News

News coverage continues to show that many hospitals have been stretched beyond capacity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each wave has brought incredible pressure on our health care workforce, and the physical and emotional exhaustion is leading to ever greater staff shortages at hospitals. 

The Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee by a unanimous vote recommended that the FDA issue an emergency use authorization that would enable COVID-19 vaccine boosters for individuals age 65 and older and those at high risk for severe COVID-19, administered at least six months after a completed initial two-dose mRNA regimen.

For nearly 20 grueling months, hospitals and health systems – and their steadfast front-line caregivers – have risen to the incredible challenges caused by COVID-19. 

Percy Allen II, past president of the National Association of Health Services Executives, died Sept. 12 at age 80. Among other leadership positions, he served as assistant administrator at Parkview Memorial Hospital in Ft. Wayne, Ind.; CEO at North Central Bronx Hospital in New York; vice president of hospital affairs/CEO at University of Brooklyn SUNY Health Science Center; and CEO of Bon Secours Health System. 

The AHA and its Institute for Diversity and Health Equity are now accepting applications for the 2022 Carolyn Boone Lewis Equity of Care Awards. The awards recognize hospitals and health systems that are proactive in advancing diversity, health equity and equitable health care through data, leadership, governance, cultural awareness and community partnerships.

Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Mich., and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., introduced a bicameral resolution designating Sept. 17 as National Physician Suicide Awareness Day.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed the comparative effectiveness of the three Food and Drug Administration-authorized COVID-19 vaccines, with Moderna’s vaccine deemed most effective at preventing hospitalizations.

The Health Resources and Services Administration awarded $342 million to expand home visiting services to pregnant women and parents with young children in U.S. states and territories.

Health care providers and patients should not use compounded products marketed as sterile by Greenpark Compounding Pharmacy due to a lack of sterility assurance, the Food and Drug Administration announced.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will invest $2.1 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act to help public health and other partners fight COVID-19 and other emerging infections in health care facilities, the Biden Administration announced.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response announced a major change in the distribution of COVID-19 monoclonal antibody therapies.

Commenting on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ hospital outpatient prospective payment system and ambulatory surgical center payment system proposed rule for calendar year 2022, AHA continued to urge the agency to restore full OPPS payment for hospital outpatient clinic visits to grandfathered off-campus provider-based departments.

Ahead of National Physician Suicide Awareness Day, on Sept. 17, read how health care workers, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, faced elevated rates of burnout, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide, in this blog by J. Corey Feist, co-founder of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation.

In a new blog, Kurt Hoppe, M.D., faculty member of the Mayo Clinic and member of the AHA’s Post-acute Steering Committee, explains the importance of post-acute care providers in the nation’s COVID-19 response and recovery, as well as the newest updates to the post-acute care payment model plan – which would combine payments for the four post-acute care settings – and of which AHA has significant concerns. 

The AHA has received a $1 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to continue for one year its efforts to encourage COVID-19 vaccine confidence in the hospital field, clinicians and the public.

A pair of peer-reviewed studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine are affirming the safety and effectiveness of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, first at six months following a completed, two-dose regimen, and then with boosters.

The Food and Drug Administration released updated enforcement policy related to face masks, barrier face coverings, face shields, surgical masks and respirators for the duration of the COVID-19 public health emergency.

The AHA released a new issue of the COVID-19 Snapshot, underscoring the persisting challenges facing hospitals and health systems during the ongoing public health emergency.

The AHA Sept. 17 at 10 a.m. ET is hosting a webinar with HCA Healthcare leaders Edmund Jackson, M.D., and Jeffrey Guy, M.D., who will share oxygen conservation strategies as COVID-19 cases surge nationwide, leading to limitation in supplies.

The House Energy and Commerce and Ways and Means committees approved their legislative recommendations for the Build Back Better Act, which will be considered under budget reconciliation.