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President Biden will sign an executive order to create more resilient and secure supply chains for critical and essential goods, the White House announced, calling last year’s shortages of personal protective equipment for front-line health care workers “unacceptable.”

Judy Rich, president and CEO of Tucson Medical Center in Arizona, said on a call with media that on top of nursing costs, which in some instances have jumped from $48 per hour to $150 per hour, her hospital is even funding a kindergarten-through-sixth grade school so staff can come to work.

The Coalition to Protect America’s Health Care, of which the AHA is a founding member, has launched a new TV ad urging Congress to provide critical resources to help hospitals and health systems as they continue the battle against COVID-19.

State and regional hospital associations filed friend-of-the-court briefs supporting AHA’s request for the U.S. Supreme Court to review two circuit court decisions last July that threaten continued access to care for hospital outpatients in need.

The Center for Internet Security began offering its Malicious Domain Blocking and Reporting ransomware protection service free to private hospitals.

The Department of Veterans Affairs’ Community Care Network now offers COVID-19 vaccinations to eligible veterans nationwide at its urgent care and retail pharmacy locations, the agency reports.

At a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on his nomination to serve as Health and Human Services Secretary, Xavier Becerra said he supports additional COVID-19 funding for health care providers.

Johnson & Johnson plans to deliver 20 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate to the United States by the end of March if the Food and Drug Administration authorizes emergency use of the single-dose vaccine, a company executive told a House subcommittee at a hearing on expanding vaccine availability.

During an AHA virtual briefing for lawmakers and staff, leaders from three health systems — One Brooklyn Health System, Grady Health System, and The Hospitals of Providence, part of Tenet Healthcare — discussed the impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on communities of color and how their health systems are working with their communities to deliver high quality, culturally responsive care.

Hundreds of hospital and health system leaders today participated in an AHA advocacy virtual event to get the latest on Congress’ efforts to pass President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package and urge lawmakers to include provisions to support hospitals and health systems.

A new Kaufman Hall study is showing the extent to which hospitals’ finances continue to be negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

A new resource from the American Society for Health Care Engineering and Naval Medicine Readiness and Training Command summarizes recommended ventilation system controls for health care facilities treating COVID-19 patients.

In response to the Texas storm emergency, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced further flexibilities for Texas health care facilities in addition to the existing pandemic waivers.

Strategic alliances forged by AHA with organizations like the National Urban League and UnidosUS are strengthening collective effort to address well-documented, disparate health outcome for Black and Latino communities, writes Joy Lewis, AHA’s senior vice president for health equity strategies.

Authorized health care providers should now order the monoclonal antibody therapy bamlanivimab and antibody cocktail casirivimab/imdevimab directly from the sole distributor, AmerisourceBergen Corp., the Department of Health and Human Services announced.

AHA urged the Department of Health and Human Services to make the process for hospitals to report data to the HHS TeleTracking COVID-19 Portal and other data reporting platforms as efficient, transparent and valuable as possible.

The AHA, American Medical Association and American Nurses Association released a joint statement as the number of U.S. deaths related to COVID-19 approached 500,000.

Join me on this episode of Leadership Rounds with Consuelo Wilkins, M.D., vice president of health equity at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, based in Nashville.

New data from Pfizer Inc. indicates that its COVID-19 vaccine is more stable than previously believed when stored -25°C to -15°C (-13°F to 5°F), temperatures more commonly found in pharmaceutical freezers and refrigerators.

The FBI has issued recommendations to help prevent and respond to Telephony Denial of Service (TDoS) attacks, which can make 911 call centers unavailable to users and undermine public trust in emergency services.