Integration & Physician Issues

Citing financial pressure from the COVID-19 pandemic, University Hospital in Augusta, Ga., plans to withdraw from its joint venture with a 400-member physician group, according to a letter obtained by local news station WJBF.

Newport Beach, Calif.-based Hoag Health is distancing itself from Jeffrey Barke, MD, after the physician said a gun offers more protection against COVID-19 than a facemask, according to The Orange County Register. 

John J. Magri IV, MD, a Florida-based physician who patients say was lax about wearing a mask, died Sept. 16 and tested positive for the new coronavirus post-mortem, Florida Today reports.

Nearly half of primary care clinicians say their mental exhaustion from work is at its highest level, and 12 percent say members of their practice have left primary care due to the pandemic, according to a new survey. 

For physicians younger than 40, relationships with their patients and their gratitude are the most rewarding parts of their job, while the array of rules and regulations they must adhere to is the most challenging, a new Medscape report shows.

Spectrum Health Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich., has established an endowment for the division chief for pediatric hematology/oncology.

About half of pediatricians say their office has a dismissal policy for families who refuse routine vaccinations, a study published in JAMA Network Open found.

Nearly all hospitals specify a patient's right to receive care free of sexual harassment, but few include a zero tolerance policy of harassment toward healthcare workers in the patients' responsibilities, according to a research letter published in JAMA Network Open.

An emergency room physician at Kohala Hospital in Kapaau, Hawaii, tested positive for COVID-19, prompting testing for potentially exposed patients and employees as well as infection prevention deep clean protocols, the hospital announced Sept. 12.

About 54 percent of U.S. physicians said they have treated COVID-19 patients in person, and another 26 percent report treating coronavirus patients over the phone or via video, according to a new Medscape report.