As FDA Emergency Use Winds Down, Warnings Over Providers’ Legal Risks

Modern Healthcare: Providers Face Increased Legal Risk As FDA Ends Emergency Use
Providers face growing legal risk as the Food and Drug Administration winds down emergency actions related to the novel coronavirus pandemic. Starting in February 2020, the FDA temporarily let providers use vaccines, diagnostic and antibody tests, personal protective equipment, ventilators, and antibody treatments under emergency use authorizations (EUAs). Emergency use authorizations allow the FDA to approve devices for uses that haven't gone through the full approval process when the agency determines that the potential benefits of the product outweigh potential risks. (Brady, 8/9)

Axios: The Technology Upside From The Coronavirus Pandemic 
A majority of doctors say the pandemic forced their organization to make tech upgrades that normally would've taken years, according to a Google Cloud poll provided exclusively to Axios. While health care has typically moved at a cautious pace when it comes to adopting new tech, COVID spurred a digital transformation. (Reed, 8/9)

Indianapolis Star: Eskenazi Health Still On Diversion Days After Ransomware Attack
Eskenazi Health remains on diversion for patients coming by ambulance nearly a week after an attempted ransomware attack that led the hospital to shut down its entire computer network. While the hospital is accepting patients who come on their own to the emergency department and delivering babies, ambulances are still being asked to go elsewhere, hospital spokesman Todd Harper said. The hospital’s outpatient clinics are open, he added. “We’re making progress,” Harper said. “When this happened we shut down the whole network just for protection purposes and now we’re bringing things back.” (Rudavsky, 8/9)

In news about health care personnel —

AP: Hospital Hit By Nurses' Strike Says It's Hiring Replacements
A Massachusetts hospital crippled by a nurses’ strike that’s now entering its sixth month says it’s hired more than 100 replacement nurses after talks aimed at ending the standoff stalled. St. Vincent Hospital said in a statement Sunday that it planned to post more jobs in the coming days. “Saint Vincent must take responsible action and hire as many nurses as possible to maintain access to ensure core services, as COVID numbers increase and the cooler weather approaches,” it said. (8/10)

Modern Healthcare: Short-Staffed Nursing Homes Linked To More Readmissions, GAO Reports
Skilled-nursing facilities that employ fewer registered nurses send patients back to hospitals or emergency rooms more frequently, a new federal report found. Short-staffed nursing homes, as measured by RN hours per resident day, sent 24% of their patients back to the hospital within 30 days of being admitted to SNFs in 2018, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. The readmission rate was 21% among nursing homes that employed more RNs, even after adjusting for differences in medical conditions. That difference translates to 2,265 more hospital readmissions at facilities with fewer nurses. That trend persisted through 2019. Readmissions declined when staffing levels increased. (Kacik, 8/9)

Modern Healthcare: Nurse Practitioners Most Recruited Providers, Survey Finds
Nurse practitioners were the most recruited providers among physicians and advanced practitioners, according to a new report by search firm Merritt Hawkins. This marks the first time in the report's 27-year history that physicians did not hold the top spot. For the past 14 years alone, family physicians were the most recruited position, Merritt Hawkins said. "COVID-19 and other market forces are changing the dynamics of physician and advanced practitioner recruiting," Tom Florence, president of Merritt Hawkins, said in a statement. "NPs are coming into their own in a market that puts a premium on easy access to care and cost containment." (Christ, 8/9)

The Baltimore Sun: Nurse, Lawyer, And Navy Veteran Leads Johns Hopkins Center For Transgender Health 
During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, nonemergency surgeries were suspended, delaying gender affirming procedures for months. Paula M. Neira and other nurses were redeployed to respond to the pandemic, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Transgender Health had to put a moratorium on new patient intakes. “Paula is a clinical kind of leader in health care, because I really saw that in COVID,” said Dr. Deborah Baker, the Senior Vice President for Nursing for the Johns Hopkins Health System. (Garcia, 8/10)

Modern Healthcare: Tenet Healthcare CEO Rittenmeyer Is Stepping Down
For-profit hospital chain Tenet Healthcare announced Monday that its CEO, Ron Rittenmeyer, is transitioning to executive chairman, effective Sept. 1. Dr. Saum Sutaria, the Dallas-based company's chief operating officer, will take over as CEO effective Sept. 1. Rittenmeyer will continue to serve as executive chairman of Tenet and its board until 2022. He's served as CEO for almost four years. (Bannow, 8/9)