Infants receiving antibiotics are more likely to develop major health conditions later in childhood, according to research published Nov. 15 in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.  

Salt Lake City-based Intermountain Healthcare will break ground on its second children's hospital Nov. 19, according to a company news release. 

Methodist Midlothian (Texas) Medical Center opened to patients this week, becoming the 12th hospital owned or affiliated with Dallas-based Methodist Health System. The facility is also the first hospital in Midlothian.

Baptist Health Lexington (Ky.) broke ground Nov. 17 on its new medical campus and hospital, according to a company news release. 

Healthcare workers could soon be the first group to receive COVID-19 vaccinations "this December, literally next month," Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NPR Nov. 17. 

Judge Robert Drain approved Purdue Pharma's $8.3 billion settlement with the Department of Justice Nov. 17, nearly a month after the drugmaker agreed to plead guilty to three criminal counts, including federal anti-kickback law violation and conspiracy to defraud, ABC News reported.

Retail pharma giants' stock prices plunged Nov. 17, the same day Amazon launched a new online pharmacy that allows patients to purchase prescriptions through its website. 

Costa Andreou, MD, was tapped as chief clinical officer of The Christ Hospital Health Network in Cincinnati and president of The Christ Hospital Physicians, effective in January, the network said Nov. 16.

Nashville, Tenn.-based Envision Healthcare is deploying 80 clinicians to two Texas communities affected by a surge in COVID-19 patients, the national medical group said Nov. 17.

Four of the top vendors hospitals use to participate in the Medicare EHR Incentive Program are Allscripts, Cerner, Epic and Meditech, according to 2018 ONC data.

Springfield, Mass.-based Baystate Medical Center is battling a COVID-19 outbreak involving 16 employees and four patients, the hospital confirmed in a statement shared with Becker's Nov. 18. 

An Ohio hospital that went offline on Sept. 21 after identifying a cybersecurity incident is still bringing computers back online two months later, according to a Nov. 18 report in the Star Beacon.

A Mercy Iowa City employee email breach this year exposed the information of tens of thousands of patients, according to the Office of the Iowa Attorney General.

North Dakota has the most confirmed COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population of all U.S. states, while Vermont has the fewest, according to an analysis by The New York Times.

Thirty-two people contracted COVID-19 after attending an Ohio wedding, reports NBC affiliate WLWT.

The owner of nine medical brace companies has pleaded guilty in federal court for his role in a Medicare scam that resulted in more than $1.2 billion in losses, according to Law360. 

The U.S. hit 77,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations Nov. 17, a single-day record, according to data from The COVID Tracking Project.  

Chinese investor Tianqiao Chen and his group of companies have an 18.8 percent stake in Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems after recently selling 5 million shares of the company, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Here are the rates of positive COVID-19 tests in each state, along with the number of new cases most recently reported and number of tests conducted per 1,000 people. 

Pfizer said its COVID-19 vaccine is 95 percent effective after conducting a final efficacy analysis for its phase 3 trial.