Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
NIH Research Funding Cuts Could Negatively Impact Physician Shortage
Modern Healthcare: NIH Funding Uncertainty Might Worsen Physician Shortage
Clinicians have largely avoided layoffs tied to federal research funding disruptions, but staffing cuts and federal funding uncertainty could exacerbate physician shortages. Academic health systems across the country have paused the hiring of researchers, furloughed faculty and laid off administrators in response to the National Institutes of Health’s attempts to reduce payments for overhead linked to research. (Kacik, 4/18)
The Daily Yonder: Cherokee Residency Program Aims To Draw More Young MDs To Rural Areas
An interest in different cultures led Matthew Mahar to pursue an anthropology minor in college and to subsequently travel extensively. More recently, it’s led him to a hospital in the mountains of Western North Carolina. (Sisk, 4/20)
Aurora Beacon-News: Advocate Quietly Pulled Doctors From Mercy Medical In Aurora
On Christmas Eve in 2023, Rick Albright called an ambulance for his wife, Rose Anne, who was in great pain. That ambulance took her to Mercy Medical Center in Aurora, which is only a four-minute drive away from the Albrights’ home. It was a hospital the two had been to before — he had previously been hospitalized there after a stroke, and his wife had surgery done there, Rick Albright told The Beacon-News. (Smith, 4/20)
San Francisco Chronicle: Travis Air Base Says It Can’t Deliver Babies Due To Nursing Shortage
A nurse shortage has prompted the hospital inside Travis Air Force Base to stop delivering babies, a situation the Air Force said will continue for several more months. In an advisory posted on the Solano County base’s website, the 60th Medical Group — which runs David Grant Medical Center inside the base — announced that the Labor and Delivery unit is short on nurses and won’t be able to deliver babies from April 8 to at least Oct. 1 this year. (Toledo, 4/19)
Modern Healthcare: Nursing Leaders Pilot New Care Models Amid Staffing Shortages
Hospitals are zeroing in on alternative care models to improve the nursing work experience and patient outcomes while lowering costs. Eight in 10 nurse leaders are piloting new care models in their organizations, ranging from virtual nursing to home health, according to a recent study by healthcare solutions company Wolters Kluwer. (DeSilva, 4/18)
Modern Healthcare: Epic Pilots AI Clinical Documentation Tools For Nursing
Epic is working on multiple pilots with health systems and vendors to bring a popular artificial intelligence tool to nurses. The electronic health record company is partnering with Microsoft and ambient AI vendor Abridge to try to improve nursing workflows and reduce the documentation burden. (Turner, 4/18)
Modern Healthcare: Summa Health, General Catalyst's HATCo Sale Spurs Pushback
A group of Ohio residents is calling for a state attorney general investigation into General Catalyst's Health Assurance Transformation Corp.'s plans to purchase Summa Health. Two members of the group, Summa Is Not For Sale, sent a letter to Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R) Friday expressing concerns about the proposed transaction, which would convert nonprofit Summa to a for-profit entity. (DeSilva, 4/18)
Also —
CIDRAP: Carbapenem-Resistant Acinetobacter Rising In US Hospitals
A study of US hospital data shows that carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAB) accounted for more than a third of all A baumannii infections from 2018 through 2022 and is increasingly more common, US researchers reported yesterday in BMC Infectious Diseases. (Dall, 4/18)
KFF Health News: Why Cameras Are Popping Up In Eldercare Facilities
The assisted living facility in Edina, Minnesota, where Jean Peters and her siblings moved their mother in 2011, looked lovely. “But then you start uncovering things,” Peters said. Her mother, Jackie Hourigan, widowed and developing memory problems at 82, too often was still in bed when her children came to see her midmorning. “She wasn’t being toileted, so her pants would be soaked,” said Peters, 69, a retired nurse-practitioner in Bloomington, Minnesota. “They didn’t give her water. They didn’t get her up for meals.” Her mother dwindled to 94 pounds. (Span, 4/21)
