Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Focus On Rural Hospitals As More Close Their Maternity Units
The New York Times: Rural Hospitals Are Shuttering Their Maternity Units
Three days before Christmas, the only hospital in this remote city on the Yakama Indian Reservation abruptly closed its maternity unit without consulting the community, the doctors who delivered babies there or even its own board. At least 35 women were planning to give birth at Astria Toppenish Hospital in January alone, and the sudden closure — which violated the hospital’s commitment to the state to maintain critical services in this rural area — threw their plans into disarray. (Rabin, 2/26)
North Carolina Health News: Five Years Later, Residents Still Mourn The Loss Of Angel Medical Center’s Maternity Unit
Before the sun rises on a Tuesday morning in December, Amelia Cline smooches her partner goodbye and heads out the back door of her house in West Asheville. With a thermos of coffee in one hand and a handful of medical supplies in the other, she climbs into the driver’s side of a white Toyota and settles in for her hour-ish drive to Macon County. (Donnelly-DeRoven, 2/27)
St. Joseph (Mo.) News-Press: Missouri Congressman Seeks A Lifeline For Rural Hospitals
When it comes to living in rural America, open roads and empty spaces are part of the appeal. But someone who needs lifesaving care can find those small-town blessings to be a curse when rural hospitals are fighting for their survival. Now U.S. Rep. Sam Graves wants to throw a lifeline. Along with Rep. Jared Huffman, a Democrat from California, Graves is co-sponsoring a bill that would end Medicare cuts for rural providers, cement COVID-era telemedicine provisions into existing regulations and boost reimbursement for rural ambulance services. (Kozol, 2/25)
In related hospital news —
Stat: Antitrust Officials Consider Letting Physician-Owned Hospitals Expand
Some government antitrust regulators are hinting at their support for expanding physician-owned hospitals, another sign of the Biden administration’s increasing scrutiny of consolidation among the nation’s health systems. (Wilkerson, 2/27)
Stat: Hospitals' Investment Income Perked Up At End Of 2022
Large hospital systems’ investments rebounded heavily in the final quarter of 2022, according to a new STAT analysis of financial filings. It wasn’t enough to erase the steep investment losses from the rest of the year, but the income provides extra cushion to hospitals that are still losing money from the daily operations of treating patients. (Herman and Bannow, 2/27)
In other health care industry news —
AP: NTSB Says Medical Plane Apparently Broke Apart Before Crash
A medical transport flight that crashed in a mountainous area in northern Nevada, killing five all five people aboard the plane including a patient, apparently broke apart before hitting the ground, authorities said Sunday. The National Transportation Safety Board has sent in a seven-member team of investigators to the site of Friday night’s crash near Stagecoach. (2/27)
St. Louis Public Radio: St. Louis Leaders To Keep Fighting Homer G. Phillips Hospital
St. Louis nurses, activists and religious leaders are determined to keep fighting developer Paul McKee’s use of Homer G. Phillps’ name for a three-bed north St. Louis health center. Community leaders gathered at Beloved Community United Methodist Church on Saturday to object to McKee’s efforts. Homer G. Phillips Nurses' Alumni Inc. filed a lawsuit against the developer last year arguing he has no right to use Phillip’s name and claiming the center infringes on a trademark filed by the alumni group. (Davis, 2/26)
Bloomberg: Photodisinfection Uses Lasers To Cut Post-Surgery Infections
Surgery is one of the leading ways patients acquire infections in hospitals, and their noses are a major part of the problem. Germs in the nasal passages can travel to the site of an incision and cause minor skin infections or even sepsis and death. To reduce the risk, a company based in Vancouver is commercializing a way to zap those bugs right before an operation. (Pham, 2/24)
USA Today: ChatGPT And Medicine: How Will It Affect Medical Diagnosis, Doctors?
Now, ChatGPT and similar language processing tools promise to upend medical care again, providing patients with more data than a simple online search and explaining conditions and treatments in language nonexperts can understand. For clinicians, these chatbots might provide a brainstorming tool, guard against mistakes and relieve some of the burden of filling out paperwork, which could alleviate burnout and allow more facetime with patients. (Weintraub, 2/26)
