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This is a MedPage Today story. HAVANA, Fla. — For a rural community, this town of 1,750 people has been more fortunate than most. A family doctor has practiced here for the last 30 years. But that ended in December when Mark Newberry, MD, retired. To attract a new doctor, Havana leaders took out want ads in local newspapers, posted notices on social media, and sweetened the pot with a rent-free medical office equipped with an x-ray, an ultrasound machine, and a bone density scanner — all owned by the town. Local leaders hope the recruitment campaign will help attract candidates amid a nationwide shortage of doctors. "This is important for our community," said Kendrah Wilkerson, Havana’s town manager, "in the same way that parks are important and good future planning is important." According to a Florida Department of Health report, doctor shortages affect all or part of nearly every county, but less populous counties, such as Gadsden, where Havana is located, have the…

This is a MedPage Today story. Last Friday, St. John’s Community Health, a large southern California network of federally qualified health centers serving 430,000 individuals a year, tried to withdraw funds from a $1.67 million CDC grant specifically earmarked for transgender health services. "We weren’t able to access it," Jim Mangia, St. John’s president and CEO, told MedPage Today, "even though there was an injunction forbidding federal departments from initiating any funding freezes or terminations based on [the president’s] executive orders." And even though the money is needed for payroll and service expenses. The balance remaining in that 4-year grant, which began in June of 2022 — $743,706 — was stripped from their account subsequent to President Trump’s Jan. 28 executive order, "Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation," he said. Despite that, St. John’s is committed to fighting back and will find the money elsewhere, he said. It receives some $230…

This is a MedPage Today story. Last Friday, St. John’s Community Health, a large southern California network of federally qualified health centers serving 430,000 individuals a year, tried to withdraw funds from a $1.67 million CDC grant specifically earmarked for transgender health services. "We weren’t able to access it," Jim Mangia, St. John’s president and CEO, told MedPage Today, "even though there was an injunction forbidding federal departments from initiating any funding freezes or terminations based on [the president’s] executive orders." And even though the money is needed for payroll and service expenses. The balance remaining in that 4-year grant, which began in June of 2022 — $743,706 — was stripped from their account subsequent to President Trump’s Jan. 28 executive order, "Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation," he said. Despite that, St. John’s is committed to fighting back and will find the money elsewhere, he said. It receives some $230…

This is a MedPage Today story. More than 230 clinicians at Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) in Massachusetts won their union election and have received certification through the state Department of Labor Relations. About half of the group’s members are physicians, including primary care doctors, psychiatrists, and hospitalists; members also include physician assistants (PAs) and psychologists, according to SHARE CHA/AFSCME, the union representing the group. Jeremy Stricsek, MD, a primary care physician at CHA, told MedPage Today that collective discussions about ways to improve working conditions and patient care began several years ago, some of which were spurred by the pandemic. However, in the summer of 2022, organizing efforts became more serious as the group recognized that physicians and other healthcare professionals would need to unionize in order to "better advocate" for themselves and patients. Overall, there has been concern over "increasing pressure to do more with…