Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Scott Becker - 6 Healthcare News Stories We Are Following Today 7-17-26

Transcript

Scott Becker - 6 Healthcare News Stories We Are Following Today 7-17-26 · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  - This is Scott Becker with the Beckers Healthcare
• 0:03
  - Podcast.
• 0:04
  - We're gonna talk through five to seven stories
• 0:06
  - that we're following currently in health care. Hopefully,
• 0:10
  - these are of interest to you, but please
• 0:12
  - feel free at any time,
• 0:14
  - to reach Scott Becker with stories you'd like
• 0:16
  - us to cover.
• 0:17
  - (773)
• 0:19
  - 766-5322.
• 0:22
  - So first, the story we'll cover
• 0:24
  - is 16 health care strikes so far in
• 0:27
  - 2026.
• 0:28
  - Those are strikes where unions are striking against
• 0:31
  - hospitals and health systems.
• 0:33
  - And and, again,
• 0:34
  - it it it speaks again
• 0:36
  - the challenging sort of labor
• 0:39
  - situation
• 0:40
  - between hospitals and labor, shortages of labor, challenges
• 0:43
  - of labor,
• 0:44
  - and and quite frankly, labor wanna get paid
• 0:47
  - and and treated at how they feel this
• 0:48
  - would be paid and treated. So so fascinating
• 0:51
  - to watch.
• 0:52
  - The second story that we're following today
• 0:54
  - is a bankrupt California hospital keeps its services
• 0:58
  - intact,
• 0:59
  - but requires federal monitoring.
• 1:02
  - Again, a sign of the times
• 1:04
  - watching
• 1:05
  - a certain amount of hospitals and health cares
• 1:08
  - file for bankruptcy, close, close services, and be
• 1:11
  - in financial trouble.
• 1:12
  - This is a hospital in Oroville, California or
• 1:15
  - Oroville Hospital,
• 1:17
  - essentially continuing to operate during bankruptcy,
• 1:21
  - but challenging to watch this happened and and
• 1:24
  - see what's happening.
• 1:26
  - The third story we're following is
• 1:29
  - new mandate in California
• 1:31
  - for psychiatric
• 1:33
  - staffing
• 1:34
  - mandate
• 1:36
  - and and and seeing how that's related to
• 1:38
  - by hospitals health systems. This fits closer into
• 1:40
  - two other stories about union activity,
• 1:43
  - as well as about a hospital having financial
• 1:45
  - trouble.
• 1:46
  - These are staffing mandates that require a certain
• 1:48
  - amount of nurse patient ratios
• 1:51
  - at psychiatric
• 1:52
  - hospitals.
• 1:54
  - And, again,
• 1:56
  - the the challenge, at least from the hospital
• 1:57
  - perspective, is it it means it's it's very
• 2:00
  - hard currently to meet some of these staffing
• 2:02
  - ratios
• 2:03
  - that cause additional costs to psychiatric hospitals,
• 2:06
  - and we have these tremendous shortages
• 2:08
  - in psychiatric hospitals. So as you require hospitals
• 2:11
  - to have different staffing requirements,
• 2:14
  - it further strains access to psychiatric care in
• 2:16
  - lots of places.
• 2:18
  - Again, fascinating to watch and and what we're
• 2:20
  - seeing currently,
• 2:22
  - in terms of staffing mandates
• 2:24
  - butting against
• 2:26
  - real challenges
• 2:27
  - that hospitals have in staffing things how they
• 2:29
  - were traditionally staffed. And how they were traditionally
• 2:32
  - staffed doesn't mean that's the right answer.
• 2:34
  - Fourth,
• 2:36
  - a great story about the growth of UC
• 2:38
  - Irvine, UCI Health.
• 2:40
  - They started with one hospital fifty years ago.
• 2:42
  - Now they have six hospitals. They've become a
• 2:44
  - really high end academic medical center, an important
• 2:48
  - part of the Irvine community and then and
• 2:49
  - then the California community in terms of health
• 2:51
  - care.
• 2:52
  - Amazing what UCI Health has done,
• 2:56
  - and and great leadership, quite frankly, by their
• 2:58
  - CEO, Chad Lufteres, and team.
• 3:01
  - Fifth story we're following, again, goes back to
• 3:03
  - labor issues and nursing issues.
• 3:06
  - Why a shrinking
• 3:07
  - US labor force matters for health care hiring?
• 3:10
  - And this is this great challenge
• 3:12
  - of greater and greater needs for staff at
• 3:14
  - a time when the population is aging,
• 3:18
  - and and a lot of people are aging
• 3:19
  - or not in the workforce. And, again, fascinating,
• 3:21
  - fascinating situation
• 3:23
  - in terms of going back to the labor
• 3:25
  - challenges and the supply challenges
• 3:28
  - that health care faces compared to the demand
• 3:30
  - that's out there.
• 3:32
  - I think we'll touch on one more story.
• 3:34
  - There's a story that was followed today or
• 3:36
  - filed the last couple days by Andrew Keyes
• 3:38
  - at Becker's HealthCare
• 3:40
  - on states with the most and the fewest
• 3:42
  - for profit hospitals.
• 3:44
  - Interesting enough, the states with the most for
• 3:46
  - profit hospitals are Texas, Florida, and California.
• 3:50
  - I have no opinion on whether that's good
• 3:52
  - or bad, probably better than worse that we
• 3:55
  - have more hospitals,
• 3:56
  - whether for profit or not for profitable not
• 3:59
  - for profit, and that's a story found by
• 4:00
  - Andrew Kiss. Again, a lot of stories dealing
• 4:03
  - with the labor dynamic,
• 4:05
  - the challenges financially of running health systems today.
• 4:08
  - One story there that just reports the number
• 4:10
  - of for profit hospitals
• 4:12
  - and how California, Texas, Florida, the most for
• 4:15
  - profit hospitals.
• 4:16
  - But, again, other other stories, and some of
• 4:18
  - the great growth stories in our country, UCI
• 4:20
  - Health, great expansion story, great leadership story. There's
• 4:23
  - another story that we're not covering today in
• 4:25
  - this discussion on Cleveland Clinic
• 4:27
  - and what an amazing job they have done
• 4:29
  - in in growing out their surgical platform and
• 4:31
  - what they're doing on surgery.
• 4:33
  - They they move towards having to open up
• 4:35
  - surgery on Saturdays, which is how busy they
• 4:37
  - are, and far better to that than opening
• 4:39
  - up a new facility,
• 4:40
  - but fascinating to watch and another fascinating story.
• 4:43
  - Again, thank you for listening to today's
• 4:46
  - breakdown of some of the stories we're following
• 4:47
  - at Becker's Healthcare.
• 4:49
  - Thank you to our producer, Chanel Banger.
• 4:51
  - We'll be back with you short with more
• 4:53
  - stories. Thank you so much for listening to
• 4:55
  - the Becker's Healthcare podcast. Thank you very, very
• 4:57
  - much.