The drone delivered prescription medications to the front lawn of a private home and the second delivered medications to a retirement community, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from Georgia, Iowa, and North Carolina.
- Georgia: On Tuesday, Floyd Health System and Atrium Health announced their intent to merge. Under the merger agreement, Atrium plans to invest $650 million into Floyd Health's facilities, technology, and workforce over the next 11 years. Floyd Health said the move would improve the system's access to financial resources and allow the system to treat communities amid growing competition. The deal is subject to state regulatory approval, but the organizations expect the deal to close by the end of next year (Paavola, Becker's Hospital Review, 11/5; Atrium Health release, 11/5).
- Iowa: Mount Mercy University is offering a fast-track bachelor's of science degree in nursing to address a national nursing shortage. Through the program, nursing students at the university can graduate with a BSN in three and a half years instead of the usual four years (Kalk, KRCG, 11/5).
- North Carolina: The UPS Flight Forward drones made their first prescription deliveries for CVS Health last week. The first drone delivered prescription medications to the front lawn of a private home and the second delivered medications to a retirement community. The deliveries were the first revenue-generating drone deliveries for CVS, according to Reuters (Baertlein, Reuters, 11/5).