Officials say the new facility in Prince George's County will significantly improve the quality of the county's health care system, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Illinois, Maryland, and Utah.
- Illinois: The University of Chicago Medicine, the University of Illinois at Chicago, and Northwestern Memorial Hospital have joined a national network to conduct emergency medicine trials. The Strategies to Innovate EmeRgENcy Care Clinical Trials Network (SIREN), created by NIH, has 11 hospitals that serve as "hubs." The three Chicago centers are "spokes" to a hub at the Medical College of Wisconsin (Durben Hirsch, Hospitals & Health Networks, 11/30).
- Maryland: The University of Maryland Medical System on Thursday broke ground on a new regional medical center in Prince George's County that will replace an existing hospital. Officials say the new center will significantly improve the quality of the county's health care system. The new facility will house a cancer center, a pediatric hospital, a stroke center, and a cardiac surgery unit, and will feature programs for neuroscience, orthopedic medicine, and women's health (Hernández, Washington Post, 11/30).
- Utah: Fentanyl-related overdose deaths in Utah surged 78% in 2016, according to a Utah Department of Health report. In 2016, 41 people died from fentanyl-related overdoses, up from 23 people in 2015. The 2016 numbers represent an all-time high since the state began tracking such information more than a decade ago (AP/Sacramento Bee, 11/29).
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