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The hospital had already transferred out most of its patients and lost half its staff when the CEO called a meeting to take inventory of what was left. Employees crammed into Tina Steele’s office at Fairfax Community Hospital, where the air conditioning was no longer working and the computer software had just been shut off for nonpayment. “I want to start with good news,” Steele said, and she told them a food bank would make deliveries to the hospital and Dollar General would donate office supplies. “So how desperate are we?” one employee asked. “How much money do we have in the bank?” (Saslow, 5/11)

U.S. hospital chains call themselves “health systems.” But how many really are? Hospitals have been rapidly consolidating across the country into large not-for-profit and for-profit companies containing dozens of hospitals and hundreds of clinics and other care sites in multiple states. But that doesn’t necessarily make them what experts consider an organized system of care. (Meyer and Kacik, 5/11)

Hospitals that temporarily shut their doors to ambulances have long argued the decision is driven purely by volume, so sick patients don't have to endure long waits for care in crowded emergency rooms. But a new study has uncovered evidence of another motive for the practice: Hospitals may be turning away ambulances for financial reasons by avoiding treating patients with government health insurance or no coverage at all. (Diedrich, 5/13)