Picture this: a large coworking environment with collaboration areas, cappuccino bars, and programmable spaces. No, it’s not a Silicon Valley startup, a student union, or even a swanky airport lounge. It’s the next generation of hospital employee break rooms.

After years of optimizing hospital spaces to focus on the patient experience, more health systems are looking at how they can better attract, retain, and support staff, Mike Pukszta, codirector of CannonDesign’s global health practice, told Healthcare Brew.

Instead of traditional locker rooms and segregated lounges—one for doctors and one for nurses—Pukszta said hospital leaders are increasingly acknowledging that medicine is “a team sport” and that employee spaces should reflect that paradigm.

“Everyone’s embracing the interprofessional model of education, where if you’re taking an anatomy class, it’s not just physician anatomy—every care provider that might be touching a patient is taking the same anatomy class; they’re learning together. They’re realizing that they’re actually a team that has to provide care,” he said, adding that traditional hospital models “don’t provide that same level of interprofessional collaboration.”

Keep reading here.—SY

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Shannon at [email protected]. For confidential conversations, ask Shannon for her number on Signal.

Snacks are an underrated—but very necessary—part of good office vibes. Finding the right snack to keep your whole team happy and fueled up for the day? Quite the challenge.

Luckily, that’s where Walmart Business comes in. Their breakroom selection features plenty of tasty, healthy options to help you (and your employees) tackle the day. From nutritious to indulgent, Walmart Business has all your cravings covered.

It’s also easy to stock up. Customize your order and choose pickup or drop-off with just a few clicks, and voilà! Your team has the bites they need to power through their workday.

Stockpile your snacks.

Mount Sinai Health System and UnitedHealthcare (UHC) leaders traded barbs Tuesday amid contract negotiations over in-network access.

The New York-based health system urged the insurer to continue UHC/Oxford Health Plan’s in-network access at Sinai hospitals and outpatient locations, warning that a lapse in access would hurt patients who rely on those facilities.

UHC removed some Mount Sinai hospitals and outpatient settings (Mount Sinai Beth Israel, Mount Sinai Brooklyn, Mount Sinai Morningside, Mount Sinai South Nassau, Mount Sinai West, and New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai) from its network as of January 1, the health system noted.

Keep reading here.—SY

Rite Aid is banned from using artificial intelligence (AI) facial recognition technology in its stores for five years after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ruled on December 19, 2023, that the company failed to take “reasonable” precautions to prevent harm to customers.

The technology, which was used in hundreds of stores between 2012 and 2020, frequently misidentified Rite Aid customers as shoplifters, causing the shoppers—mainly women and people of color—to be falsely accused of theft, the FTC said.

“Rite Aid’s reckless use of facial surveillance systems left its customers facing humiliation and other harms, and its order violations put consumers’ sensitive information at risk,” Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a statement.

Facial recognition technology has been shown to “perform less effectively for people with darker skin and women,” FTC Commissioner Alvaro Bedoya said in a statement.

Keep reading here.—MA

Do you work in healthcare or have information about the industry that we should know? Email Maia at [email protected]. For confidential conversations, ask Maia for her number on Signal.

Today’s top healthcare reads.

Stat: Hospitals in at least six states have reinstated mask policies amid the rise in Covid-19 cases. (ABC News)

Quote: “The world has changed a lot, and it’s not nicer. I think the atmosphere, the civility factor, and the respect factor are different. I definitely noticed something pre-Covid versus post-Covid.”—Mary-Ann Baldwin, the mayor of Raleigh, North Carolina, on the evolving nature of the role since the pandemic (Politico)

Read: Congress may reverse a long-standing Medicaid policy to allow recipients to receive treatment for addiction in a mental health hospital for up to a month “on the government’s dime.” (Politico)

Fuel up: Walmart Business has all the healthy (and delish) snacks you need to keep your team’s energy high. Customize your order + choose pickup or drop-off with just a few clicks.*

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