Pew Trust article features comments by Consortium Director

Consortium president-elect Jean Seaver was among the nursing leaders interviewed across the nation for a recent article on the critical nursing shortage in Stateline, a publication of the Pew Charitable Trusts. 

onboard them.  She also said  that hospitals will need to consider and adopt strategies to address the preferences of both older and younger nurses, such as creating specialized units and shorter shifts.  

Consortium Board votes to adopt a new name

Advisory Board reports nurse pay is rising—and why

AMA issues statement on U.S. nursing shortage

The America Medical Association has issued a the public statement expressing concern about the national nursing shortage and its effects including "significant delays in patients getting hospital beds for elective procedures and chemotherapy, a bottleneck of patients in emergency departments and urgent care facilities, and substantial costs challenges for hospitals."   

Nicklaus Children's Hospital collaborates with Hazel Health for specialty pediatric care to students

Consortium member Nicklaus Children’s Hospital is now collaborating with Hazel Health (national leader in school-based telehealth) to provide streamlined pediatric specialty care to more than 500,000 K-12 students in Florida. Nicklaus Children’s Hospital is South Florida’s the only licensed specialty hospital exclusively for children. Hazel Health provides whole child health programs focused on physical and mental health for nearly 2 million students in districts across the country, including Broward, Duval and Polk counties, and other Florida districts. With Hazel’s telehealth services, students can connect directly with licensed medical professionals for on-demand care, whether at school or at home. Through this new collaboration, Nicklaus Children’s will offer specialty services to pediatric patients initially seen by Hazel’s healthcare providers for primary care, virtual urgent care, psychiatry, ongoing mental health counseling, chronic care and other subspecialty care services.  Please click here to read more.

Leapfrog Group names Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital in annual Top Hospital Awards

The Leapfrog Group has selected 149 winners in their 2021 annual Top Hospital Awards. Recognized in the Children's Hospital Category is  Consortium member Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. The awards are based on the highest performing hospitals in Leapgfrog’s annual Hospital Survey which tallies factors such as systems in place to prevent medication errors, quality of maternity care, lower infection rates and other laudable qualities. Hospitals eligible for a Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade must have received an A in the most recent round of scoring to be eligible. The award is not given to a set number of hospitals, but rather, to all teaching, general, rural, and children's hospitals that meet the high standards defined in each year's Top Hospital Methodology.  Please click here to read more.

72 top teaching hospitals, listed State by State

Among the 149 hospitals listed in Leapfrog’s 2021 Top Hospital Awards, 72 are teaching hospitals. Please click here to see them State by State.

Five States set all-time high COVID-19 records

A recent report in Becker’s Hospital Review, compiled from regional news media, shows at least five states now hitting record-setting numbers in cases of COVID-19. The new records reported for people hospitalized with COVID-19 during the first weeks of December were: Maine, 361 cases--up from 296 cases for  the last week of November, nearly 22% statewide.; Michigan, with an average number of 5,530 new cases per day—more than at any other point during the pandemic; Minnesota, 1,570 COVID-19 hospitalization and a 98 percent occupancy rate of adult intensive care beds-- the highest rate of the pandemic thus far; New Hampshire, daily COVID-19 hospitalizations rose to 433, while daily known cases increased to 9,671, the first time cases have risen above 9,000; Vermont, 641 COVID-19 cases surpassing  the previous record of 635 cases set the previous week.  Please click here to read more.

FIU expands research with dazzling new outpost devoted to biomedical science

Consortium member Florida International University has strengthened its research capacity with a newly outfitted building that completes a dynamic triangle dedicated to investigative medicine. The Center for Translational Science (CTS) is part of a complex in Port St. Lucie, Florida, that also includes a hospital and separate research facility both run by the famed Cleveland Clinic.   A two-hour drive from the university’s main campus, the CTS serves as an extension of FIU’s research prowess at a time when wider partnerships have grown increasingly important. It represents an exceptional opportunity to work creatively, and smarter, in support of scientific advances to more quickly make a difference in patients’ lives. The new space lays the ground for a continuum that begins in the lab and includes cooperating with other institutions as well as companies that can run with the resulting discoveries. At the core of the new approach lies a commitment to collaboration among investigators across projects. If secrecy and closed doors ruled in the past, openness and interactivity now dominate. Nowhere is that more evident than in the newly created laboratories themselves, each with approximately 5,000 square feet and rows of stations with specialized equipment to accommodate multiple research teams. Please click here to read more.

New York hospitals halt elective surgeries

Health department officials in New York State have issued orders to halt non-urgent elective procedures at 32 hospitals with limited capacity. The state defines limited capacity as below 10 percent staffed bed capacity, or as determined by the health department based on regional and healthcare utilization factors. The final determination included 32 upstate facilities in the North Country, Mohawk Valley, Capital Region, Western New York, Central New York and Finger Lakes regions. Procedures not covered by the order are those for cancer (including diagnostic procedure of suspected cancer), neurosurgery, intractable pain, highly symptomatic patients, transplants, trauma, cardiac with symptoms, limb-threatening vascular procedures, dialysis vascular access and patients "at a clinically high risk of harm if their procedures are not completed. Other procedures and surgeries covered by the order will be put on hold until January 15 at the 32 facilities. Across New York, new daily COVID-19 hospitalization rates have risen 30 percent in recent weeks, according to data tracked by The New York Times. Please click here to read more.

California hospital plans 677 layoffs

Watsonville Community Hospital in California has filed notice with the State to close in late January. The decision will leave 677 workers unemployed. The hospital entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy December 5 and announced a tentative sale agreement had been reached with the Pajaro Valley Healthcare District Project. As part of the Chapter 11 process, the hospital intends to file a motion asking the bankruptcy court to approve the PVHDP as the lead buyer or stalking horse bidder and approve the sale of its operations through a court-supervised auction. If the sale to the nonprofit group or another buyer is not concluded by January 28, all 677 employees will be terminated by Watsonville Community Hospital. The hospital is asking potential buyers to hire their employees. Funds through the bankruptcy process may allow the hospital to delay the layoffs through March. Please click here to read more

Cleveland Clinic launches first study of vaccine to prevent breast cancer

Researchers at Consortium member Cleveland Clinic have opened a novel study for a vaccine aimed at eventually preventing triple-negative breast cancer, the most aggressive and lethal form of the disease. This stage, phase I, is designed to determine the maximum tolerated dose of the vaccine in patients with early-stage triple-negative breast cancer and to characterize and optimize the body's immune response. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved a new investigational drug application for the vaccine, allowing Cleveland Clinic and its partner Anixa Biosciences, Inc. (ANIX: NASDAQ) to begin the study. Vincent Tuohy, Ph.D., the vaccine's lead inventor and staff immunologist at Cleveland Clinic's Lerner Research Institute said, “"The vaccine approach represents a potential new way to control breast cancer,"  Please click here to read more.

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