- The healthcare industry added 46,800 jobs in May, nearly matching April's largest monthly increase this year, according to the seasonally adjusted figures released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Ambulatory-care services, such as home healthcare services and outpatient-care centers, together generated about 27,600 jobs in May, a 16.9% jump from last month. Within that category, physician offices hired 5,900 people. Hospitals added 15,700 jobs, outpatient centers added 4,500 jobs and home-health agencies increased payrolls by 8,400. Over the past year, healthcare has added 408,000 jobs.
- U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) and co-sponsor Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) have introduced a new version of the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. The revision includes a new HHS leadership post, assistant secretary for mental health and substance-abuse disorders, and establishes a national mental health policy laboratory. It also provides for additional psychiatric hospital beds; promotes telepsychiatry for underserved and rural areas; authorizes an early intervention program for people with or developing schizophrenia; focuses on suicide prevention; and gives states incentives to provide alternatives to institutionalization. It would also promote the use of technology to better coordinate care with primary-care physicians.
- The National Institutes of Health has halted operations at one of its drug manufacturing facilities after fungus was discovered in two vials of a blood protein used for experimental studies. Officials said none of the patients given the blood protein have shown signs of infection or illness, and all have been notified and are being monitored. Contaminated vials of the blood protein albumin were discovered in April after a complaint was made to the Food and Drug Administration. A subsequent FDA inspection found a number of “serious manufacturing problems,” including failures to follow standard operating procedures.
Healthcare added 46,800 jobs in May, and other news
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