Bankrupt Crozer Health Begins Employee Layoffs As Closure Looms

CBS News: Some Crozer Health Employees Receive Layoff Notices Amid Potential Shutdown: "People Are Going To Die"
Despite efforts to find a buyer to save the bankrupt Crozer Health System in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, people say they've received layoff notices. Renee Masella has been with Crozer for nine years as an occupational therapist with the home care and hospice department. She said some workers got the bad news on Friday. (Holden, 4/15)

Modern Healthcare: Ascension Health To Buy CHS' Stake In Texas Hospital
Ascension Health has signed a definitive agreement to buy Community Health System's majority ownership in a Texas hospital for $460 million. The deal involves CHS' 80% ownership stake in Cedar Park Regional Medical Center and related businesses in Cedar Park, Texas. The buyer, Ascension Seton, already holds a minority interest in the 126-bed medical center, according to a Tuesday news release. (Hudson, 4/15)

Modern Healthcare: Mass General Brigham, MedStar Health Offer In-Home Cancer Care
Mass General Brigham and MedStar Health have joined a growing list of health systems working to move cancer care into the home. Mass General Brigham and MedStar Health are offering in-home services to some cancer patients to help alleviate overcrowding in hospital emergency rooms, free up beds and reduce costs, the health systems said in separate news releases. Home-based cancer treatment is gaining momentum as more Americans are being diagnosed with the disease. However, reimbursement for some home-based cancer treatment remains a challenge. (Eastabrook, 4/15)

Modern Healthcare: Hospital-At-Home, EMS Systems Compete To Hire Paramedics
Hospital-at-home and other home-based care programs have turned paramedics into hot commodities for health systems and ignited competition for their skills. Hospitals systems including Geisinger Health System, Allina Health and Sanford Health, in addition to home-based care providers WellBe Senior Medical, DispatchHealth and myLaurel are deploying paramedics into patients' homes to provide certain medical services that would otherwise be provided by registered nurses. Paramedics have skills similar to nurses and are less costly. But increased demand for their services from fire departments, emergency medical systems and healthcare providers is exacerbating a national shortage. (Eastabrook, 4/15)

Chicago Tribune: Mount Sinai Hospital Among The Best For Earning Its Tax Exemption, Report Says
Mount Sinai Hospital ranks the fourth highest among hospitals across 20 states for spending far more money on charity care and helping its community than what it saves through tax exemptions, according to a new report from the Lown Institute. (Schencker, 4/15)

Becker's Hospital Review: What's Driving Health System Investment In Gen Z Leadership
With an aging workforce and looming executive retirements, building leadership pipelines early is more important than ever, Jason Gilbert, PhD, RN, chief nurse executive at Indianapolis-based Indiana University Health, told Becker’s. It is especially important given Generation Z’s strong interest in early career development. (Kuchno, 4/15)

KFF Health News: In Rural Massachusetts, Patients And Physicians Weigh Trade-Offs Of Concierge Medicine
Michele Andrews had been seeing her internist in Northampton, Massachusetts, a small city two hours west of Boston, for about 10 years. She was happy with the care, though she started to notice it was becoming harder to get an appointment. “You’d call and you’re talking about weeks to a month,” Andrews said. That’s not surprising, as many workplace surveys show the supply of primary care doctors has fallen well below the demand, especially in rural areas such as western Massachusetts. (Brown, 4/16)

On mental health care —

AP: As Dementia Rates Increase, Experts Warn Hospital Emergency Rooms Are Underprepared
One in six visits to the emergency department in 2022 that resulted in hospital admission had a wait of four or more hours, according to an Associated Press and Side Effects Public Media data analysis. Fifty percent of the patients who were boarded for any length of time were 65 and older, the analysis showed. Some people who aren’t in the middle of a life-threatening emergency might even wait weeks, health care experts said. ER boarding is a symptom of the U.S. health care system’s struggles, including shrinking points of entry for patients seeking care outside of ERs and hospitals prioritizing beds for procedures insurance companies often pay more for. (Bose and Thorp, 4/15)

The New York Times: This Therapist Helped Clients Feel Better. It Was A.I.
The quest to create an A.I. therapist has not been without setbacks or, as researchers at Dartmouth thoughtfully describe them, “dramatic failures.” Their first chatbot therapist wallowed in despair and expressed its own suicidal thoughts. A second model seemed to amplify all the worst tropes of psychotherapy, invariably blaming the user’s problems on her parents. Finally, the researchers came up with Therabot, an A.I. chatbot they believe could help address an intractable problem: There are too many people who need therapy. (Rosenbluth, 4/15)

NPR: How Psychiatric Patients Get Caught In A Cycle Of Homelessness And Spotty Care
When L tells the story of her mom — and how she's stuck in a repetitive cycle of mental health crises and bouts of homelessness — she refers to a thick stack of papers and notes she's accumulated along the way. L has spent more than a year trying to navigate Montana's mental health system, searching for anyone who could help her mom manage her symptoms and achieve enough stability to get off the streets and into a permanent home. (Bolton, 4/16)

KFF Health News: A Call For Comfort Brought The Police Instead. Now The Solution Is In Danger
Overcome by worries, Lynette Isbell dialed a mental health hotline in April 2022. She wanted to talk to someone about her midlife troubles: divorce, an empty nest, and the demands of caring for aging parents with dementia. “I did not want to keep burdening my family and friends with my problems,” Isbell said. But she didn’t find the sympathetic ear she was hoping for on the other end. Frustrated, she hung up. Little did she know ending that call would set off events she would regret. (Liss, 4/16)