Hospital Vaccine-Mandate Battle Ends With 153 Employees Fired Or Resigning
Previously a judge had dismissed an employee lawsuit against Houston Methodist Hospital's covid vaccine mandate. Nursing staffing shortages, persistent blood supply shortages, and group homes for people with developmental disabilities are also in the news.
CNN:
153 Houston Methodist Employees Resign Or Are Fired After Refusing To Get Covid-19 Vaccine, Official Says
More than 150 Houston Methodist Hospital employees were officially out of a job Tuesday, 10 days after a judge dismissed a lawsuit against the hospital by employees who opposed a Covid-19 vaccine mandate as a condition of employment, a hospital spokesperson said. The 153 employees either resigned in the two-week suspension period that began June 8 or were terminated Tuesday, according to Gale Smith. (Allen, 6/22)
And staffing shortages grow —
Health News Florida:
Nurses Call On HCA To Address Staffing Shortages At Hospitals
Registers nurses at four HCA Healthcare hospitals in Florida called on the company Monday to hire more nurses amid a nationwide staffing shortage. The nurses were standing for National Nurses United, which represents 12,000 HCA registered nurses across the country, and more than 175,000 nurses overall. The organization claims nurses have experienced "consistent problems with HCA administrators violating their own staffing guidelines and cutting support staff, which has led to often dangerously short RN staffing for patients." (Prieur, 6/22)
Health News Florida:
Group Homes For Those With Developmental Disabilities Face Worker Shortage
Developmental disability service providers are the latest to join a list of employers who say they're facing a worker shortage. Advocates say direct support professionals who left the industry because of health concerns surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic aren't returning because of low wages. (Gaffney, 6/22)
In other health care industry news —
Modern Healthcare:
Blood, Testing Supply Shortage To Persist Through 2021
Hospitals across the country are delaying surgeries as blood utilization spikes. There has been at least a 10% increase in blood transfusions as patients resume care they deferred during the COVID-19 pandemic, many of whom are sicker, according to Vizient, the group purchasing organization that helps source supplies for more than half of the U.S. health systems. Donations are also down, which have delayed some non-urgent procedures. It's a perfect storm, said Akiva Faerber, a senior principal at Vizient. Utilization has gone up and supply has plummeted, which has not only compromised patient care but also inflated prices, he said. The price of O positive and O negative red blood cells has gone up 30% per unit in the past 12 months, Vizient said. (Kacik, 6/22)
Oklahoman:
Oklahoma Blood Institute Seeing Worst Blood Shortage In Decades
Blood supplies are dangerously low in Oklahoma, and donations are urgently needed to address a historic shortage, the Oklahoma Blood Institute said Tuesday. It's the worst shortage in decades, said Dr. John Armitage, president and CEO of Oklahoma Blood Institute. "We're down to about one day's supply of blood on our shelf, which is highly unusual for us," Armitage said at a news conference Tuesday. "We like to have three to five days' supply. It's [the] worst in my career of 26 years in blood banking." (Branham, 6/23)
Crain's Detroit Business:
Spectrum Health Services More Expensive Than Beaumont, Study Shows
As Beaumont and Spectrum explore a merger, executives from both health systems work to stabilize costs, improve care and are attracting and retaining talent. But payer costs remain a critical concern for employers and private insurers across the state. Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids is considerably more expensive for payers than Beaumont, according to a study published by the Rand Corp. in September. The Rand data compares what Medicare pays for hospital services, including facility and professional fees for inpatient and outpatient care, with what private payers pay for the same hospital services at the same facility. (Walsh, 6/22)
Stat:
How The Pandemic Has Reshaped Collaboration And Competition In Science
For as long as people have pointed telescopes at the night sky and slipped drops of pond water under microscopes, competition has been as much a part of the scientific enterprise as curiosity, creativity, and discovery. And for centuries, that has served humanity well. Rivalries push fields forward; Tesla versus Edison sparked the electrical revolution, Pasteur versus Koch showed us how to fight once invisible sources of infection, Joliet-Curie versus Meitner ushered in the nuclear age. (Molteni, 6/22)
Stat:
Pear Therapeutics To Go Public In $1.6 Billion SPAC Merger
Barreling forward with its early momentum in the digital therapeutics market, Pear Therapeutics announced Tuesday it will go public via a merger with special purpose acquisition company Thimble Point Acquisition Corp. in a deal valuing Pear at $1.6 billion. Pear has been at the forefront of making the case to physicians, health systems, insurers, and regulators that software can be medicine for the treatment of all kinds of diseases. (Aguilar, 6/22)
In obituaries —
The New York Times:
Edward Diener, Psychologist Known As Dr. Happiness, Dies At 74
Edward Diener, a playful social psychologist who was nicknamed Dr. Happiness for his pioneering research into what defined contentment, died on April 27 at his home in Salt Lake City. He was 74. The cause was bladder cancer, his son, Robert Biswas-Diener, said. His death had not been widely reported. (Sandomir, 6/21)
