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St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center in Twin Falls, Idaho, hasn't always had the best Leapfrog Group safety grades. The 213-bed acute care hospital up until 2016 pulled in B's, and in one particularly bad year, D's. Hospital leadership took a hard look at each measure, and they went to work. Five years in a row, they've received an "A." "You get ranked by Leapfrog, Healthgrades, IBM Watson, CMS, all these external organizations, and you need to understand why you score the way you do," said Dr. Bart Hill, vice president and chief quality officer of St. Luke's Health System. (Gillespie, 4/29)

Eight of Piedmont Healthcare’s 11 hospitals earned an “A’’ grade in the latest patient safety evaluation by the Leapfrog Group, released Thursday. Those top-rated Piedmont hospitals represent one-third of Georgia’s 24 hospital “A” grades. It’s the largest group earning top marks that Piedmont has ever recorded in the twice-a-year ratings. (Miller, 4/29)

After a months-long campaign, nurses at Maine’s largest hospital voted to unionize. In a mail ballot election counted by the National Labor Relations Board, registered nurses voted 1,001 to 750 to join the Maine State Nurses Association, an affiliate of the National Nursing Organizing Committee/National Nurses United. The decision affects roughly 2,000 nurses at Maine Medical Center, the Scarborough Surgery Center and the Maine Med campus in Portland. “It’s a new day for nurses and patients across Maine,” MSNA and NNOC president Cokie Giles said. (Schroeder, 4/29)

A new study from New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing found that city nurses caring for COVID-19 patients during the first wave of the pandemic experienced anxiety, depression and illness. But the study, published in Nursing Outlook earlier this month, also identified steps the nurses’ hospitals took to protect them during the first wave, what the study authors say can serve as an example of what hospitals can do during public health crises to support their nursing staff and protect their mental health. (Farber, 4/29)

As she stood to introduce the vice president of the United States, a year’s worth of pandemic-related emotions — trauma, stress and, finally, relief — seemed to overtake registered nurse Melissa Wesby of Baltimore. “I work with pulmonary and cardiac patients at Johns Hopkins Bayview,” Wesby said Thursday from a lectern at M&T Bank Stadium’s mass vaccination site, where Vice President Kamala Harris was about to address a group of elected officials and other VIPs. (Barker, 4/30)

Hospitals' finances are climbing back toward pre-pandemic levels as patients come back — at least in outpatient settings. Volumes are still down compared to 2019, but the upticks in business since the start of the pandemic could be an indicator that consumer confidence is returning, said Erik Swanson, senior vice president of data and analytics at Kaufman Hall. (Reed, 4/30)

CMS' Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation on Thursday signed off on a three-year extension of the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement model. It will now last through the end of 2024. The final rule changes the definition of an episode to include outpatient hip and knee replacements, modifies how the agency calculates target prices and reduces the number of reconciliation periods from two to one. It also makes changes to beneficiary notice requirements, gainsharing caps and the appeals process. Regulators expect the extension to save the Medicare program about $217 million over three years. (Brady, 4/29)

Aetna's threatening to fire doctors who referred patients to out-of-network facilities does not violate California's unfair competition law, as the industry group advocating on its physicians' behalf was not directly harmed by the insurer's policy, an appellate court ruled on Wednesday. The 2nd Appellate District's ruling comes after a nine-year court battle between state physicians and the Hartford, Conn.-based insurer. (Tepper, 4/29)

KHN: Two Unmatched-Doctor Advocacy Groups Are Tied To Anti-Immigrant Organizations 

In their last year of medical school, fourth-year students get matched to a hospital where they will serve their residency. The annual rite of passage is called the National Resident Matching Program. To the students, it’s simply the Match. Except not every medical student is successful. While tens of thousands do land a residency slot every year, thousands others don’t. Those “unmatched” students are usually left scrambling to figure out their next steps, since newly graduated doctors who don’t complete a residency program cannot receive their license to practice medicine. (Knight, 4/30)

The road to shake up the health record industry is littered with failures. But a new group of startups are giving it another go — and there are reasons to believe companies may find success where others fell short. Chief among them is the recent introduction of a federal rule that bars data blocking and, for the first time, lets patients access their health information using apps. (Brodwin, 4/29)

KHN: Addiction Treatment Providers In Pa. Face Little State Scrutiny Despite Harm To Clients 

When Ian Kalinowski was at work, his mom usually texted him. So when he saw her number show up as an incoming call around lunchtime one Tuesday, he figured it had to be important. Now, more than seven years later, he remembers her screams, the shock and the questions she asked over and over again. “Why are they saying this to me? Why are they lying to me?” Ian recalled his mom asking. “They’re telling me Adam’s dead. Why would they do this to me?” (Pattani and Mahon, 4/30)

Most local health officials don’t accept their jobs expecting to be roped into political activism. Amid Covid-19, though, politics became a central element of health experts’ job descriptions. In Washington, government researcher Anthony Fauci publicly feuded with former President Trump. In many cities and states, local health departments were forced to square off against governors who resisted coronavirus mitigation strategies like business closures or mask mandates. (Facher, 4/30)