Cleveland System Voices Concerns About Protecting Health Care Workers
"If we have many of our staff out because of exposure, while there's a large influx of COVID patients, we will not be able to provide the best care to everyone who needs it," said Dr. Akram Boutros, MetroHealth president and CEO.
Crain's Cleveland Business:
Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth And University Hospitals Plead For Vigilance In 'sobering' Chapter Of Pandemic
More than 1,000 health care workers are out sick from Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth and University Hospitals, whose leaders are pleading for the public's vigilance as COVID-19 cases explode. If cases and hospitalizations continue to rise at the alarming rate seen this month, hospitals will be overwhelmed, said Dr. Tom Mihaljevic, president and CEO of Cleveland Clinic. Ohio, much like the country, has continued to shatter records for COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths. (Coutre, 11/16)
Crain's New York Business:
As Demand For Covid Testing Soars, Urgent-Care Centers Cement Their Role
As COVID spikes in hot spots in New York state, city dwellers and surrounding areas are seeking out testing at unprecedented levels. Although it's promising that people are heeding public health experts' advice that widespread testing is critical to controlling new infections, rapidly rising requests and positivity rates are alarming to providers. (Henderson, 11/16)
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North Carolina Health News:
School Health Centers Fill Provider Vacuum
Growing up in a small town in central Wisconsin, many of Steve North’s relatives and friends assumed he would follow his father into medicine but North had other ideas. He earned a liberal arts degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1993 but, instead of applying for medical school, he applied for Teach for America. (Newsome, 11/17)
Modern Healthcare:
Premier, Member Hospitals And DeRoyal Team Up To Boost Domestic Gown Production
Premier and 34 of its health system partners are teaming up with DeRoyal Industries to domestically source and produce isolation gowns, the organizations announced Monday. The joint venture will produce isolations gowns in an existing facility outside of Knoxville, Tenn., and primarily source raw materials from U.S.-based manufacturers, with some backup from Mexican and South American suppliers. The health systems made multi-year commitments to purchase annual allotments from the joint venture, which expects to distribute its first batch in mid-2021. (Kacik, 11/16)
Modern Healthcare:
For-Profit Hospital Charges Attacked By Nurses Union Report
All but five of the100 hospitals with the highest price markups in 2018 were for-profit hospitals, and 53 of them were owned by HCA Healthcare, according to a prominent nurses union. The report released Monday, the latest in a periodic analysis by the registered nurses' union National Nurses United, used hospitals' Medicare cost reports to calculate the ratio between hospitals' charges and the cost of providing care, or their charge-to-cost ratios. The average ratio, it found, more than doubled between 1999 and 2018: from 200% to 417%. (Bannow, 11/16)
Crain's Chicago Business:
Illinois Unveils Plan To Transform Health Care Delivery
Illinois has unveiled a plan to make healthcare delivery in the state more equitable. The proposal from the Illinois Department of Healthcare & Family Services comes six months after lawmakers approved revisions to the state’s hospital assessment program but declined to allocate a pool of $150 million to help facilities across the state transform in an evolving industry. The decision to hold the funds was partly due to some elected officials expressing concern about the now-dead merger of four South Side hospitals, which had banked on a significant portion of the pot. (Goldberg, 11/16)
