and models like any other c

Health IT spending, AI gaps, and Epic price tags signal a volatile 2026 for hospital CIOs

Children's Minnesota's $175M Epic transition, AI testing gaps, and CIO career moves highlight the operational pressures facing hospital IT in 2026.

Healthcare AI deployments stall on data quality, not model performance

As health systems move from AI pilots to enterprise scale, reporting points to fragmented, poorly governed data, not the models themselves, as the real bottleneck.

Canada launches Vital, a national hospital data platform backed by $210 million, starting with 160 hospitals

Canada's Vital platform will connect near real-time data from 160 hospitals in three provinces, backed by $210M in funding coordinated from Unity Health Toronto

How Do You Work Around Hospital Operations?

Hospitals never stop operating. Patients still need care, medical staff need access to every part of the facility, and critical services can't pause while restoration or renovation work is underway. That means every project begins with one goal: complete the work while minimizing disruption to daily

Why hospitals must build emergency plans long before disaster strikes

When a disaster strikes a hospital, the margin for error is almost nonexistent. Patient care cannot pause, critical systems cannot go dark, and staff cannot afford to improvise under pressure. The difference between a facility that weathers an emergency and one that struggles through it often comes

Diagnosing Your Capital Asset Health: Why Asset Visibility Is the New Financial Imperative in Healthcare

Hospitals and surgery centers own millions of dollars in equipment — but owning assets and having actionable visibility into them are two different things. Most systems maintain inventories, yet many struggle with outdated records, fragmented tracking, and limited insight into useful life or service contracts. With nearly half of U.S. hospitals reporting negative operating…

Exploring the Intersection of Board Governance, Community Engagement and Creativity with Ann Margolin

Behind every city vote, hospital budget or zoning decision is a leader navigating tough, often conflicting priorities. Right now, public leaders are operating in an environment of rising healthcare costs, workforce shortages and heightened community expectations—especially within safety-net systems that collectively provide billions in uncompensated care each year. The stakes are real—they affect patients…

Censis’ Final Check Uses Computer Vision to Eliminate Tray Errors Before They Reach the OR

Artificial intelligence used to live in strategy decks and conference keynotes—but now it’s showing up in a very different place: right on the assembly tables where SPD technicians build trays for the next case. And it’s arriving at a time when the pressure on sterile processing has never been higher. As surgical volumes climb and…

AI in Sterile Processing Is Proving Its Value by Acting as a Co-Pilot, Not a Replacement

Sterile processing departments are dealing with persistent operational pressures. Surgical case volumes are rising, instruments are more complex, and staffing shortages remain across many health systems. Accuracy and documentation requirements continue to tighten, leaving little room for error. In busy hospitals, sterile processing teams may handle 10,000 to 30,000 surgical instruments per day, with…

How Predictive AI Is Helping Hospitals Anticipate Admissions and Optimize Emergency Department Throughput

Emergency departments across the U.S. are under unprecedented strain, with overcrowding, staffing shortages, and inpatient bed constraints converging into a throughput crisis. The American Hospital Association reports that hospital capacity and workforce growth have lagged, intensifying delays from arrival to disposition. At the same time, advances in artificial intelligence are moving from experimental to operational—raising…

Getting SPD Teams to the Table: Why Sterile Processing Deserves a Central Role in Surgical Planning and Operations

Sterile Processing Departments (SPDs) remain the backbone of safe surgical care, yet across the country, they’re still routinely left out of early decision-making around products, construction, staffing, and case planning. As hospitals juggle tighter margins, higher patient acuity, and growing procedural demands, the consequences of excluding SPD voices become unmistakably real—showing up in daily…

ROI Case Study

Denials are no longer a slow leak in the revenue cycle—they’re a fast-moving, rule-shifting game controlled by payers, and hospitals that don’t model denial patterns in real time end up budgeting around losses they could have prevented. PayerWatch’s four-digit, client-verified ROI in 2024 shows what happens when a hospital stops reacting claim by…

Technology Is Transforming Cardiovascular Care But Can Access Keep Up?

Cardiovascular care is entering one of its most transformative periods in decades. Advances in AI imaging and minimally invasive procedures are transforming the diagnosis and treatment of heart disease. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 19.8 million people died from cardiovascular diseases in 2022, representing approximately 32% of all global deaths. This…

HealthSearch Partners’ Neill Marshall and Kurt Mosley Urge New CEOs to Listen First, Diagnose Early, and Lead with Purpose in the First 90 Days

CEO turnover across U.S. hospitals is accelerating. Hospitals and health systems announced 146 CEO changes in 2023—a 42 percent increase over the 103 exits recorded in 2022, according to a Challenger, Gray & Christmas report. As more leaders transition into new roles, the importance of making a good first impression has intensified. The early…

Omnicell Tackles Medication Inefficiency with RFID, AI, and a Vision for the Autonomous Pharmacy

As healthcare systems grapple with persistent staffing shortages and rising patient volumes, the need for streamlined, tech-enabled workflows has become urgent. A 2024 time-motion study across four hospitals found that clinical pharmacists spend over 80% of their time on clinical activities, with nearly 12% dedicated to face-to-face patient interaction. That leaves less than 20%…

From Manual Searches to Real-Time Tracking: How Stillwater Medical Center Strengthens Operations and Loaner Management with CensiTrac

At the Stillwater Medical Center in Oklahoma, Lead Central Sterile Technician Sydney McWaters and Certified Sterilization Technician Trey Sneed have experienced firsthand how CensiTrac, the surgical instrument and asset management solution from Censis, has transformed daily operations and helped their team adapt to change with confidence. Recently, the department implemented location scanning through CensiTrac—a…

How Mayo Clinic Uses CensiTrac’s AI² to Improve Quality and Staffing in Sterile Processing

At the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Nursing Manager Josh Meyer has seen measurable benefits from implementing CensiTrac’s AI² functionality. The tool has become an integral part of how the department monitors quality, manages staffing, and improves daily operations. With AI², the team is able to track key quality metrics across sterile processing workflows. From…

Why the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center Relies on CensiTrac for Safer, Smarter Instrument Management

Brenda “Jan” Prudent, Sterile Processing Manager at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, has seen significant improvements in accountability, inventory management, and workflow efficiency since implementing CensiTrac, the leading cloud-based surgical instrument and asset management system from Censis. Before adopting CensiTrac, her department used manual tracking methods that limited visibility and made it difficult to ensure…

How CensiTrac Enhances Sterile Processing Workflow and Team Coordination at St. Dominic Hospital

Chelissa Gray, a Sterile Processing Technician at St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, describes CensiTrac as an essential part of her daily workflow. With CensiTrac, Gray and her team can track every surgical instrument from the moment it arrives in decontamination to when it’s delivered back to the operating room, ensuring full visibility and…

From SPD to OR: AI in Surgery Is Raising the Bar on Patient Safety

Hospitals are facing mounting pressure from staff shortages, rising costs, and increasingly stringent compliance requirements. Surgical suites and sterile processing departments (SPDs) are two of the most resource-intensive areas, yet many still rely on manual processes and fragmented data. According to the American Hospital Association, nearly 1,400 hospitals, or 31 percent of hospitals, reported…

Bridging Gaps in Instrument Tracking: A Global Perspective on SPD Innovation

In healthcare environments where precision and accountability are paramount, sterile processing departments (SPDs) play a critical behind-the-scenes role. As hospitals worldwide embrace technology to close compliance gaps and improve operational transparency, the introduction of patient-centric tracking tools marks a major leap forward. Tying surgical instruments directly to patient records not only strengthens traceability—it reinforces trust…

Empowering Accountability and Quality in Sterile Processing with CensiTrac

In today’s healthcare environments, the demand for precise tracking, accountability, and quality control in sterile processing departments has never been higher. As hospitals face increasing pressure to optimize workflows and ensure surgical instruments are accounted for, technology like CensisTrac is playing a pivotal role. By enabling real-time visibility and documentation, systems like these help transform…

Inside the SPD Revolution: Robby Miller on Embracing CensisAI²

A healthcare leader with three decades of experience reveals how AI technology is transforming sterile processing operations

Linda Stevenson with Fisher-Titus Health

Rural health systems are uniting to tackle infrastructure challenges that require more than individual hospital solutions

2025’s Hottest Healthcare Trends with David Willis, Principal with ECG

Healthcare leaders must navigate workforce shortages and deferred investments while seizing new opportunities in a rapidly shifting industry landscape

Smart Tools, Safer Patients: Dr. Arpita Hazra Talks AI in Healthcare

Hospitals are leveraging machine learning and clinical data to identify safety risks before they harm patients

Personalized Solutions Through Data Are the Future of Aligning Healthcare Staff Needs with Patient Outcomes

Healthcare systems are discovering that targeted workforce data can simultaneously ease staffing pressures and strengthen patient care outcomes

Enhancing Patient-Centered Home Health Care Through Proactive Communication and Data Sharing

Hospitals and home health agencies that prioritize discharge coordination can cut readmissions by addressing the 27% gap caused by communication breakdowns