Striking nurses want meeting with Allina board | Twin Cities Pioneer Press
The striking Minnesota Nurses Association sent a letter to Allina Health's board of directors Wednesday, requesting to meet and discuss the nurses' concerns. Thousands of MNA nurses were on the third day of an open-ended strike at five Twin Cities-area Allina facilities, including United Hospital in St. Paul. The gist of the letter is that union officials say Allina executives may have misinformed the board regarding how the negotiations have been handled.
Mount Sinai patient tests positive for Legionnaires' disease, first case of the illness since last year's NYC outbreak | New York Daily News
The legionnaires' bacteria that plagued the city last summer has returned again — this time in Mount Sinai Beth Israel. A patient tested positive for the disease last month — and the bacteria was found in other parts of the Manhattan hospital, spokeswoman Lucia Lee confirmed Wednesday.
UPMC settles mold case with family for $1.35 million | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
UPMC has settled the second of three cases of transplant patients who died after contracting a mold infection after staying in the same intensive care unit room in UPMC Presbyterian, according to records of the settlement with an Ohio family.
Governor extends moratorium on hospital mergers in Connecticut | New Haven (Conn.) Register
Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has extended the moratorium on hospital mergers for five months in an update of his executive order on a review of the certificate of need process. A large group of appointed representatives of the hospitals, doctors, insurers, advocates and state officials have been meeting since last February studying the CON process.
Montana, Wyoming tribes trained in gathering, analyzing health data | Casper (Wyo.) Star Tribune
Wyoming and Montana tribes now have a new tool for collecting, tracking and analyzing health information. In mid-August the Rocky Mountain Tribal Epidemiology Center, part of the Rocky Mountain Tribal Leaders Council, brought in a trainer from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to teach tribal health officials how to use software to track population health data.
Stryker acquires sports medicine company | Grand Rapids Business Journal
Kalamazoo, Mich.-based Stryker said last week that its Endoscopy division acquired Ivy Sports Medicine in Montvale, New Jersey.
'Superbug' scourge spreads as U.S. fails to track rising human toll | Reuters
Fifteen years after the U.S. declared drug-resistant infections to be a grave threat, the crisis is only worsening, a Reuters investigation finds, as government agencies remain unwilling or unable to impose reporting requirements on a healthcare industry that often hides the problem.
Long-term care problem not limited to those who pay for it | Forbes
The workers who provide the care are among the most stressed and have the least autonomy, according to a university study comparing their jobs to those of IT workers. Even though IT workers have longer hours, the nurses and nursing assistants who provide long-term care face "significantly higher psychological job demands."
Pfizer hires new head of Massachusetts neuroscience division | Boston Globe
Ole Isacson will replace Michael Ehlers as Pfizer's chief scientist leading the neuroscience research division in Cambridge. Ehlers jumped ship for Cambridge's Biogen. Pfizer is based in New York, but employs more than 2,000 people in Massachusetts.
KU Hospital, Hays Medical Center will combine forces | Kansas City Business Journal
A new partnership between The University of Kansas Hospital and Hays Medical Center would expand care throughout Western Kansas. The two organizations signed a partnership letter of intent Wednesday, with hopes to implement it early next year.
The states with the biggest Obamacare struggles spent years undermining the law | Los Angeles Times
As insurers exit Obamacare marketplaces across the country, critics of the Affordable Care Act have redoubled claims that the health law isn't working. Yet these same critics, many of them Republican politicians in red states, took steps over the last several years to undermine the 2010 law and fuel the current turmoil in their insurance markets.
