News

The AHA invites hospitals and health systems to participate in the Better Maternal Outcomes Improvement Sprint, a free, six-week program focused on the safe reduction of primary cesarean births, also known as NTSV cesarean births.

Hospitals and health systems lost 2,200 jobs in February, as U.S. jobs overall increased by 379,000, according to preliminary data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

A recent report from RAND “misses the mark on solutions to the cost of health care and draws its conclusions from the same recycled and incomplete studies,” writes AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission discussed a draft recommendation that Congress require the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to transition to an indirect medical education adjustment that considers both inpatient and outpatient care.

Mask mandates last year were associated with declining growth in daily COVID-19 cases and deaths within 20 days, while on-premises restaurant dining was associated with rising cases after 40 days and rising death rates after 60 days, according to a study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will host a March 11 call for clinicians on using telehealth to augment COVID-19 vaccine planning and monitoring.

1.5 million people. That’s the approximate number of people that hospitals and health systems have treated for COVID-19 since the pandemic began. To put that in perspective, that would mean filling Chicago’s Soldier Field to capacity 24 times.

A research letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine looks at delayed injection-site skin reactions to the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine four to 11 days after 12 people received the first dose.

More than 206,000 people selected a 2021 health plan through the federally facilitated marketplace Feb. 15-28, the first two weeks of a special enrollment period created in response to the COVID-19 emergency, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reports.

Kearny County Hospital in Lakin, Kansas, launched the Pioneer Baby program with KU School of Medicine-Wichita in 2015 to improve pregnancy and birth outcomes.

The AHA voiced support for Vivek Murthy, M.D., to serve as United States surgeon general for a second time.

Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Todd Young, R-Ind., Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., introduced the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, AHA-supported legislation that aims to prevent suicide, burnout and behavioral health disorders among health care professionals. Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., also introduced the legislation in the House of Representatives. 

Cyber attackers are using Microsoft Exchange Server vulnerabilities to access Exchange server email accounts on an organization’s premises and install malware to facilitate long-term access to victim environments, the Microsoft Threat Intelligence Center announced.

The Senate Finance Committee voted 14-14 along party lines on President Biden’s nomination of Xavier Becerra to be the next Secretary of Health and Human Services.

In this AHA Physician Alliance podcast, Amy Ahasic, M.D., section chief for pulmonary and critical care medicine at Norwalk Hospital in Connecticut, shares how she applied skills learned from the Women’s Wellness through Equity and Leadership Project to the COVID-19 public health emergency.

With Ebola outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guinea, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reminding U.S. health care personnel about its Ebola infection control guidance.

The Food and Drug Administration has called on 25 firms to stop producing and issuing so-called “FDA registration certificates” to mask, respirator, face shield and other medical device makers and distributors that create the impression that FDA has approved or authorized their products.

The National Emergency Tele-Critical Care Network offers hospitals and health systems needing clinical support to care for seriously ill COVID-19 patients free telehealth access to critical care physicians, nurses and other clinical experts.

At a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health hearing , health care stakeholders urged Congress to consider how to ensure flexibilities remain for patients and health care providers in telehealth beyond the public health emergency.

The National Institutes of Health has halted a clinical trial evaluating the effectiveness of COVID-19 convalescent plasma in emergency department patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 symptoms and at least one risk factor for severe COVID-19 after an independent board concluded from the data that the treatment was unlikely to help such patients.