HITshow Daily: January 21, 2026 (Wednesday)
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Today on HITshow:
Workforce watch turning into a real operational story: NYC nurses strike drags on with thousands out since January 12, UNAC/UHCP issues strike notice for Kaiser Permanente workers beginning Monday January 26, and Alameda Health System reports layoffs affecting 296 positions. Plus: bankruptcy judge approves $1B sale of Genesis HealthCare’s 175 nursing homes, NCH and Nicklaus Children’s announce major expansion for women’s and children’s care in Southwest Florida, and hospital M&A slowed in 2025 per Kaufman Hall. After the break: OpenEvidence raises $250M at $12B valuation, Greenway launches Agentic AI Factory with AWS, CMS announces $50B in Rural Health Transformation Program awards, and a Bright Spot on Gates Foundation and OpenAI’s Horizon 1000 partnership.
HOST: RHONDA BROOKS
📍 Strategy & Transformation — Teresa Vaughn
The NYC nurses strike continues with thousands out since January 12. City and national leaders rallied with strikers Tuesday as negotiations remain tense over staffing, pay increases, and health benefits. UNAC/UHCP issued a strike notice for an open-ended unfair labor practice strike beginning Monday, January 26, involving Kaiser Permanente workers at certain facilities in California and Hawaii. Alameda Health System reported layoffs affecting 296 positions across departments, showing labor pressure coming from multiple directions.
📍 Finance & Capital — Logan Stokes
A bankruptcy judge approved the $1B sale of Genesis HealthCare’s 175 nursing homes to a buyer backed by NewGen, a California-based skilled nursing operator. Post-acute capacity drives discharge planning, length of stay, and patient flow. A footprint this large changing hands can create short-term uncertainty and reshape referral relationships and staffing stability in local markets.
📍 Strategy & Transformation — Rhonda Brooks
NCH and Nicklaus Children’s announced major plans to expand care for women and children in Southwest Florida, including a new institute model and planned pavilion focused on women’s services, labor and delivery, and higher-acuity neonatal care. Systems are still making targeted bets on high-demand service lines where capacity constraints become competitive and community issues fast.
📍 Finance & Capital — Rhonda Brooks
Kaufman Hall’s year-end tracking shows hospital and health system M&A slowed in 2025, with financial distress and policy uncertainty as major drivers.
📍 AI & Machine Learning — Nate Collier
Medical AI startup OpenEvidence raised $250M at a $12B valuation, signaling clinician-facing AI tools moving from “interesting pilots” to “strategic platform bets.” Decision support is becoming a battleground. Leaders should ask: “Where is evidence-search happening today, and do we have standards for validation, monitoring, and escalation when the tool is wrong?”
📍 AI & Machine Learning — Jade Romero
Greenway Health launched an Agentic AI Factory developed with Amazon Web Services, described as an AI production engine designed to build and deploy agent-like capabilities. “Agentic” means AI that can take steps, not just answer: gather inputs, route tasks, draft documentation, flag gaps, request missing info with guardrails. The challenge is governance: auditability, policy boundaries, and making sure the tool behaves like a teammate.
📍 Healthcare Policy & Advocacy — Peter Betterworth
CMS announced $50B in awards under its Rural Health Transformation Program, allocated across all 50 states from fiscal year 2026 through 2030. Funding supports modernizing rural care including technology and facilities, strengthening workforce, and supporting innovative care models. Transformation requires plumbing: data exchange, telehealth enablement, and security maturity.
📍 Digital Health — Rhonda Brooks (Bright Spot)
The Gates Foundation and OpenAI announced a $50M partnership called Horizon 1000, starting in Rwanda, with a goal of reaching 1,000 primary healthcare clinics and surrounding communities across African countries by 2028. The tools support frontline health workers with triage support, documentation, and access to trusted medical information.
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Presented by: Vital | EnableComp | Spare Tire
