As hospitals navigate evolving community needs, rising operational costs and regulatory standards, trauma center designations have become increasingly fluid.

The CDC expects the peak number of hospitalizations for flu, COVID-19 and RSV this winter to be similar to or lower than that of last season, though higher than this summer's peak.

Western North Carolina is facing a healthcare crisis as communities struggle to recover from Hurricane Helene's devastating impact, The New York Times reported Oct. 28. 

About 1% of audio transcriptions written by Open AI's Whisper, a speech recognition tool launched in 2022 and currently used in hospitals, contain hallucinated phrases or sentences when nobody spoke, according to a recent study. 

The CDC has confirmed 34 human bird flu cases in 2024, but the total number remains elusive as health departments struggle to track the outbreak, KFF Health News reported Oct. 25. 

Nurse manager turnover rates are highest within the first four years of leadership, suggesting a crucial opportunity for health systems to boost retention by investing and supporting nurses who are new to managerial roles, according to a new report from the American Organization for Nursing Leadership and Laudio.

"Outdated protocols" and a lack of patient education around anaphylaxis treatment can result in poor patient outcomes, Medscape Medical News reported Oct. 28.

Cleveland-based University Hospitals typically consume 2,600 liters of intravenous fluids per day. However, with the temporary closure of the nation's primary manufacturer of IV fluids, the system is now tasked with reducing its daily average by about 1,100 liters — a 40% cutback.

Pediatric cases of Mycoplasma pneumoniae-associated pneumonia, which can cause "walking pneumonia," have been rising over the last six months, according to the CDC. 

The American Nurses Foundation has allocated $2 million in funding to support nurse-led innovation projections through its Reimagining Nursing initiative. 

There are 31 confirmed cases of bird flu in the country, and experts are concerned that cases may continue to rise, giving opportunities for the flu to mutate, The New York Times reported Oct. 24.

In 2022, the American Nurses Credentialing Center unveiled the Magnet with Distinction program to recognize the world's highest performing Magnet organizations. Since then, only 17 hospitals in the U.S. have achieved the designation. 

In recent weeks, The Joint Commission has unveiled a new badge initiative to boost support for unpaid caregivers, created an international sustainability certification program and more. 

Clinician decision support tools can reduce medical errors and improve care quality, but choosing the wrong one may increase costs, disrupt care quality and burden overworked staff, Wolters Kluwer experts said Oct. 23. 

NYU Langone Health wasn't always a pioneer in transplantation.

As part of its five-year national program to improve MRSA prevention practices across healthcare facilities, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has published a prevention toolkit for ICU and non-ICU settings. 

On Oct. 23, the CDC updated its timeline recommendations for COVID-19 and pneumococcal vaccines. 

The American Hospital Association and the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit have collaborated to create resources to mitigate targeted violence in healthcare settings, including threat assessment and prevention strategies. Healthcare industry workers experience the highest rate of injury from workplace violence and are five times as likely to suffer a workplace violence injury compared to workers overall, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Surgeons at Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic recently performed the health system's first paired living-donor liver transplants, marking a significant step in expanding treatment options for patients with liver failure.

COVID-19 variant is expected to surpass KP.3.1.1 as the most dominant circulating variant, according to a preprint study from researchers at universities in Japan and the United Kingdom.