Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Safety Net Hospital Sees Temporary Shutdown Over Faulty Billing System
CBS News: West Suburban Medical Center In Oak Park Blames Sudden Shutdown On Computerized Billing System
In less than 24 hours, all patients will be out of West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park as the hospital blames its abrupt shutdown on a computerized billing system. On Thursday hospital signs were getting covered up, but no one who works there was hiding how they feel. (Brennan, 3/26)
Modern Healthcare: OpenEvidence Launches Coding Intelligence For AI Medical Billing
Healthcare artificial intelligence company OpenEvidence launched a feature designed to automate the medical coding and billing process. Coding Intelligence is part of OpenEvidence Visits, the company’s digital assistant for clinicians, which launched in August. The product introduction comes two months after the company closed a $250 million series D funding round, which gave it a $12 billion valuation. (Famakinwa, 3/26)
More health care industry developments —
Modern Healthcare: Advocate Health To Launch Drone Delivery Network Through Zipline
Advocate Health plans to start delivering prescriptions, lab samples and home health supplies via drones next year. It is partnering with Zipline, a drone-based delivery company, Advocate said Thursday. Drone deliveries will launch in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Advocate is based, followed by Chicago and Milwaukee, two areas where it has a significant presence. (DeSilva, 3/26)
WUFT: 'Flying ICU' Aims To Cut Emergency Response Times In North Central Florida
HCA Florida on Wednesday unveiled an air ambulance program in Gainesville that will increase emergency transportation capacity in rural and hard-to-reach communities of north central Florida. (Roches, 3/26)
WFSU: University System OKs TMH Transfer To FSU
The State University System Board of Governors has approved Florida State University's $110 million contract with Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare and the city of Tallahassee. It's part of the agreement for the city to transfer the hospital and its assets to FSU. (Wood, 3/27)
CBS News: Why Kids And Families Learn To Cook During Doctor's Appointments At A Massachusetts Hospital
March is Autoimmune Disease Awareness Month, and for families navigating celiac disease, treatment does not come in the form of medication or a cure. Instead, it requires a lifelong commitment to a strict gluten-free diet. At Boston Children's Hospital's Needham campus, that education is happening in an unexpected place - the kitchen. What looks at first like a cooking class, is actually a doctor's appointment designed to help children and families build real-life skills around food and health. (Pitts, 3/26)
CIDRAP: Study Challenges ‘5-Second Rule’ For Dropped Surgical Implants
In kitchens, the “five-second rule” offers a small, comforting fiction—that what falls and is retrieved quickly can be salvaged germ-free. A similar story can surface in surgical settings, where dropped objects are surprisingly common. But a new randomized study suggests that even brief contact with a contaminated surface can affect the sterility of surgical implants and that certain disinfection methods can reduce, but not fully eliminate, contamination. (Bergeson, 3/26)
On rural health care —
KFF Health News: Give And Take: Federal Rural Health Funding Could Trigger Service Cuts
The emergency department at Big Sandy Medical Center is one room with a single curtain between two beds. It’s one of the many parts of the 25-bed rural hospital that need updating, former CEO Ron Wiens said. He said the hospital, an essential service in its namesake town of nearly 800 residents in the state’s sprawling north-central high plains, needs at least $1 million for deferred maintenance, including a failing HVAC system. But the facility has struggled to make payroll each month and can’t afford to make all the fixes, Wiens said. (Bolton and Zionts, 3/27)
The Texas Tribune: Rural Texas Pharmacies Use Novel Strategies To Stay Afloat
Crystal McEntire lives two lives. Every morning, she wakes up to tend to her family’s ranch near the top of the Texas Panhandle that houses a herd of Red Angus cattle. But after mornings of farm work, she exchanges her ranch jeans for pharmacy jeans, she said, and drives 26 miles to Hyland’s Pharmacy in Wheeler County — one of two pharmacies she owns — a drive she described as a moment for decompression. (Johnstone, 3/26)
