Intermountain Healthcare and Sanford Health announce intent to merge
Intermountain Healthcare (Salt Lake City, UT) and Sanford Health (Sioux Falls, SD) have signed a letter of intent to develop a strategic partnership with the goal of signing a merger agreement. The boards of both nonprofit organizations approved a resolution to support moving forward with the due diligence process.
Virginia Mason Memorial to split from Virginia Mason to become an independent healthcare system
Virginia Mason Memorial’s board of directors voted to end its affiliation with Virginia Mason (Seattle, WA) and become an “independent, local healthcare system.”
The decision comes several months after Virginia Mason started exploring the possibility of joining with CHI Franciscan, a Catholic nonprofit health system.
David Hargreaves, chairman of the Virginia Mason Memorial board, said that the hospital will continue working with Virginia Mason, as it did before the formal affiliation went into effect in 2016.
Virginia Mason, in a follow-up statement, also confirmed it would continue providing referral care.
Hargreaves said the board hadn’t yet determined a timeline to unwind the affiliation but expects it to take anywhere from 30 to 90 days.
The board has not yet finalized a name change but will likely go back to the former Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital name.
Community Health Systems, Inc. announces new CEO
Community Health Systems, Inc. (CHS) announced that Wayne T. Smith, the company’s chairman and CEO, will transition from CEO to executive chairman of the board of directors, effective January 1, 2021. Smith will retain certain strategic and other executive management responsibilities with regard to the future direction of the company, CHS said. The company plans to appoint Tim L. Hingtgen as its CEO, effective January 1, 2021. Hingtgen has served as president and COO since 2016 and as a member of the company’s board of directors since 2017.
He began his career at CHS in 2008 and has been promoted several times to increasing levels of responsibility, including division president and EVP of operations before assuming his current roles.
Supply chains may become more local as a result of the pandemic
Supply chains for pharmaceuticals may become less global as a result of the pandemic, experts told CNBC.
Drug supply chains are often global, with China being the largest supplier of active pharmaceutical ingredients around the world. Meanwhile, India provides around 40% to 50% of all generic drugs in the U.S., according to B&K Securities analyst Rohit Bhat.
At the start of the pandemic some experts warned of a temporary drug shortage in the U.S.
Martin Meeson, CEO of Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, in a recent appearance on CNBC, emphasized the need for collaboration between parties involved in the production of drugs, such as universities “doing the discovery work” and manufacturers who can produce medicine at scale.
“I think there might be a slightly more local focus as we move forward, maybe just a little bit of a lengthening of some those supply chains, but I think that the whole of the sector has worked really well to make sure that those medicines are continuing to flow to the people and the patients that need them,” Meeson said.
Cleveland Clinic, Amwell name new leadership for their joint venture
Cleveland Clinic and Amwell announced the appointment of new leadership to their digital health company, a joint venture that delivers virtual care from Cleveland Clinic’s highly specialized team of clinical experts through Amwell’s technology platform.
Frank McGillin will lead as CEO. Egbert van Acht will assume the position of executive vice chairman to the board of directors.
Formed last year as a “first-of-its-kind” company to provide broad access to comprehensive, high-acuity care via telehealth, the company has made great progress scaling digital care through its MyConsult offering.
With an initial focus on clinical second opinions, the organization also offers health information and diagnosis on more than 2,000 different types of conditions including cancer, cardiac, and neuroscience issues.
Hospitals facing massive staffing shortages as COVID-19 surges
In late November, hospitals in at least 25 states are critically short of nurses, doctors, and other staff as coronavirus cases surge across the U.S., according to the industry’s trade association and a tally conducted by STAT.
The staffing problems reflect the dramatic increase in patients. There has been an average of 157,318 new cases per day over the past week, according to the STAT Covid-19 Tracker – 74% more than two weeks ago.
Ultimately, there aren’t enough ICU nurses, in particular, to meet the need. Hospitals currently have 2,000 ICU nurse jobs open on Trusted Health, a company that connects travel nurses, who hop from job to job around the country, with hospitals.
In some places the situation is dire enough that severely ill patients have been transferred hundreds of miles for an available bed – from Texas to Arizona, and from central Missouri to Iowa.
Staffing shortages are a serious concern in multiple regions. ICU nurses, who typically oversee no more than two patients at a time, are now being pushed to care for six to eight patients to make up for the shortfall in parts of Texas, said Robert Hancock, president of the Texas College of Emergency Physicians.
In Ohio, some 20% of the 240 hospitals tied to the Ohio Hospital Association are reporting staffing shortages.
The American Hospital Association’s (AHA) vice president of quality and patient safety, Nancy Foster, said she’s heard from two dozen hospital leaders over the past two weeks, warning her of staffing shortages in states including Texas, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois. 19 other states are also reporting shortages at a local level.
RWJBarnabas Health to acquire 554-bed New Jersey hospital
Trinitas Regional Medical Center (Elizabeth, NJ) and RWJBarnabas Health (West Orange, NJ) entered into a definitive agreement whereby Trinitas and its affiliates will become a part of the RWJBH system.
The agreement follows the October 2019 signing of a Letter of Intent to explore a potential transaction.
Approvals will be necessary from State and Federal authorities and the Catholic Church before the transaction is considered complete in a process that is expected to take up to one year.
Under the terms of the agreement, the role of Trinitas as a full service, Catholic provider of acute health care services for the eastern Union County community will be enhanced. RWJBH will make significant investments in Trinitas and will expand the network of outpatient services currently provided by Trinitas, resulting in an even higher level of care for the community.
RWJBH will become the sole member (i.e., corporate parent) of Trinitas. Trinitas will retain its identity as a Catholic institution and will abide by the Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services. The Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth will continue to serve as the Catholic sponsor of Trinitas. The Trinitas Board will continue to oversee day-to-day operations of Trinitas.
Cardinal Health partners with CDC to support vaccine access for pharmacies
Cardinal Health (Dublin, Ireland) reached an agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to act as a network administrator in Phase 2 of the Federal Pharmacy Partnership Strategy for COVID-19, which will enable retail independent, small chains and long-term care pharmacy customers to participate in the vaccination effort.
The COVID-19 vaccine will be distributed by the CDC’s central distributor.
As one of the top healthcare distributors and services providers in the U.S., Cardinal Health will add broad scale, knowledgeable pharmacy expertise and longstanding relationships with pharmacies to this nationwide vaccine distribution effort. The company says it will continue to work with suppliers as well as federal, state and local governments as a trusted healthcare partner to effectively disseminate a COVID-19 vaccine to patient.