Health Care

Massachusetts hospital executives have staved off a fight against a ballot initiative intended to mandate nurse staffing ratios in all hospital departments — a measure that, by most accounts, would have inflicted a huge cost burden to health care systems already feeling the pinch under health care reform.

A school designed to train and certify professionals in the nascent medical marijuana industry is opening in Natick, and will serve dispensaries throughout the Northeast. According to School Administrator Cara Crabb-Burnham, the Northeastern Institute of Cannabis will begin offering courses later this summer. Students will choose from a dozen course offerings and receive a certificate of completion at the end of a full semester. The goal is to educate people who will take jobs at medical marijuana dispensaries in Massachusetts, but also those who are pursuing jobs at medical marijuana businesses in other states and countries. According to Crabb-Burnham, the Northeastern Institute has been fielding inquiries from people all over the globe since it announced it would open.

With health information technology becoming increasingly important for health care providers, as legislatively mandated deadlines for proficiency and implementation loom, a report released Thursday shows the medical community is becoming more tech savvy.

From minor scrapes and sprains to broken bones and animal bites, non-life threatening emergencies often lead patients...

A report by Watertown-based IT services provider athenahealth Inc., measuring the impact of the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA) during the first five months of the universal health insurance mandate, indicates that providers it contracts with did not see an increase in patient volumes.

As health care facilities continue to ramp up advanced technology, HealthAlliance Hospital in Leominster continues to keep pace, making the list of Health Care's Most Wired hospitals in the country for a seventh straight year, it announced.

Independent pharmacy Hopkinton Drug is taking CVS Caremark to task in court, after the pharmacy benefits manager moved to end a contract that could devastate the Main Street business.

American Medical Response (AMR), which serves 40 states, has reached an agreement with Fallon Health to accept insurance from its customers, opening the door for AMR's return to the Worcester market, it said.

Nurses working in intensive care units will care for only one patient at a time, except in...

UMass Memorial Medical Center is one of the 15 highest-rated hospitals in the United States for patients who need heart surgery, according to Consumer Reports' inaugural ratings of heart-surgery hospitals.