Fewer quality measures, a shorter reporting period for Meaningful Use requirements and an increase in uncompensated rate payments were all positives in the eyes of hospitals in their initial reaction to the proposed 2019 Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) rule.

The Leapfrog Group’s 2018 Hospital Safety Grades found that a handful of facilities have made major strides in reducing infection rates and deaths due to error. Of the 2,500 hospitals examined, 89 receiving an A this year had previously been rated as a D or F.

The wave of megamergers involving health insurers could place the greatest pressure on both not-for-profit and for-profit hospitals, according to a report from Moody’s Investors Service, if these new combinations steer patients away from hospital-owned facilities.

The American College of Physicians (ACP) has published a list of recommendations aimed at ending gender disparities in medicine for compensation and career advancement, as well as calling on healthcare organizations to provide a minimum of six weeks paid leave for physicians, residents and medical students.

Critical access hospitals, ambulatory care and office-based surgical practices would be subject to new requirements for pain assessment and management under proposals released by the Joint Commission, with safe prescribing of opioids needing to be an “organizational priority” in all three settings.

At first, the 2013 Boston Marathon was going more smoothly for hospitals in and around downtown Boston compared to the prior year’s event, when a heat wave meant more runners needed medical attention. David Reisman, MHA, senior administrative director of emergency medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, admitted he had begun to think it would be an easy day.

Prices across the healthcare sector rose 2.2 percent year-over-year in March 2018, the highest annual growth rate recorded by Altarum since January 2012, with the report warning rapid price growth is likely to continue.

Meadows Regional Medical Center in Vidalia, Georgia, serves a “very rural” area, according to president and CEO Alan Kent, DHA, just the kind of facility that has often been scooped up by larger systems in recent years. Staying independent meant the hospital needed to drive through a series of management-led initiatives on quality, patient growth and staffing levels.

In a survey of 232 chief nursing officers (CNOs) by AMN Healthcare, the vast majority said they’re experiencing at least a moderate shortage of nurses at their organizations—and 61 percent expected it would only get worse in the next five years.

At the April meeting of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), the panel voted to recommend a 30 percent cut to payment rates for standalone emergency departments (EDs) and indicated it may suggest action on hospital quality reporting later this year.