Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Electronic Messages To Cleveland Clinic Providers Could Prompt $50 Bills
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: Some Electronic Messages To Cleveland Clinic Healthcare Providers Could Cost $50
Sending an electronic message to a Cleveland Clinic physician could cost as much as $50 per message, due to a change in procedures announced Monday. (Washington, 11/14)
More on staffing shortages —
Indianapolis Star: Indiana Hospitals Rely On Virtual Nurses Amid Labor Shortage
Increasingly hospital systems such as Community Health Network are augmenting their stressed nursing workforces with virtual nurses. These licensed professionals can swoop in remotely to ease the hospital workload by taking over tasks that can be done long distance such as admissions or discharges. (Rudavsky, 11/15)
The Texas Tribune: Texas’ Nursing Homes Are Missing Something: Nurses
Robert Lozoya started a recent shift as a nurse manager for Carillon, Lubbock’s biggest senior home, at 7 a.m. For the next 12 hours, he triaged his duties, picking up the slack for the nurses who did not show up for work. He made sure patients didn’t choke on their lunch, treated wounds and fielded a myriad of calls to doctors, families and pharmacies. (Lozano, 11/15)
In other health industry news —
Detroit Free Press: Some Metro Detroit Hospitals Awash In Red Ink
Some nonprofit hospital systems in metro Detroit have emerged from the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic to face budgets awash in red ink. Systems including Henry Ford Health and the legacy Beaumont hospitals within the newly formed Corewell Health show negative operating margins and millions in losses in their latest financial reports. (Reindl, 11/14)
Stat: Google's New Pilot Tests The Power Of Search Tools In Health Care
Mile Bluff Medical Center is a long way from Silicon Valley. The 40-bed hospital is situated in a central Wisconsin city of 4,400 people, where caregivers are about as likely to encounter a moose as a machine learning engineer. That is, until now. (Ross, 11/14)
Boston Globe: Why Did A Celebrated Oncologist Hide Her Breast Cancer Diagnosis?
When Barrett Rollins walked into the bathroom of his Beacon Hill home, he was stunned to find his wife lying on the uneven tile floor covered in blood. Rollins and his wife, Jane Weeks, were physicians and researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and lived steps from some of the world’s best hospitals. But Weeks didn’t want medical help. Instead, without looking at her husband, she calmly explained that she was dying. (Bartlett, 11/14)
