Editor's Note An October 2023 report from Fitch Ratings finds that nonprofit hospitals will continue to have weak operating margins into 2024 and need to control labor costs in order to return to stronger margins, Chief Healthcare Executive October 5 reports. Some highlights of the report include: Median operating margins…

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Editor's Note A new nasal vaccine in development by Griffith University’s Institute for Glycomics in Australia could provide long-term protection against the deadly bacteria Streptococcus A (Strep A), Griffith University's Griffith News October 5 reports. Strep A causes 700 million human infections each year, and there are more than 500,000…

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Editor's Note Healthcare employment in the US rose by 40,900 from August to September, according to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, released on October 6. That is compared to the average monthly gain of 53,000 over the prior 12 months, for a total of 17,055,100 seasonally…

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Editor's Note An October 2023 investigative study published by JAMA Network looked at physician burnout among US physicians over the past 5 years and found that burnout is increasing, JAMA October 6 reports. According to the study, burnout is a threat to the US healthcare system and physicians' ability to…

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Editor's Note In a ranking of over 3,000 hospitals done by the Lown Institute, a nonprofit and nonpartisan think tank in Needham, Massachusetts, researchers found that while inclusion is being prioritized at some hospitals, segregated healthcare markets remain in cities like New Orleans, St. Louis, and Detroit.  The findings were…

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Editor's Note A new study suggests that someone's initial exposure to a specific COVID-19 variant shows some influence to their immune response to subsequent variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, the University of Cambridge October 6 reports. The research, published by Science on October 6 and titled "Mapping…

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Editor's Note Due to staffing shortages, thousands of qualified applicants were turned away from nursing schools last year, despite the nationwide shortage of nurses, CNN Business October 5 reports. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, nearly 78,200 qualified applications were denied by nursing schools in 2022. Nearly 66,300…

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Editor's Note An experimental vaccine designed by researchers at University of Southern California has been shown to prevent serious infections from drug-resistant pathogens, according to an October 2023 study published by Science Translational Medicine. In this study, titled "A protein-free vaccine stimulates innate immunity and protects against nosocomial pathogens," the…

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Editor's Note A new report from cybersecurity provider Critical Insight notes that data breaches are continuing to pose major problems for healthcare systems, an August 2023 Business Wire press release reports. Already more than 40 million patients' medical information was reportedly involved in data breaches in 2023. Following are key…

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Editor's Note A recent study of Medicare beneficiaries found that patients hospitalized for an emergency general surgery (EGS) condition who had primary care follow-up within 30 days of discharge had much lower readmission rates. The investigative findings were published on September 27 in JAMA Surgery.  Some highlights include: Patients who…

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