Â鶹ŮÓÅ

About 1,700 University of Illinois Hospital & Clinics nurses plan to go on an open-ended strike Nov. 13, the nurses’ union announced Friday afternoon. The strike would be the second time the nurses have walked off the job since August. The union, the Illinois Nurses Association, and UI Health have additional negotiating sessions planned before Nov. 13, meaning a strike may still be averted. (Schencker, 11/1)

CarePoint Health, a long-troubled New Jersey hospital chain, has filed for bankruptcy on Sunday. CarePoint listed assets of $500,001 to $1 million and liabilities of up to $50,000 in a Chapter 11 petition filed in the Delaware court. (Suhartono and Phakdeetham, 11/4)

Connecticut officials are investigating service cuts at Rockville General Hospital in Vernon that may have violated state laws, according to an Oct. 17 letter sent by the Office of Health Strategy to Prospect CT CEO Deborah Weymouth. Rockville is one of three hospitals in Connecticut owned by Los Angeles-based Prospect Medical Holdings, along with Manchester Memorial and Waterbury Hospital. (Golvala, 11/1)

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System Authority finalized its $450 million acquisition of Ascension St. Vincent's Health System. The transaction included five Alabama hospitals, a specialty care and rehabilitation center, a freestanding emergency department, imaging centers and Ascension Medical Group clinics, according to a Friday news release. (Hudson, 11/1)

Zoom, a company that rose to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, is looking to expand its presence in healthcare through artificial intelligence. The company recently announced plans to incorporate ambient AI documentation technology from digital health company Suki in its clinical platform. Zoom plans to use the ambient AI technology, which turns a recording of a doctor-patient conversation into usable clinical notes in the electronic health record, for virtual and in-person visits. (DeSilva, 11/1)

A trial involving one of Boston’s premier hospitals is laying bare a sharp divide among specialists over how to evaluate minors seeking gender transition care. The dispute centers around the shortened time psychologists at Boston Children’s Hospital spend assessing patients in person before recommending medical interventions: two hours. Some clinicians contend that is far too little time for an assessment that can open the door to powerful treatments, including puberty blockers and hormones that can help align a person’s body with their gender identity. (Damiano, 11/1)

As fall brings the start of respiratory illness season, mask mandates are coming back to health care facilities across the Bay Area. The mandates in health care settings returned Friday — some just for health care personnel and others for patients and visitors — in Alameda, Santa Clara, San Mateo and Contra Costa counties. (Pender, 11/1)

If every emergency room in the United States were fully prepared to treat children, thousands of lives would be saved and the cost would be $11.84 or less per child, researchers found. (Baumgaertner, 11/1)

Artificial intelligence is gaining more of parents' trust than actual doctors. That's according to a new study from the University of Kansas Life Span Institute, which found that parents seeking information on their children’s health are turning to AI more than human health care professionals.The research, published in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology, also revealed that parents rate AI-generated text as "credible, moral and trustworthy." (Stabile, 11/1)

Using leeches to suck the blood out of a person might sound medieval, but it’s actually a medicinal practice still used today at many trauma hospitals. Though only used in a handful of cases, the blood-sucking critters can save lives when all else fails. At Harris Health Ben Taub hospital, leeches are an important player in the post surgical ICU unit to help doctors and nurses get blocked blood out of tissue so it can be healthy, especially when traditional routes fail. (Babbar, 11/2)