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Every year, Lawrence + Memorial Hospital CEO Bruce Cummings does what he calls a “back of the envelope” calculation. Should the New London hospital remain independent, with a series of partnerships with the Yale New Haven Health System in clinical fields such as radiation oncology, neonatology and angioplasty? Or would it make more sense to join the Yale New Haven system as an outright member? (Levin Becker, 6/26)

In the debate about whether Cooper University Hospital should take over ambulance services in Camden, a spokesman for hospital board chairman George E. Norcross III has implied that seriously injured patients would be best served by paramedics from a Level 1 trauma center such as Cooper. "If you were seriously injured, would you want your first care to come from the region's only Level 1 trauma center or a community hospital?" spokesman Dan Fee told the Inquirer on Wednesday. Yet the vast majority of patients picked up by ambulance are not trauma or injury victims, but patients suffering from heart problems, strokes and other acute illness. (Avril, 6/25)

A judge on Thursday blocked Kansas’ first-in-the-nation ban on an abortion procedure that opponents describe as dismembering a fetus, concluding that the law would likely present too big of an obstacle for women seeking to end their pregnancies. Shawnee County District Court Judge Larry Hendricks sided with New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, agreeing to put the law on hold while he considers a lawsuit filed on behalf of two Kansas abortion providers. (Hanna, 6/25)

Rising temperatures and the start of summer vacations are driving down blood donations, resulting in critical shortages, officials with Bloodworks Northwest said Thursday. The agency, which supplies blood to 90 regional hospitals, issued an urgent appeal for donors after collections dropped about 20 percent — from 900 donations a day in the Puget Sound area to about 720 donations. (Aleccia, 6/26)