Editor's Note The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on October 3 amended the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act declaration for smallpox medical countermeasures to expand the categories of providers authorized to administer vaccines and therapeutics against smallpox, monkeypox, and other orthopoxviruses during the declared emergency, Healthcare…
Editor's Note In this study from Harvard Medical School, Boston, researchers find that the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with shifts in the focus of industry payments for research to physicians and teaching hospitals and an immediate and sustained decline in payments for marketing. During the study period (2018 to 2021), 705,490…
Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will discontinue COVID-19 travel warnings for foreign countries, the October 3 New York Times reports. The CDC instead will issue travel health notices when there are COVID-19 variants of concern or other related factors that would affect travel for certain…
Editor's Note This week—October 2 to 8—is National Healthcare Supply Chain week (or SC Week). The Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM), a member of the American Hospital Association and a membership group for healthcare supply chain professionals, shared tips and best practices for how to recognize and…
Editor's Note On Thursday, September 29, the House of Representatives voted 220-205 to pass legislation to impose new fines on insures that do not follow federal mental health pay parity requirements, in order to "hold employer-based health plans more accountable for improper denials of mental health and substance use benefits,"…
Editor's Note Hundreds of hospitals are at risk of flooding from Hurricane Ian according to a Harvard study, Becker's Hospital Review September 29 reports. As the Category 2 hurricane makes its way through Florida, at least 50 percent of hospitals in 25 metropolitan areas along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts…
Editor's Note This study led by researchers at Rutgers University finds that Black and White women in their mid 20s who reported frequent binge drinking during the pandemic were more likely to become infected with COVID-19. The researchers examined seven subgroups of 938 young Black and White women ranging from…
Editor's Note Researchers at Vanderbilt University have developed a machine learning algorithm that performs as well as human at identifying skin lesions in clinical photographs of people with monkeypox, Healthcare Purchasing News September 27 reports. The report appeared in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology on September 15. The severity of…
Editor's Note The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has eased its mask recommendations for nursing homes and hospitals not experiencing high levels of COVID-19 transmission, US News & World Report September 26 reports. The CDC made these changes to the updated guidelines published on Friday, September 23. Unlike…
Editor's Note A protest from RNs at the University of Chicago Medical Center on September 15 was the latest outcry from the workforce to shed light on safety concerns rising from the chronic staffing shortage; more than 580 nurses have left UChicago Medical Center since September 2021, and the country’s…