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Baltimore Health Commissioner Ihuoma Emenuga, the city’s top health official of fewer than eight months, has been terminated effective immediately. According to a memo sent to the Baltimore City Council and a subsequent news release from Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration, Emenuga, who previously worked for the city in a different capacity, departed her city position Monday. (Opilo, 7/29)

Lurie Children’s Hospital has laid off a small number of employees, the Chicago hospital confirmed to Crain’s. Lurie enacted the recent layoffs after reviewing its budget and identifying opportunities to improve operating efficiency, spokeswoman Julianne Bardele said in a statement. (Davis, 7/29)

After more than a year of contract negotiations and two strikes at one of the region’s largest and busiest hospitals, union-represented nurses at St. Louis University Hospital voted this weekend to ratify a new three-year contract. (Merrilees, 7/29)

Staffing issues are top of mind as New York City hospitals care for patients experiencing a mental health crisis. A generous donation to one health system is helping turn the tide. Black Family Philanthropies, which has a history of donating millions to healthcare in the city, just donated $5 million to pay off the debts of more than 120 staffers in behavioral health at NYC Health + Hospitals. (Carlin, 7/29)

Mercy received the state’s stamp of approval on Monday to build a $650 million hospital campus in Wentzville. Mercy said the project had received a certificate of need from the state, a layer of oversight intended to rein in unnecessary health care spending. Any organization looking to build a new hospital or nursing home in Missouri has to secure approval from the nine-person, state-level panel. (Merrilees, 7/29)

Steward Health Care has delayed a sales hearing for six of its Massachusetts hospitals amid mounting protests over its move to shut down two others and the Healey administration’s decision to accede to the closings. The bankrupt company’s move to postpone Wednesday’s hearing, where a judge was set to rule on the sale of a half dozen Steward hospitals. (Weisman and Fonseca, 7/29)

The “Pepsi challenge” of health care, as one health system executive put it, is on. In the race to test generative AI in medicine, ambient scribes — which listen in to the audio of a visit and turn it into a structured clinical note for the electronic health record — are leading the pack. And to find the right scribe at the right price, health systems are pitting them against each other. (Palmer, 7/30)