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Just 22 percent of Georgia hospitals received an “A” grade on patient safety in the latest ratings from the Leapfrog Group. That put Georgia in a tie for 36th place among states ranked on percentages of top-safety hospitals. The ratings from Leapfrog, a patient safety organization founded by employers, are issued semi-annually, in fall and spring. In this year’s spring survey, Georgia came in 35th among states in the overall percentage of top-performing hospitals. (Miller, 11/1)

Enter the micro hospital. St. Luke’s Health System of Kansas City is working on an array of tiny hospitals that will have just eight to 10 beds for overnight stays as well as round-the-clock emergency rooms equipped and staffed like the ERs in their big parent hospitals. The micro trend, gaining traction nationally, provides one more option for patients beside the existing cornucopia of health care clinics in grocery stores, drug stores, strip malls and doctors offices. (Stafford, 11/1)

Banner Health on Tuesday completed acquisition of 32 Urgent Care Extra facilities in metro Phoenix and Tucson in a move that adds more than 400 employees to one of the state's largest private employers. In a Tuesday statement, the company said it is in the process of rebranding the locations as Banner Urgent Care facilities and plans to have as many as 50 facilities opened by the end of 2017. Banner initially purchased the facilities in August. (Frank, 11/1)

Hospital psychiatric wards long have been considered places where personal dignity and respect are checked at the door, and where ­relatives of patients are left to fend for themselves. Administrators at Hennepin County Medical Center in downtown Minneapolis want to change that. As part of a broader effort to offer more humane treatment, the hospital opened a new center Tuesday that will give psychiatric patients and their families a place to connect with local treatment options and talk openly and non-judgmentally about mental illness. (Serres, 11/1)

An attorney for the family of a 13-year-old boy whose right leg was amputated below the knee said the hospital bill could reach $1 million, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported. Montravious Thomas is at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston as a result of an injury he suffered in an alleged incident with a contract teacher in Columbus, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution previously reported. Thomas’ surgery was in mid-October. The alleged incident happened in mid-September. (Burns, 11/1)