Hospitals

Maia Anderson

The surgical landscape is changing.

Demand for surgeries is expected to rise in the US in the coming years, largely driven by a growing aging population and the rise in chronic diseases. By 2035, it’s estimated there will be more people ages 65+ than 18 and younger in the US.

As more procedures move to outpatient settings, the proportion of complex cases in inpatient settings is increasing, too. Older people tend to need higher-intensity care, and more complex procedures often require more advanced technology. These procedures also tend to be reimbursed at higher rates, making them a potential profit center for hospitals, experts told us.

As a result, health systems across the country are investing in high-tech robotic surgery systems, larger operating rooms, and technology to make surgery more efficient.

For example, Allina Health, a large Minneapolis-based health system, is opening a new, more than $1 billion surgical center on August 29.

The 620,000-square-foot building, called the Richard M. Schulze Surgical and Critical Care Center, will focus on highly specialized care and complex surgeries, largely in the inpatient setting.

“When I came nine years ago, it was clear that the medicine was changing; the critical care needs of our community were changing; the complexity of patients and their needs were changing; what you require in equipment, technology, and capabilities is changing,” Lisa Shannon, president and CEO of Allina Health, told Healthcare Brew. “We needed a new surgical and critical care space to accommodate those needs.”

Take a look inside the new hospital with us.—MA

      

Tech

Getty Images

Kevin Dunnahoo often works with CIOs, CISOs, CFOs, and other healthcare C-suite executives on internal risk assessments.

A quarterly evaluation takes on specific objectives, like identity and access management, cybersecurity evaluation, or, lately, what’s going on with all this AI?

While HIPAA regulations require a continuous risk assessment of how an organization manages its protected health information (PHI), a healthcare organization is more likely to face an audit from its board, according to Dunnahoo, director of healthcare technology, cybersecurity, AI, and IT audit at global consultancy Protiviti.

“Many of the boards are asking flat out, ‘Hey, I want to understand what AI we’re using and how we’re using it, and how are we controlling it,’” Dunnahoo told us. “They want a true AI governance-focused review on the plan, on an annual basis at this point, because they understand that there is so much potential risk.”

Dunnahoo and other healthcare IT pros shared how companies can deploy AI in a way that satisfies governance standards, and, hopefully, any auditors.

Find more advice on prepping for IT audits here.—BH

      

Hospitals

Sylvia Owusu-Ansah

From the age of seven, Sylvia Owusu-Ansah knew she wanted to be a doctor. She didn’t, however, expect to be a medical consultant on a hit HBO Max show.

Today, Owusu-Ansah works as an associate professor of pediatrics and emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She has also been an assistant medical director for the Secret Service and was one of the first healthcare workers in Pennsylvania to get the Covid-19 vaccine in December 2020.

In early 2024, she received the opportunity to be a consultant for The Pitt, a medical drama that has been praised as one of the most accurate television depictions of what it’s like to work in medicine. It’s also broken records, with Season 2 averaging more than 15 million viewers per episode.

Check out the full interview here.—MA

vital signs

Francis Scialabba

Today’s top healthcare reads.

Stat: 25%. That’s the percentage of athletes who played in at least one NFL game and died between 2016 and 2021 that one study found had CTE. (NPR)

Quote: “What it does is buy you time, and that’s one thing you don’t always have with pancreatic cancer.”—Jay Williams, a pancreatic cancer patient who started taking Rasonque in July, on the impact of the newly FDA-approved medication (the Wall Street Journal)

Read: Children in Idaho are dying from treatable conditions after their families, who are members of faith-healing sects, decline medical care. (ProPublica)

Jobs

Real jobs, shared through real communities. CollabWORK brings opportunities directly to Healthcare Brew readers—no mass postings, no clutter, just roles worth seeing. Click here to view the full job board.

• Executive Director, Head of Clinical Operations Excellence at BeOne Medicines
• Senior Director, Global Head of Clinical Operations at Olympus Corporation of the Americas
• Chief Nursing Officer at Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital
• Chief Quality Officer at Tidelands Health
• Chief Executive Officer at Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Wesley Chapel

Friday Quiz

Amelia Kinsinger

The week’s biggest HCB stories, now in quiz form. Test yourself on the latest headlines in pharma, hospital operations, patient care, and more in a quick, competitive challenge built for healthcare professionals. Challenge your coworkers and see how your score stacks up!