Hot topic: Top 10 COVID-19 stories of the past four weeks by clicks

Mask wearers are no better defended against COVID-19 than their mask-shunning counterparts, according to a Danish study of almost 5,000 people, roughly half of whom wore face masks as COVID-19 protection in April and May.

Will the public be braced enough for the expected side effects of shot No. 1 that they’ll follow through with the essential second round?

The hospital many consider the best prepared in the U.S. to handle a pandemic prior to the COVID crisis now finds itself “on an absolutely catastrophic path.”

Japan must be doing something in its war on COVID that Western Europe and the United States aren’t doing in their respective homelands.

The American Medical Association has adopted new telehealth policy positions, the organization announced upon the Tuesday closing of a special five-day virtual meeting. 

Healthcare workers were infected with COVID-19 in greater percentages than the general population, and nurses were hardest hit of all, during the early days of the pandemic. 

COVID-19 has not so much rebooted U.S. healthcare’s workforce as it has hastened transformative changes in staffing strategies that were taking shape before the pandemic got here.

Improving the patient experience will top the list of hospitals’ strategies for winning and retaining patients in 2021. Not far behind will be facilitating access to care.

Some 501 accountable care organizations and other provider entities are urging Congressional leadership of both parties to modify the “unrealistic threshold tests” set out in the 2021 edition of the bipartisan Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015.

Hospitals that have failed to impress patients with COVID safety and quality measures should not be surprised when 2 of 3 patients switch provider orgs—or when 1 in 4 postpone a scheduled procedure indefinitely.