Long Hours, Poor Workplace Services Driving Medical Residents To Unionize
NPR reports on difficulties facing medical residents across the country which are helping drive staff to join unions, with a goal of improving working conditions. Also, a maternal care desert in suburban Philadelphia, words from the former surgeon general Jerome Adams on public health, and more.
Dr. Leah Rethy was pregnant during the first year of her internal medicine residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She gave birth during her second year. She worked through her 40th week of pregnancy so she could save her time off and spend more time with her newborn. (Yu, 3/23)
Other health care industry news
Pennsylvania lawmakers plan to introduce legislation that would place a moratorium on private equityand other for-profit firms from buyinghospitals in the state, following closures and cutbacks that curtailed care in parts of suburban Philadelphia.(Coleman-Lochner and Church, 3/23)
A group of high school students entered Northwestern Medicine Palos Hospital in Palos Heights last weekend, but not to seek medical care or to visit an ill or injured friend. Instead, they were on a mission to learn more about the journey of cardiac patients and the medical professionals who treat them. The visit was part of the inaugural year of the Northwestern Medicine Discovery Program South Region for 20 students from schools in Will and south Cook counties. The program is designed to showcase careers in health care and generating interest in young people to join the field. (Moore, 3/24)
Herman Quintero was cracking jokes about the lottery, touching just below his right eye for luck. It came down to the Mega Millions to pay the medical bill he pulled up on the Patient Gateway app on his phone. Or somebody lending a hand, he said, eyes puckish as they peered out from under a navy blue Tigers baseball cap a relic of his years working on a car assembly line in Detroit and over at the Digital Access Coordinator sitting beside him. Janelle Vargas shook her head. After two years helping him navigate his health care online, she was used to Quinteros quips. (Castillo, 3/24)
Anesthesiologist and former U.S. surgeon general Jerome Adams has emerged as a leading voice on public health and issues of equity in medicine from his new position as executive director of health equity initiatives at Purdue University, in his home state of Indiana. (McFarling, 3/23)
After 40 years at the helm of nonprofit Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, Jim OConnell likes to remind himself and his colleagues that theyre not saving the world. Yes, the program has a longtime reputation for building bridges between unhoused people and clinicians at Mass General, building sufficient trust to convince rough sleepers to be treated in the streets or visit the hospital. But theyre not even close to ending the crisis. (Castillo, 3/23)
In financial updates
Bon Secours Mercy Health posted a $1.2 billion net loss in 2022, compared with a $997.7 million gain the prior year, the Catholic nonprofit health system disclosed this week. The change was largely driven by decreased returns on investment amid struggling financial markets. (Hudson, 3/23)
Sutter Health's finances took a significant downturn last year after a strong performance in 2021, according to a report the nonprofit health system issued Wednesday. Sutter Health suffered a net loss of $249 million in 2022, a major decline from the $1.14 billion gain the Sacramento, California-based company recorded in 2021. By the end of 2022, patient volume had nearly returned to where it were before the COVID-19 pandemic, which contributed to revenue rising 3.9% to $14.77 billion, the company reported. (Hudson, 3/23)
