Sturgis (Mich.) Hospital will not close its oncology treatment center, hospital officials have decided.

The CEO of Johnson City, Tenn.-based Ballad Health said the health system's move to consolidate the neonatal intensive care unit at one of its hospitals will not jeopardize patient care, according to the Johnson City Press.

Authorities are investigating a hazardous materials incident at Olympia, Wash.-based Providence St. Peter Hospital Jan. 2 that prompted the hospital to divert patients from the emergency room, according to The Olympian.

Emergency responders and paramedics may treat minority patients differently than white patients, a recent study in Oregon suggests.

A pregnant woman who is due later this month claimed she was forgotten and locked inside the All About Women OB/GYN Clinic in Ocala, Fla., NBC affiliate WESH 2 reports.

The Indian Health Service, an HHS agency tasked with providing health services to American Indians and Alaska natives, has stopped several care services due to the government shutdown, Kaiser Health News reports.

Emergency rooms saw a 44 percent increase of patients with either a mental illness or a substance use disorder, according to CNN.

Sturgis (Mich.) Hospital's birth center will close Jan. 2 amid job and services cuts, according to WWMT, a CBS-affiliate TV  station in Kalamazoo, Mich.

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, MD, R-La., has introduced legislation that aims to expand healthcare access for Medicaid and Medicare patients, particularly for rural patients in areas with large numbers of freestanding emergency rooms, according to the senator's office.

1. Employers get serious about the underlying drivers of their healthcare costs.

Panama City, Fla.-based Bay Medical Sacred Heart will resume limited inpatient care on Jan. 2, according to a news release obtained by the Panama City News Herald.

A power outage attributed to funding cuts at Ripley, Tenn.-based Lauderdale Community Hospital forced patients to relocate Dec. 31, according to a Fox 13 news report.

Seventy-seven patients, including newborns, were temporarily evacuated Dec. 29, after a small fire erupted at Jacksonville, Fla.-based Baptist Medical Center, according to the Florida Times Union.

Every Massachusetts 911 operator will learn new call-taking protocols to help them avoid the types of mistakes that slowed emergency responders' search for a patient who died just a few feet from CHA Somerville Hospital's emergency room, according to The Boston Globe.

Geneva, N.Y.-based Finger Lakes Health is requesting permission from the New York State Department of Health and the Office of Mental Health to close the inpatient behavioral health unit at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hospital, according to The Chronicle-Express.

Some public hospitals in Washington are turning to respite programs to address the state's worsening homelessness issue, reports The Seattle Times.

Thirty-one members of the medical team at St. Cloud (Minn.) Hospital gave birth to 32 babies in 2018, according to Fox 9.

Florence-based North Alabama Medical Center is breaking records for surgeries completed and emergency room visits since opening in a new building Dec. 6, according to the Times Daily.

Hospitals now have until Jan. 4, 2019, to submit data for the Hybrid Hospitalwide Readmissions measure to CMS' Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program.

A patient reportedly smuggled a gun into the University of Kansas Health System St. Francis campus in Topeka on Dec. 14 and shot himself, according to WIBW-13 News.