According to the Houston Health Department, new cases of the novel coronavirus in Houston have hit a record high of over 200 cases per day, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Maryland, New York, and Texas.
- Maryland: CMS on Tuesday established the Office of Burden Reduction and Health Informatics, which will aim to reduce administrative costs and workloads for providers. The office will focus on interoperability and will help regulators and health care workers remove or adapt outdated regulations. The office also will work to ensure both patients and clinicians can access patients' complete medical history (Kacik, Modern Healthcare, 6/23; CMS release, 6/23).
- New York: Major League Baseball (MLB) and the MLB Players Association on Tuesday announced the MLP will hold a shortened baseball season this year due to America's coronavirus epidemic. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said teams will play a 60-game season instead of a typical 162-game season out of concern that a potential coronavirus outbreak in the fall could affect late-season games (Lewis, NPR, 6/23).
- Texas: Texas Children's Hospital this week announced it is opening its ICU and acute care-beds to adults, after daily new coronavirus cases in Houston reached a record high, averaging around 200 cases per day, according to the Houston Health Department. The hospital will treat adult patients with Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, in an expanded isolation unit in the hospital's West Campus. The hospital also will admit adult patients who do not have Covid-19 to help other hospitals make space for patients with the disease (Pereira, ABC News, 6/23; Guzman, The Hill, 6/23).