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A Justice Department lawsuit describes a sweeping fraud scheme in which dozens of Texas providers and front companies funneled millions in lab test bills through a small rural hospital that eventually shuttered in 2018. At the heart of the scandal is Little River Healthcare, a bankrupt health care management company that took over the operations of a critical access hospital in Rockdale, Texas in 2014 and allegedly used the hospital’s favorable government reimbursement rates to broker deals with unscrupulous partners and rake in millions in profit. (Bannow, 6/1)

The FBI thwarted a planned cyberattack on a children’s hospital in Boston that was to have been carried out by hackers sponsored by the Iranian government, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday. Wray told a Boston College cybersecurity conference that his agents learned of the planned digital attack from an unspecified intelligence partner and got Boston Children’s Hospital the information it needed last summer to block what would have been “one of the most despicable cyberattacks I’ve seen.” (Tucker and Suderman, 6/1)

Hospitals have been hit by massive ransomware attacks in recent years, curtailing access to patient data systems and forcing staff onto so-called "downtime procedures." But many hospitals haven't adequately planned for system downtime, using incident response plans created for other disasters that don't capture the scope of ransomware, experts say. Ransomware encrypts a victim's computer files and only releases them in exchange for payment. At hospitals, that can mean information-technology systems like electronic health records, scheduling and even phone systems become unavailable. Doctors, nurses and other clinical staff have to move to paper charts, and may be out of practice or haven't been trained on that process. (Kim Cohen, 6/1)

Hospitals with fewer nurses on staff saw a greater likelihood of elderly patients dying due to sepsis, according to a new study that shined a light on how understaffing affects care quality. About 26% of Medicare patients with sepsis die within 60 days of admission. Each additional hour of care that nurses provide to sepsis patients is linked to a 3% decrease in mortality within 60 days of admission, the study published in JAMA Network Open on May 27 found. (Devereaux, 6/1)

The percentage of nursing positions that are vacant at St. Louis-area hospitals has risen sharply since the start of the coronavirus pandemic and presents significant concerns for staff and patient care, according to the Missouri Hospital Association. The association gathered data from 33 hospitals in the St. Louis area and the Metro East in 2021, and from 35 hospitals the year before. It found vacancies for registered nurses in the metro area increased from 11.2% in 2020 to 20.3% in 2021, when hospitals ended the year with 3,681 registered nurse vacancies. Hospitals also saw increased turnover. (Davis, 6/2)

Members of a union representing 1,300 resident physicians and fellows at three Los Angeles County hospitals have voted to authorize a strike," the labor organization announced Tuesday. Doctors at Los Angeles County+University of Southern California Medical Center in Los Angeles, Harbor-University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center in West Carson and Martin Luther King, Jr. Outpatient Center in Los Angeles voted 99% in favor of allowing their bargaining committee to call a strike over what they deem to be unfair labor practices. Voting took place between May 16 and May 30. (Christ, 6/1)

Health care workers nationwide are organizing and pushing for workplace changes like better pay or more favorable staffing ratios after waves of pandemic-fueled burnout and frustration. COVID-19 and its aftereffects triggered an exodus of health care workers. Those who stayed are demanding more from health systems that claim to be reaching their own breaking points. (Dreher, 6/2)