On January 25, GNYHA hosted the first workshop on action planning for its Patient Safety Culture Survey Initiative. Kendall LaSane, Senior Director, Quality and Patient Safety, discussed the importance of safety culture and how to use action planning to become a high reliability organization. Breakout groups reviewed their culture of safety survey results, selected areas...

In collaboration, with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, GNYHA is sharing a daily syndromic surveillance report that compares median visits for COVID-19-like illness for the most recent three-day period against the same type of visits for the previous two-week period. The report includes data at the City, borough, and facility...

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced yesterday that Evusheld (tixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab) is no longer authorized for emergency use in the United States until further notice because it is unlikely to provide protection against more than 90% of the variants causing current COVID-19 infections. Therefore, providers should no longer administer Evusheld to patients....

GNYHA has filed a friend-of-the-court brief (attached) with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Antonyuk v. Hochul, the lawsuit challenging New York’s new gun licensing and safety law. The brief explains why the court should uphold the law’s provisions banning firearms in health care facilities. New York enacted the law last summer to align...

Two New York State courts have reached conflicting conclusions on the validity of New York’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for health care personnel. The regulation provides that covered entities, including hospitals and nursing homes, shall continuously require nearly all personnel to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 unless they have an exemption or accommodation. On January 6,...

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, enacted in December, modified the Medicaid eligibility provisions in effect since the beginning of the COVID-19 public health emergency. Continuous enrollment will now end on March 31, 2023, and states will have up to 12 months to initiate—and 14 months to complete—renewals for all Medicaid enrollees beginning April 1,...

Effective tomorrow, nurse practitioners with at least 3,600 hours of qualifying experience will no longer require a collaborative practice agreement or a collaborative relationship with a licensed physician or Article 28 hospital. This change does not affect nurse practitioners with less than 3,600 hours of experience. The New York State Board of Regents, which oversees...

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) today will observe Maternal Health Awareness Day. This year’s “Know Why” theme will raise awareness and understanding of the root causes of maternal morbidity and mortality. ACOG will focus its observance on mental health and cardiac and coronary conditions, two of the leading causes of maternal deaths...

Congress will need to address a significant Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) cut this year. Under current law, $8 billion in DSH cuts are scheduled to begin October 1, 2023, and continue annually through Federal fiscal year 2027. These cuts would be catastrophic for safety net hospitals and could force many of them to reduce...