Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Hospital Safety Ratings Under Scrutiny and What Comes Next for AI with Laura Dyrda

Transcript

Hospital Safety Ratings Under Scrutiny and What Comes Next for AI with Laura Dyrda · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  This is Scott Becker with the Becker's Healthcare
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  Podcast.
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  I am thrilled today to be joined by
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  Laura Dierda. Laura is the editor in chief
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  at Becker's Healthcare.
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  And more than that, she is what we
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  call a ride or die colleague.
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  One of the very best colleagues and professionals
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  I've ever had a chance to work with,
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  incredibly,
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  exuberant in her work effort, her intelligence, the
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  way she connects with the audience at Becker's
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  health care and and and talks to leaders,
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  health system leaders, orthopedic leaders, and a lot
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  more. Laura joins us regularly on the podcast
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  to talk about
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  different trends and issues that she's watching closely.
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  Laura, let let me take it away and
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  ask you, what are a couple of stories
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  that you're watching closely currently?
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  Absolutely. Well, thank you so much, Scott. I
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  really appreciate that. And, you know, definitely, Becker's
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  is such an amazing organization. It's been great
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  to work with you and the whole team
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  here, for for so long, so I appreciate
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  it.
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  I think one of the first things that
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  comes to mind when I look at stories
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  that we're covering closely and, you know, are
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  really important for our audience to understand and
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  see,
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  we recently covered news that a a federal
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  judge ruled on March 6 that the LeapFrog
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  Group's hospital safety grades for five hospitals constituted
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  an unfair and deceptive business practice. So
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  we are are following that story pretty closely.
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  It found that LeapFrog,
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  which typically gives, hospitals and organizations
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  grades a through f based on quality data
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  and the methodology that they developed had deliberately
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  punished hospitals that didn't voluntarily participate in their
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  program by assigning them artificially low scores with
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  no scientific basis.
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  So when hospitals,
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  decide to participate, they're able to promote the
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  LeapFrog grades and market them, and it really
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  gives them an opportunity to show, hey. We
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  got a LeapFrog a. We're a great institution.
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  But on the flip side, if hospitals decide
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  not to participate,
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  they aren't able to market the grades into
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  the same way. And so LeapFrog was really,
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  in a position where they were putting out
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  grades no matter what, and the lawsuit alleged
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  that the methodology,
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  which was implemented in 2024, penalized hospitals that
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  didn't participate in their national surveys,
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  claiming that the lower scores, really unfairly damaged
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  those hospitals' reputation.
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  So under this ruling, LeapFrog withdrew
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  the ratings from five hospital safety grades from
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  the 2024,
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  2025,
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  as well as the 2025
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  for five hospitals that were part of that
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  lawsuit. And then,
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  they really had corrective disclosures to all those
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  entities that paid licenses to those grades.
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  But then LeapFrog told us recently as well
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  that,
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  on March 16, they pulled several grades from
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  US hospitals across the board that hadn't participated
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  in a survey. So it's just,
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  very interesting to see some of,
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  the response here and how,
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  they're looking at continuing to figure out what
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  they're going to do,
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  in terms of,
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  sharing some of these
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  grades in in safety and patient safety reports.
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  So it's something that has a ripple effect
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  across many hospitals and systems
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  that did participate as they're,
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  looking at those scores and then those who
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  didn't as well.
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  No. That's a fascinating story in the leapfrog
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  thing because if you didn't reply to the
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  survey,
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  you were sort of graded negatively.
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  And and I think that just is fascinating.
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  And, of course, the judge found it to
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  be unfair
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  And but but it did lead to such
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  interesting dialogue because Leapfrog would publish these list
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  of of hospitals with bad grades,
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  and many of those hospitals, it turned out,
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  never turned in a survey, so they were
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  sort of graded badly by default. Is that
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  a fair assessment, Laura, of what what seems
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  to have been going on?
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  Yeah. Absolutely. And so when the Leapfrog, somebody
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  did not participate in their surveys, they took,
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  information and data from,
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  what that was available from CMS and other
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  sources to configure their grades for those institutions,
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  which may not have been,
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  the same and incomplete information
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  based on, those who did participate in the
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  surveys. And, of course, for the participating
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  organizations,
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  they had to fill out the surveys, and
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  and there was a fee involved too. So,
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  it's it was prohibitive in some ways for
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  those that did not wanna participate or be
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  part of it. And I think another part
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  of the dialogue that we have heard come
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  out too is some of the institutions that
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  did decide to participate,
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  you know, would
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  sometimes be,
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  also graded poorly, of course, based on the
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  methodology. And so I think it was, in
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  some ways for those institutions,
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  hard to justify
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  going through all of that,
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  and then, you know, really getting a bad
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  score on the other side. So it's just
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  such a a fascinating,
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  dialogue and conversation across the board as especially
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  hospitals in in smaller settings or rural settings
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  are,
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  trying
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  to figure out how they can, continue to
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  function and and operate in a strong and
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  meaningful way in,
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  it's just been fascinating.
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  It
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  it it really is. So we're we're following
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  the leapfrog story closely. Just fascinating.
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  What else are you watching closely currently?
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  Absolutely. So something again that we've really,
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  continued to talk with leaders about across the
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  board is just how they're continuing to evolve
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  with technology and artificial intelligence. It's become a
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  lot more nuanced of the discussion over the
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  last year or so in really thinking through
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  what's gonna be impactful for hospitals and little
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  leaders across the board. So based on some
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  of my recent conversations with CIOs and IT
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  leaders, including chief AI officers, analytics leaders, and
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  more, hospitals are really looking at, have spent
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  the last couple of years in pilot mode.
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  So they've been getting vendors in the door,
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  running proof of concept, generating some of the
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  promising numbers in controlled environments,
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  for things like ambient AI and,
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  technology that can really be beneficial
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  for
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  clinical operations
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  as well as the administrative operations across the
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  board. And many of those that they have
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  decided to continue to move forward with have
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  been, in some ways, slam dunks. Most have
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  gotten reasonably good at seeing what pilots are
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  gonna be, moving forward, develop the governance structures
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  that are helping them make those decisions,
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  and then, you know,
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  scaling off the technologies that can have an
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  impact either on the
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  the,
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  clinician
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  time savings, well-being, or,
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  accuracy on the operational side too. But what
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  the industry hasn't really solved for yet, is
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  what comes next, how they can move AI
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  from that demo phase into
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  becoming really part of the fabric of those
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  operational workflows and,
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  continuing to make more sophisticated governance structures as
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  AI evolves. And one of those big reasons
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  why initiatives,
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  right now are stalling a bit is because
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  some of these hospitals and systems have tried
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  to move too fast with the AI technology
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  and and skip the fundamentals in some ways.
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  Health system CIOs I talked to said basically
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  that the biggest myth in AI right now
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  is that the technology is a solution in
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  and of itself.
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  But they argued you can't really deploy an
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  AI model and expect transformation.
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  You have to really define the problem first,
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  who is being affected, what success looks like,
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  whether your data is even ready to,
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  really take on a larger model or
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  the the large language models and and things
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  that are coming through on the data front.
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  So,
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  without that foundation, organizations typically then will generate
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  impressive demos, but they can't bring it to
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  meaningful results on a large scale because there's
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  too much going on, and and,
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  they they aren't able
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  to meaningfully affect that change. And so,
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  the a lot of the leaders today are
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  now looking at what they call kind of
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  an invisible graveyard of AI where they've implemented
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  something that looked like a great idea and
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  on a small scale, and then they bring
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  it to everybody. And, you know, the organization
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  wasn't ready. The data wasn't ready. And,
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  really, the the change never takes off, and
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  it doesn't get implemented into the clinical workflows.
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  And so it's almost never because the algorithm
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  doesn't work. It's just simply that,
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  it didn't fit as well into the broader,
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  workflows of the broader organization. And so the
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  the team largely abandons it. And, obviously, that's
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  not the outcome that anybody wants, whether it's
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  organization investing in it or the companies that
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  are working closely,
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  with that. And so,
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  really, in in 2026,
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  large health systems are trying to move past
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  these pilots and and having lots of different
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  pilots going on and really,
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  focusing in on the things that have the
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  best opportunities to
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  build the infrastructure where they can manage AI
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  at scale, monitor that AI model drift, and
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  then exercise real discipline about what gets deployed
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  and when.
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  So it's just
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  a really interesting time right now for AI
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  and health care. In some ways, more restrained,
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  but in other ways,
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  still, you know, building towards more opportunities as
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  the technology evolves in the future.
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  Thank you so much. And so it's a
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  constant evolution into the technology space and and
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  how is this how systems are using it.
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  Laura, you've been really involved in reading the
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  agenda
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  for the Microsoft Healthcare annual meeting coming up.
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  I know we've got speakers, celebrity speakers like
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  Mark Cuban and president Bush and Troy Aikman
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  and quarterback Fernando Mendoza.
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  But what are you most excited about, and
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  and and what are some of the themes
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  you're most interested in hearing about at the
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  annual meeting this year?
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  Oh, gosh. That's such a great question. And
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  there's a lot I'm excited about, for the
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  annual meeting. I think we've got some really,
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  really dynamic sessions with leaders who,
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  are are at the forefront of of strategy
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  trying to figure out how they're gonna manage
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  a lot of the changes upcoming,
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  in in really truly transforming health care, whether
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  they're looking at,
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  some of the ways that they're bringing more
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  value for their teams as well as their
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  patients,
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  different types of partnerships and collaborations.
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  And, really, I I think it it might
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  be feel overstated,
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  but, making health care more of a team
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  sport and and how they're building a strategy
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  around, you know, the dynamic times we're in,
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  the uncertainty, but teams that could really, you
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  know, be more dynamic, be more nimble, and
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  really make the patient experience better. And so
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  those are the things that I'm really interested
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  and excited about and hearing from leaders, CEOs,
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  and CFOs of the top health systems as
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  well as, you know, kind of boots on
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  the ground with the rural health care too
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  is just such a fascinating time right now.
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  There's a lot of transformation happening in that
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  space, and it'll be just so cool to
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  hear from those leaders of, you know, how
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  they're really meeting the challenges of the day,
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  thinking about the next year, the next five
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  years, and,
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  putting themselves in a position
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  to be successful in that space. So that's
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  what I'm most excited about.
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  Fantastic. No. It's it's fascinating to watch how
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  systems are sort of transforming themselves to to
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  sort of figure out how to mix technology
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  and physicians and nurses to deliver the best
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  care possible and and really take care of
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  our population.
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  Laura, as always, you do a remarkable job.
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  I'm so thankful for you joining us today
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  on the Becker Healthcare podcast and more importantly
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  for your amazing leadership. Thank you to where
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  it teared up for being with us today.
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  Thank you, Scott. It's such a pleasure.