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Boston Children’s Hospital plans to add 48 beds to its outpatient facility in Waltham as it pursues a $1.5 billion expansion and renovation of its Massachusetts facilities to meet growing patient demand. Adding hospital beds in Waltham, which Children’s has not widely discussed, will give the institution a bigger footprint in a part of the state that is close to major highways and surrounded by wealthy suburbs. The site currently offers day surgery and includes doctors who specialize in 97 fields, from gastroenterology to neurology to sports medicine. (Dayal McCluskey, 7/16)

Hospital officials say joining larger organizations is a key way to adapt to declining state and federal funding and changes in how care is delivered and paid for. But the growing consolidation in the hospital industry has drawn scrutiny from some lawmakers, who warn that it can reduce patient choice and raise prices. (Levin Becker, 7/16)

An era closed this week when Mercy Health rolled in the demolition teams to knock down Mount Airy Hospital, a facility the health care system couldn’t even give away. The hospital, on Kipling Avenue in the Mount Airy neighborhood, was closed in November 2013 after Mercy Health opened its glittering new West Hospital in Green Township. (Saker, 7/16)

A vacant manufacturing site on Amherst Street is one step closer to becoming a new assisted living facility for Alzheimer’s patients. This week, the former Nim-Cor property at 575 Amherst St. was sold by Nashua RE Holdings LLC for $2 million to National Development, a Massachusetts-based real estate development firm. National Development and EPOCH Senior Living are partnering to construct a 54-unit assisted living facility named Bridges by EPOCH at Nashua. The partners currently operate more than 35 senior housing communities. (Houghton, 7/16)

Five-year-old Lakota Lockhart talks about Batman nonstop. When his mom, Krystal, can wedge in a word, she describes what life has been like since Lakota was born with a rare central nervous system disorder that causes his breathing to stop every time he falls asleep. She says they’re lucky Lakota was born across the street, at Brandon Regional Hospital, or she might never have known about the Chronic Complex Clinic at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital. The brainchild of Dr. Daniel Plasencia, the St. Joseph’s clinic was created 14 years ago to improve care for kids with chronic conditions affecting more than one organ system. “Their treatment was too complex for most pediatricians,” Plasencia said. “They needed a medical home and we provided it for them.” (Vestal, 7/17)

Hospitals that serve large uninsured populations in Texas stand to lose critical funding if the state can’t convince the federal government to continue helping with the cost, doctors and health advocates told the state health department Thursday. With the expiration date of a five-year, $29 billion program approaching, the Health and Human Services Commission will attempt to negotiate a renewal of federal funds to help reimburse hospitals caring for the uninsured. (Bollag, 7/16)

The Philadelphia Housing Authority on Thursday will consider banning smoking in some of its properties, a move that officials say would make it the largest public housing agency "in the nation to implement such a policy." If approved by the Board of Commissioners, the measure would ban smoking in at least some of its units, which house about 80,000 low-income residents, a spokesman said Wednesday. The PHA would not say how comprehensive the ban would be. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, more than 500 housing agencies, including those in Detroit, Boston, and San Antonio, have smoking bans in place. (Conway, 7/16)

Rejecting arguments that a jury improperly reached a "compromise" verdict, a federal appeals court Wednesday cleared Philip Morris USA from potential damages in the smoking-related death of a Florida man. A Jacksonville jury last year found the tobacco company was 5 percent liable in the death of Robert Reider but did not award damages to Reider's widow, Barbara. In an appeal, Barbara Reider's attorneys argued that the jury had reached an "unlawful compromise" in the decision. (7/16)

A Portland jury that awarded $25 million in punitive damages to a dead smoker’s family acted reasonably to send a message to tobacco giant Philip Morris USA for its reprehensible way of conducting business, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday. The appeals court likened Philip Morris’ role in the death of smoker Michelle Schwarz to “manslaughter” under Oregon law, had it been litigated in criminal court. Philip Morris is expected to appeal Wednesday’s ruling. (Green, 7/16)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has suspended the license of a Doral-based blood bank after an inspection turned up a series of violations that includes improperly notifying dozens of blood donors who may have HIV. A five-page letter from the FDA dated July 9 said that between August 2013 and May 2015, U.S. Blood Bank did not make “reasonable attempts” to notify at least 120 donors who tested reactive for HIV and would need a further test to verify the results. Instead, the company sent letters that told recipients to contact the U.S. Blood Bank but didn’t say why. Out of the number of donors who tested reactive, only 16 returned to the blood bank, according to the suspension letter. (Adams, 7/16)

Under newly issued state rules, gloves must now be worn by manicurists when they are handling things like cotton balls soaked in nail polish remover, and goggles when they pour acetone and other chemicals. Respirator masks — not the paper hospital-style mask that is commonly seen and is considered ineffective at combating chemical exposure — must be made available for workers to use when buffing or filing nails, or when sculpting acrylic nails. But the survey found gloves being used at just 15 percent of salons. When The Times observed masks in use at about two dozen salons, just three of them were employing the required respirator-style ones. (Nir and Pagan, 7/16)