Germ Cleanser At Center Of Lawsuit Against Sutter Health

Sacramento Bee: Sutter Health Sued By Five Workers For ‘Corrosive’ Cleanser Use
Sutter Health faced high rates of infection in its hospitals from a germ that causes severe diarrhea, and to combat the problem, the company procured a cleanser so noxious that dozens of employees have reported illnesses after using it, according to a lawsuit filed in Alameda Court earlier this week. The new product, Ecolab’s OxyCide, was cheaper than a two-step cleaning process that workers had previously used, saving Sacramento-based Sutter millions of dollars, attorneys alleged in a suit that seeks class-action status to represent 1,800 environmental services workers. (Anderson, 1/19)

In other health care industry developments —

Modern Healthcare: IBM Watson Health Data Sale To Include Imaging, Population Health Software
IBM Corp. plans to sell its imaging and population health software along with Watson Health's data and analytics business, the company said Friday. The tech conglomerate and private equity firm Francisco Partners have signed a definitive agreement and expect the deal to close in the second quarter, subject to customary regulatory approvals. The transaction, of which financial terms were not disclosed, includes IBM's medical imaging and population health software, Merge Healthcare and Phytel. (Kacik, 1/21)

Stat: Buyer Of Watson Health's Assets Has A Shot At Success Where IBM Failed
With the sale of core parts of its Watson Health business, IBM is seeing its once-exciting entry point into the world of medicine slam shut. But for its buyer, the scraps could offer a shot at success where IBM failed. A San Francisco-based private equity firm with a broad portfolio of health care investments will soon be the owner of some of the most comprehensive datasets in the industry, including the massive tranche of insurance claims data contained in MarketScan. Business analysts said the data dump instantly makes Francisco Partners a significant player in the multibillion-dollar business of buying and selling sensitive information about the care of patients. (Ross, 1/21)

Stat: Health Systems Invest More Aggressively Than Ever In Digital Health
During his talk at the recent J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Mayo Clinic CEO Gianrico Farrugia laid out a sweeping vision for technology transformation, driven largely by private sector upstarts that have partnered with the health system. Every few minutes, he punctuated references to this cadre of companies with a disclosure: Mayo owns equity in all of them. The Rochester, Minn., health system has long invested in for-profit businesses through its venture capital arm. But it has dramatically increased its allocation to digital health companies in recent years, pouring more than $100 million into a sector it had previously only acknowledged with sporadic, six-figure checks. (Ross, 1/24)

Modern Healthcare: Another Health System Outsources Its Administrative Services To Optum
MarinHealth Medical Center is the latest health system to enlist Optum for operational support, with the not-for-profit California provider inking a 10-year contract with the healthcare services giant on Thursday. MarinHealth will lean on Optum to streamline its administrative processes, offer insight into its supply chain and for revenue cycle management services. Optum's technology will also provide a simplified consumer experience for patients, MarinHealth said. (Tepper, 1/21)

Georgia Health News: Anthem Names New Chief In Georgia Amid Dispute With Northside 
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield has named a new president of its Georgia operation just days before a possible contract cutoff with Northside Hospital. Robert Bunch, a longtime Anthem official, replaces Pam Stahl, who has taken a job in another industry, the insurer said late last week. The leadership change comes amid a flurry of court activity in the dispute, which has caught the attention of many of the estimated 400,000 Anthem patients in metro Atlanta who use Northside hospitals, clinics and doctors. (Miller, 1/23)

Also —

Philadelphia Inquirer: Pa. Nurses Flood Student Loan Relief Program Offering Up To $7,500. ‘We Can Do More’, State Senator Says
State Sen. Maria Collett (D., Montgomery/Bucks) says there’s overwhelming demand for a program offering Pennsylvania nurses up to $7,500 in student loan debt relief, and she’s fighting to expand and make the program law. Collett and Gov. Tom Wolf have been heavily promoting the new Student Loan Relief for Nurses (SLRN) program for nurses working in Pennsylvania. Qualified nurses can receive relief of up to $2,500 for each year of work during the COVID-19 pandemic, starting in 2020, with a maximum benefit of $7,500 over three years. (Arvedlund, 1/22)

AP: $25M Gift To Help Cancer Research At Dartmouth-Hitchcock 
A $25 million gift will help establish a cancer research institute at Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s Norris Cotton Cancer Center in New Hampshire. The donation is from Dorothy Byrne, a long-time supporter of cancer research and patient care. It is the lead gift in a $50 million campaign to create the Byrne Family Cancer Research Institute. (1/23)

North Carolina Health News: Three Indicators That May Predict A Rural Hospital Closure 
Since 2005, 181 rural hospitals across the country have shut their doors permanently — 56 of those between 2017 and 2020. Scholars at the North Carolina Rural Health Research Program and the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at UNC Chapel Hill watch the issue closely. Two researchers recently decided to investigate: did the most recent closures have anything in common financially? The answer they found was a resounding yes. In the year before their closure, most of the now-closed rural hospitals nationwide had low cash on hand, negative operating margins, and negative total margins, compared to rural hospitals that stayed open. (Donnelly-DeRoven, 1/24)

KHN: The Doctor Didn’t Show Up, But The Hospital ER Still Charged $1,012
Dhaval Bhatt had been warned about hospital emergency rooms. “People always told me to avoid the ER in America unless you are really dying,” said Bhatt, an immigrant from India who got a Ph.D. in pharmacology in the U.S. and is now a research scientist at Washington University in St. Louis. But when Bhatt’s 2-year-old son burned his hand on the kitchen stove on a Wednesday morning in April, the family’s pediatrician directed them the next day to the local children’s hospital. (Levey, 1/24)