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While work is underway on new payment and delivery models for rural hospitals, additional, targeted actions by Congress and the Trump administration are needed to support these hospitals and their communities, writes Erika Rogan, AHA senior associate director of policy. Rogan says listening to rural hospitals’ concerns and ideas is essential for shaping policies that are effective and meaningful.

More hospitals are implementing policies and programs to address the mental and emotional wellbeing of staff members, writes American Organization for Nursing Leadership board member Anne Schmidt, chief nursing officer at Novant Health UVA Health System’s Prince William Medical Center and Haymarket Medical Center. “But it’s not enough to put these programs into place.

A study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 299,028 more deaths than expected occurred in the United States between Jan. 26 and Oct. 3, with 66% attributed to COVID-19.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Intergovernmental Affairs will host an Oct. 22 webinar at 1 p.m. ET on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ recent guidance clarifying how the agency will implement its interim final rule that makes collecting and reporting COVID-19 data a condition of participation for hospitals that participate in Medicare.

In 2019, the term “burnout” was added to the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD). According to the ICD, burnout is a “syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”

The AABB, America’s Blood Centers and the American Red Cross urged eligible individuals to donate blood, calling the nation’s blood supply “critically low.”

A new analysis by Global Health 50/50, an initiative to advance gender equality in global health, sheds light on sex disparities in COVID-19 deaths.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced the new option of saliva tests at federal community-based testing sites in areas experiencing COVID-19 surge.

Jim Skogsbergh, president and CEO of Advocate Aurora Health, will join AHA Board Chair Melinda Estes, M.D., Oct. 22 at 3:30 p.m. ET to discuss COVID-19’s impact on health trends and key strategies for reimagining and innovating care during and beyond the pandemic.

COVID-19 is a pandemic with no precedent, and certainly no equal. In many ways, we’ve been learning as we go. For health care professionals, this has elevated the importance of peer-to-peer sharing as never before.

A recent article on hospital field finances ignores the diverse experiences of hospitals during the pandemic, particularly those under significant financial pressure, writes Aaron Wesolowski, AHA’s vice president of policy research, analytics and strategy.

The National Institutes of Health announced the start of an adaptive phase 3 clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of three immune modulator drugs in hospitalized adults with COVID-19.

The Food and Drug Administration Oct. 15 said it reissued its emergency use authorization for certain, Chinese-manufactured filtering face-piece respirators that lack National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health approval.

The Food and Drug Administration Oct. 15 removed epinephrine from the lists of drugs authorized for temporary compounding during the COVID-19 public health emergency by outsourcing facilities and state-licensed pharmacies or federal facilities not registered as outsourcing facilities.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Oct. 15 said it will incentivize labs to deliver quicker results to patients undergoing COVID-19 diagnostic testing.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced agreements with CVS and Walgreens to provide and administer COVID-19 vaccines to long-term care facility residents.

A recent article from Axios attempts to say that the hospital and health system field is not being negatively impacted financially by the pandemic. The article ignores the diverse experiences of hospitals during the pandemic, particularly those that are under significant financial pressure.

Hospitals and health systems have reinvented themselves in many ways to respond to COVID-19. Since March, decades of standard operating procedures have been reexamined, redesigned and refined — all with the goal of saving lives while protecting caregivers and patients’ families during the pandemic.

Medicaid enrollment for fiscal year 2021 is expected to jump 8.2%, with state spending to accelerate by 8.4%, according to data from 42 state Medicaid directors and compiled by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

The Federal Reserve will host a webinar Oct. 21 at 2 p.m. ET to help borrowers learn about the Main Street Lending Program and provide an opportunity for borrowers to get answers to specific questions on the program and its operations. Questions are to be submitted in advance to questions@askthefed.org by Oct. 16 at 5 p.m. ET.