Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
NIH Research Funding Cuts Could Negatively Impact 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鈥檚 attempts to reduce payments for overhead linked to research. (Kacik, 4/18)
An interest in different cultures led Matthew Mahar to pursue an anthropology minor in college and to subsequently travel extensively. More recently, it鈥檚 led him to a hospital in the mountains of Western North Carolina. (Sisk, 4/20)
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鈥 home. It was a hospital the two had been to before 鈥 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)
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鈥檚 website, the聽 60th Medical Group聽鈥 which runs David Grant Medical Center inside the base聽鈥 announced that the Labor and Delivery unit is short on nurses and won鈥檛 be able to deliver babies from April 8 to at least Oct. 1 this year.聽(Toledo, 4/19)
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)
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)
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 鈥
A study of US hospital data shows that carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii聽(CRAB) accounted for more than a third of all A baumannii聽infections from 2018 through 2022 and is increasingly more common, US researchers reported yesterday in BMC Infectious Diseases. (Dall, 4/18)
杨贵妃传媒視頻 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. 鈥淏ut then you start uncovering things,鈥 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. 鈥淪he wasn鈥檛 being toileted, so her pants would be soaked,鈥 said Peters, 69, a retired nurse-practitioner in Bloomington, Minnesota. 鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 give her water. They didn鈥檛 get her up for meals.鈥 Her mother dwindled to 94 pounds. (Span, 4/21)