Tom Keller is stepping down from his role as president and CEO of West Plains, Mo.-based Ozarks Healthcare for a new leadership position.

Beth Carlson, WVU Medicine's vice president of revenue cycle, described the Morgantown, W.Va.-based system's approach to payer denials with two words "fail fast." 

Portland-based Oregon Health & Science University has opened a new centralized "Mission Control Center," marking the first time since the initiative's 2017 launch that all technology and coordination teams have been housed in one location.

Tara Floyd, BSN, RN, is now the inaugural vice president and association chief nursing officer at Children's National Hospital.

Palm Beach Gardens (Fla.) Medical Center has named Marko Serrano Jr. CFO. 

Dustin McFarland, MSN, RN, has been tapped as CEO of Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital of Middletown (Del.).

Sentara RMH Medical Center in Harrisonburg, Va., will close its pediatric unit at the end of September, though officials emphasize the hospital will continue to provide care for children in the emergency department and make safe transfers when necessary. 

Wegovy and similar medicines have the potential to significantly reduce the risk of strokes and heart attacks in "clinically silent patients," according to research from Dandelion Health. 

After a six-year legal battle, Beaufort (S.C.) Memorial Hospital has withdrawn its certificate of need for a planned hospital in Bluffton, S.C., the hospital confirmed in a statement shared with Becker's.

Christus Health is taking over the Medical Center of Southeast Texas in Beaumont, Texas, and plans to reopen the facility "in the coming months," according to a Sept. 18 news release shared with Becker's. 

UC Davis Health opened a special blood draw clinic for children with autism, Down syndrome and neurodevelopmental conditions.

AI chatbots could help fight the loneliness endemic, Julian De Freitas, PhD, assistant professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School, wrote in an article for The Wall Street Journal.

The Association of American Medical Colleges has awarded UChicago Medicine and the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine with the 2024 Spencer Foreman Award for Outstanding Community Engagement. 

Forty percent of all cancers are associated with modifiable risk factors, though there has been a 33% decline in the cancer death rate between 1991 and 2021, according to the American Association for Cancer Research's annual Cancer Progress Report. 

The American Association of Retired Persons recognized five nurses for their work to end health disparities and improve healthcare.

New Mexico has the highest rate of Clostridium difficile infections for the second year, while Nevada has the lowest, federal data shows.

The older adult population is expected to reach 82.1 million by 2050, yet less than 1% of physicians specialize in their care, according to a recent study of Americans over the age of 65. 

Ralph de la Torre, MD, chairman and CEO of Dallas-based Steward Health Care is invoking his Fifth Amendment right ahead of a Senate committee's contempt vote. 

Since 2018, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) has warned that Medicare Advantage (MA) plans sometimes deny enrollees' requests for essential services they need.1 2

The Health Resources and Services Administration issued a stern warning to Johnson & Johnson on Sept. 17, stating the company's plans to impose 340B rebates on certain drugs are in violation of federal law.