Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Nursing Home, Several Hospitals Cited For Major Health, Safety Violations
Over the past 12 months, Iowa hospitals have been cited for dozens of violations, including a dirty surgical suite, patient abuse, inadequate staff, and discharging emergency-room patients with undiagnosed, life-threatening conditions. (Kaufman, 11/22)
The nursing home in western Wisconsin where a nurse is facing felony elder abuse charges for amputating a man's foot didn't immediately report the incident to state regulators and failed to complete an investigation, according to a state inspection report. (Volpenhein and Van Egeren, 11/22)
In other health care industry news —
Over half of Mississippi’s rural hospitals are at risk of closing immediately or in the near future, according to the state’s leading public health official. Dr. Daniel Edney, the state health officer, spoke to state senators at a hearing Monday about the financial pressure on Mississippi hospitals. Edney said 54% of the state’s rural hospitals — 38 — could close. The potential closures threaten to exacerbate poor health outcomes in one of the nation’s poorest states. (Goldberg, 11/22)
Despite private equity owning only an estimated 5% of the nursing home industry, its high-profile problems in the sector have made it a bogeyman to politicians and the public. (Pringle, 11/22)
The Health and Human Services Department branch recommends healthcare entities—particularly hospitals—establish systems to track and manage greenhouse gas emissions, appoint leaders to oversee progress, set goals and timelines, and invest in technology that measures their environmental impacts. (Hartnett, 11/22)
Uber Health expanded its ride service for patients needing reimbursed, non-emergency health transportation to commercial and self-insured employers last week. Previously, the company had focused its attention on Medicaid and Medicare populations, but data showed gaps in commercially insured patients, said Caitlin Donovan, Uber Health’s global head. (Turner, 11/21)
Google has honed its message for hospital systems wary of moving their data to its cloud services: We are going to make this very easy for you. (Aguilar, 11/23)
