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A Wyandotte County jury on Tuesday awarded $7.65 million in damages to the wife and son of a Raytown man who the family alleged contracted a fatal infection from a contaminated device used during his heart surgery at KU Med. (Thomas, 4/28)

When Sallanshell Wilson saw a family member of one of her patients walking down a lengthy hall at West Suburban Medical Center with a cane, she noticed that every few steps the woman slouched to the right. At that moment, Wilson thought, “If she had a walker, that will keep her more stable and possibly prevent her from falling,” she said. Wilson, a former registered nurse at the hospital, took it upon herself to buy a walker for the woman, paying for it out of her own pocket. (Hardy, 4/28)

The last time Alphanso Talley came before Judge John Lyke, things seemed to be going well. Talley was on electronic monitoring after being paroled in January from the Illinois Department of Corrections, where he’d been serving sentences for aggravated battery to a police officer and possession of a stolen vehicle. He also had a pair of cases pending for alleged carjacking and armed robbery, records show. (Kubzansky and Charles, 4/28)

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Hospital Authority board has scheduled a special meeting for today with four hours set aside for a closed session, an unusually long stretch of private discussion for a public body. (Crouch, 4/29)

Health systems are teaming with outside operators in a bid to make their home health units more financially viable. About 8% to 10% of patients discharged from the hospital need home health services such as wound care, physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. For many health systems, though, home care isn’t meaningfully contributing to the bottom line: The units typically account for only about 3% of overall revenues, said Tom Lillis, a post-acute care consultant with mergers and acquisitions advisory firm Stoneridge Partners. (Eastabrook, 4/28)

A deal for the University of Connecticut Health Center to take over Bristol Hospital is on track to be finalized by December or January, the hospital’s CEO Kurt Barwis said. (Golvala, 4/28)

The renovation and construction of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s new $117.4 million health sciences building has been completed, the university said Tuesday. The more than 172,000-square-foot facility, which will hold both pharmacy and nursing schools, will provide new classrooms, laboratories, study areas and administrative offices. (Bauer, 4/28)

Early detection of chronic diseases, reducing surgical risk and care transition coordination are just a few of the complex challenges the latest group of startups in Mayo Clinic Platform’s accelerator program are tackling. Since its 2022 launch, Mayo Clinic Platform_Accelerate, the program for emerging digital health companies, has featured about 100 companies. OpenEvidence, the well-funded, AI-powered clinical decision support platform, is one of the successful companies that was part of the program. (Famakinwa, 4/28)

A report released Wednesday highlights successes in reducing health disparities in U.S. states. Since the last iteration of the analysis by the Commonwealth Fund, two states expanded eligibility for Medicaid, many states extended postpartum coverage for mothers, and enrollment in Affordable Care Act marketplace plans increased at an unprecedented clip. (Oza, 4/29)